“Know Who You Are and Where You Come From”: Ties of Kin, Clan, and Homeland in Southwestern Indian Identity

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DEBORAH HOUSE (Ph.D. University of Arizona, 1997) is an assistant professor at Texas Tech University and at Diné College (Navajo Nation), Tsaile, AZ. She is interested in linguistic interactions, political ideology, identity, gender, and education; specifically language shift, language and political ideology, and identity construction and representation. Her current research projects include the influence of traditional and contemporary gender roles among Navajo professional women; the creation and representation of Arkansas Ozarker identity over the years from the perspectives of Ozark natives, new residents, and tourists; and factors in Navajo language shift and maintenance efforts. She is the author of Language Shift among the Navajos: Identity Politics and Cultural Continuity (The University of Arizona Press, 2002); “A Navajo Paradigm for Long Life Happiness—and Navajo Language Shift,” (Journal of Navajo Education, XIV (1 & 2), 45–58, 1996/1997); and the entry on Susan U. Philips in the Biographical Dictionary of Anthropology, edited by Verid Amit (Routledge, 2004).