Residence
Flagstaff, AZ

Books:
Dzani Yazhi Nazbaa:
Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home

Diné Bizaad, Binahoo'aah:
Rediscovering the Navajo Language

Links:
Northern Arizona Univesity, Modern Languages

Dr. Evangeline Parsons Yazzie is a Professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University (NAU). She obtained an MA in Bilingual Multicultural Educational Leadership and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from NAU. Evangeline teaches her native language, mostly to Navajo students wanting to learn the language of their grandparents, and also to native speakers whose goal is to become literate in their own language.

Evangeline is a Navajo woman, originally from the community of Hardrock on the Navajo Reservation. As a means of acknowledging and honoring her deceased parents for their gift of language, culture-knowledge, and Navajo teachings, Evangeline teaches and writes on the behalf of elders, and encourages others to honor their elders.

From the summer of 1997 to late spring of 1999, Evangeline served as the Director of the Navajo Treaty Project. In 1999, the original Navajo-U.S. Treaty of 1868 was brought to NAU for the Navajo to view and to learn about their past. The Navajo Treaty Project was designed to educate the general public about the Navajo people and their history. The bringing of the Treaty of 1868 back to the base of the San Francisco Peaks (the western sacred mountain of the Navajo) was memorable, in that it was the first time an Indian nation had asked for its own treaty to be placed on display.

Evangeline is also the author of Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa’: Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home. This book has received multiple awards and honors, among them the 2007 Lacapa Spirit Prize for Narrative, the 2007 Storytelling World Award, and being named a 2006 Notable Children’s Social Studies Trade Book.