Navajo Grandparents - the Spirit of Love

may beauty be behind us so that those who come after us may see beauty your grandchild is your flesh your blood and your fluid I didn't want her to go anywhere else to another family because her blood is my blood is running on our society and Naville society has predicated on helping one another it was not uncommon death grandkids are left with their grandparents to be raised by them so that as they grow older they're able to help their grandparents as they go into older years so that was an essentially the process that my family who took and where I was place with my grandfather was blessed with a rich understanding that the cultural teaching that they have Santa Fe Indian Market Plaza which is one of the biggest arts and crafts event in Indian country thousands of people come here arts and crafts is very important to Indian people my mom raised her very very well and instilled in her a lot of the culture the saying the teachings the taboos a beat we carry on the teachings the language the tradition and above all you know a way of life of the people and you know with all of that being absent you know we would be a another just another group of people that basically you know would be like saying The Wanderers Navajo the translation is not clay which means the Wanderers and without the teachin I think we would end up mongering and and really you know be lost in American society you know if we were to lose everything that we have my grandmother was the one that raised me her name was Nesbit Burnside Irving toddy and Marcellus rose Joe bring the past present and future together by carrying on the traditions that were handed to them from their grandparents this way of life is more important than ever before it's very important here on the reservation because Allah our children leave their dirt your own children with their grandparents and they go after work they go after school so sometimes the grandparents I have to take care of their own grandchildren and sadly increasing numbers of grandparents are rescuing the little ones from the destructive power of drugs and alcohol alcohol can strip you lie - you killed her mentally take you take anything that is your valuable the most precious are your children it can make profound impact on the family where it just destroys the family and it can take your sacredness it can take your spirituality it can take the the word it which is a bond that Navajos have with each other she April Ashley yes net I'm originally from Fort Defiance Arizona my clan is hush Kristi thought up ahead I've been employed here with the window at Department of Corrections since 1994 prisoners here you know they're incarcerated a lot of these people are indeed people are single parents so if they're in here you know and they've got kids out there the grandparents are gonna take over and you know that you know they love their grandkids too and they want the best for these grandkids they're good leaders they're good teachers and they'll talk about histories and tell the young ones about what they experienced and commit those elderlies the grandparents for Dwayne and stepping in and taking responsibility for their kids is great for them the job of raising grandchildren is both a joy and a challenge in this program we will travel the reservation and hear from grandparents we'll learn about the need for resources and under why a new resource guide has been developed to assist grandparents in bringing up tomorrow's leaders Shirley Ellsworth is surrounded by the love of four grandchildren a daughter and an honor Shirley has been raising Queen Tina since she was one day old she was in the nursery all by herself all the mothers all the babies have been taken to their mothers she was laying there and wide awake and I told her baby I'm gonna take you home look it seemed like she really understood she was looking at looking at us been difficult financially or either has it been tough there's been times but we always make it I'm the only one that works and a lot of things would have to do without right now I'm a month behind payment on my van but I know next time I get paid the whole cheques gonna go to the van be grateful for grandparents these are getting very difficult now everything they need to they need to stay in school and a lot of peer pressure at school will lead them lead them astray and if you let them know that you love them as they leave from school every day let them know that I'm proud of you the world our grandchildren are growing up in is unlike the one we remember drugs and alcohol are on the reservation the peer pressure is high so the mental health of the child is extremely important the Fort Defiance Indian hospital opened an adolescent daycare treatment center for boys and girls aged 12 through 17 Vern raucous is a social worker a lot of the time many many parents providers guardians and such a lot of the time they're unaware of what symptoms to look for or what symptoms they should be aware of to begin with we certainly have access to a lot of written information that we can provide to families grandparents and the community at large that we can provide as to what symptoms to to look for and certainly if they call or they come by we can provide as much information as we can to help facilitate some type of understanding of what level of care their their loved ones would need in a remote neighborhood in bird springs Arizona Jane many goats returns from work at the Senior Center to a warm welcome from her grandchildren four-year-old Rolanda and seventeen-year-old Vanessa it keeps you on your feet okay so going from day to day on your daily tasks and for work day getting back home to them to have them around I learned how to cook in her tragedy brought Jane together with the children Rowland --is father died from alcohol-related violence and Vanessa's mother got caught up in the wrong crowd it's hard and I just think that your child's out there not taking care of her kids or not even concerned about her kids maybe honey I totally blame on alcohol and drug abuse you know yeah she didn't she had a real good job but once some drug alcohol was introduced to her I think it really did her good where she attended let her kids you know we tried I tried every way to help her talk to her reminding her that she had repeat responsibility well she's a so that's at all right now she's up Alou she's incarcerated right now susannah Gould is a social worker with a Navajo Area Agency on Aging having lost her son to alcohol she is painfully aware of its destructive power I think a lot of the grandparents often because of their standards because of them thinking they have a lot of respect of the community their stature in the community their role as a good teacher a good respectable they tend to lean away from asking for help they shy away from asking for help I would encourage even when they suspect they don't have to actually see the bottles they don't actually have to see their children out intoxicated at the first hint of any any signs of the first symptoms they see any alcoholism involved they need to get help they need to seek help if you're an alcoholic out there listening go for help seek for help because there's a lot of people care and you would be surprised who actually cares how's your name Melanie Begay came into Mitsuba gays life when she was eight months old she is now 21 I felt that she's without her mother I'm gonna do the best I can and I thought to myself I can never be her mother but I'll do the best I can so I did raise her Melanie is studying nursing at the University of New Mexico campus in Gallup and plans to become a midwife she was telling me she says grandma she says you know you've done so much for me I really do appreciate and I love you you're my mother and you're my grandmother and when I finished school and I get a job at a hospital and I want you to quit working and stay home for me and then she chuckled and she says but there's a catch to it grandma I said what's the catch she says you have to clean house and you have to cook for me and I laughed and I says oh that's okay I said I'll hire a maid because I stopped doing housework she knows how much I love her we're really close closer than all the other grandkids jealous respecting yourself and respecting other people and always being yourself Mitsy Begay works at the Fort Defiance Indian hospital where she sees a lot of elders who are experiencing a difficult time raising their grandchildren there are grandmother's out way out in remote area it is very very difficult for them diabetes is is very much a big health concern public health issue and a health issue in general for her people yeah hey dr. Gayle Danette Chaconne Twitter to eat me and slinky on a bus gene Tony Glenny a Dutch Church a quintanilla chanela to do with the mental and physical problems that that grandparents encounter I think the help that I can offer them really is is that they need to see their primary care provider and establish a relationship with that person that there is a trusting open relationship with their doctor that their doctor certainly has information available of resources and if they don't have those resources ready at hand then the physician can always make either a referral or find those resources and that is part of my job as a as a doctor is that if I don't have that information at my fingertips then I go out of my way to find that information and the grandparent needs to be persistent in that insane I need help here I need help with this situation whether its financial whether its medical whether its behavioral health financial whatever it is the grandparents should not feel that they take a back seat that that they have to be persistent and assertive really at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Lucinda Martin is the director for medical social services for elders the occupation of having kids hearing the noise hearing them talk constantly making you become where are they you know being more alert keeps your mental status more alert and you're more active you hear kids talking and so you're it helps you to continue to maintain your activeness where there's physical and mental I think grandparents have to say what they can't do if they're forgetful and if they think that's going to be at risk causing them to be a greater risk or even for the child they need to ask to can't tell their children whom they're caring for or for who or for whomever they're they're caring for their children they need to say I need help there's resources here even at the hospital or will have elder care clinics set up and we will have social workers and we'll have ultimately health workers and psychiatrists Jane many goats get some financial help in raising Julianna from Social Security survivor benefits but Laverne why ACO knows there are a lot of grandparents who do not receive any assistance as a manager at the Navajo Area Agency on Aging Laverne oversees 82 senior centers on the reservation there are a great need we still haven't reached those that are really isolated in the remote areas a lot of them live on dirt roads and a lot of them are the roads are impassable sometimes and we can't reach most of those elderlies that live in those remote areas but they do need those services the meals especially because elderlies sometimes can't prepare their own meals it is Laverne who saw the need for this video in hopes that grandparents could learn about resources like TANF TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families the attendant benefits doomed and will provide for the basic needs so grandma's grandparents have fixed incomes and if they have to care for children children ami that means that they have to put more food on the table that bribe buy clothing buy school supplies I mean just send them and even just a personal needs very peak requirement our program is child support enforcement because in the welfare reform law it did state that we need to be tougher on parents welfare was paying for the making payments to children of parents and the parents weren't taking responsibility so and the law says we need to get tougher on child support so that's why we incorporate that and incorporate that into our program where we've made that a requirement that all our customers must comply with child support enforcement our program is based on the basic traditional philosophy of in order for you to succeed in life it's really up to you you'd have to do it yourself since her husband died Virginia Sloane's life has been filled with children for years she raised her grandson Terry bisetti now she raises her nieces Carlina and our Lena and her seven year old granddaughter Julianne you know some people even when they become a widow they just turned to drinking and I don't know what to do that I said these two and my grandchildren they're the one that kept me going so that's what I'm happy about I wanted to take her in and I wanted to help my daughter but she's a single parent and she she's working sometimes I just hearts and yeah just like when she is outside running around and he told her to come in but she wouldn't and and I had to go out there and tell her together I like it I enjoy it even though it's tiresome what would I be doing if I didn't have them there the one that made me happy they make what they Virginia rescued her brothers girls from foster homes after getting an OK from their father Virginia went to court and got custody that allows her to share in decision making for the kids we as a grandmother we love grandchildren some parents that is in our Navajo Reservation some parents are having problem with drinking problems that's where we should come in and if we see a grandchild left alone at home when we know that they're home by themselves and their parents are not there we should go in and bring them home and feed them and then let them stay with you and tell their parents get back to their whole guardianship is is taking legal responsibility are seeing vision for children there are neglected may be or in need of supervision and the court gives them that assignment to be there to be their legal representation Leonard Watchmen learned Navajo from his grandparents that skill comes in handy in his work as a tribal court advocate with the Department of Justice there's a system in place with the Navajo Nation in the tribal court system that they can utilize to get there the guardianship that they're seeking all right in the Navajo concept in our cultural concept there is no written paper that says you're hereby given that responsibility nowadays we live in this world where when arrived I read that is the requirement with them and I'll give an example a child in your care and if the child needs an emergency our doctor may refuse to assume responsibility of a child to care for the child or to give up provide some sort of services that's necessary without the consent of the parent because the kicha of liability that was not really and that was sort of unheard of when I was younger my grandpa took me to the hospital for a reason day there was no questions asked I was there in they were responsible for me so in this case I think the their parents are the grandparents or the custodian the proposed guardian would have to look at those consideration and do so and to obtain a guardianship paper to file with the court a paper says I want to raise my grandchild or this young child they're personally involved and they want it you know they want the best for their grandkids so they decide if they're going to take guardianship takes a lot of responsibility and it's it's reason the second set of children themselves you know they raise their kids already now they're gonna raise their grandkids so it takes a lot of stress and strain on the elders Ethel Manuel Ito is the associate superintendent of the gallop McKinley school district which is implementing a new concept in education that gives students more responsibility for their learning the same concept she uses with her grandson I want him to know that you know he has a purpose in life and I want him to know that learning and education is very crucial and that if you want to to meet your goals or to see your dreams you know he's he's got a dream to be a scientist Esther Rafa Leto and her son Alvin share a special bond when Alvin went to college Esther raised his daughter Alvina Esther taught her to be responsible and self-reliant because she yeah accomplish injure a stroke want but not legit all she said that the the main thing is that the children will have some sort of resources to fall back upon the raising of children and exposing them to the different forms of a culture enables them to understand there is a way of life that's also available to them Alvina and her husband Juan are in the US Army stationed in North Carolina while they are away serving their country Alvin and his wife Debbie are raising Shalom and Julian isn't it nice to be a mom watch them grow and then laugh you know being there it's my grandchild and being available for them and and being together with them so there's that closeness in the bonding that we established early life with them that they really like sit down it's very rewarding that way so and then later like hopefully they'll take care of me there's of it finish getting my degrees me and my husband and then be able to support our kids and show them what's right from wrong the tradition of grandparents raising grandchildren is more alive than ever before despite the great challenges grandparents are enjoying the great joy of instilling responsibility respect and pride in their grandchildren and they are showing them the path which will lead them to become the Navajo leaders of tomorrow Astra hostage moschini amis and OHA tanoshii ne GE McCartney it's ok part oceanic e Kodaka she so go on in here now ETA a contest a yak Otto Italia - ski machine so go she ate honey knock Archana nice okay Nina Lacour de nada Oscar copy it one night on he gave up on me I don't deny sauce you get Australia net hard lapis or not dish Archie wings and Corday apparent us Anka condo Co a petri net on Oceana Ashwin there's for us since darkness any eggy ha yes trainee you're gaining power chopper yeah though a yeah they change it at it their time yet Oh question not sure what that justysia da panache liar I thought it's easier that that and he thought you had that and heat this year had at it don't want and a akanda WaterAid Netanya Tony she quad or Mangini patient not as hard Santa hottest Dhoni better contact later record AHA since Agosto algebra Chen tossed a bag open nanny hello Coco area I mean it's okay Tony nelec Anita Catania bear co-ed Kuato ayaats at the danger area Kuato shenana peccatis was the super card issuer but Akashi aunt only picketing she tore the whole area you're in Nazca cha-cha-cha-da-cha cancels ego Otto Nagi Ishikawa I don't want on a soggy askin is Coco I donno Nestene Aosta koko de Tonto Tonto National a young co-ed oldest Quantico a pen is a hostage were separated Tito les amis Ando chitinous any need Sweden he nulliparous yeah Mikey Kudo area here needy need all this you

Channel: HumanDimensionsTV

Views: 54,290

Rating: 4.8800855 out of 5

Keywords: navajo, grandparents, grandchildren, rservation, American Indians, Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico, Native Americans

Id: r3eAEDtTz2A

Length: 29min 42sec (1782 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 23 2013