Teacher brings a ‘free little library’ to Navajo Nation

First of two parts:

Duane Yazzie was in Boston, Mass., attending a conference in 2017, when he noticed the kiosk of books.

It was a Little Free Library. “Take a book, share a book,” the sign said.

Duane took three books. What a wonderful way to encourage people to

read, he thought.

Duane is a teacher and reading specialist at Tséhootsooi Diné Bi Olta’ School in Window Rock on the Navajo Nation. He grew up on the reservation.

He suggested to his advanced readers, four sixth-grade girls, a Little Free Library as a service learning project.

“I want everyone just to fall in love with reading, to truly love the simple act of being with a book, surrounded by words and language,” Duane said.

The girls — Adrianna Begay, Jade Foster, Corey Owens and Christina Yazzie — got on the Little Free Library website and studied the map of 80,000 registered libraries. There wasn’t one on the Navajo Nation, not in 25,000 square miles. They decided to put up the first Little Free Library on the reservation.

The girls wrote letters to drum up support. A library costs $150 to $400.

The Northern Arizona Reading Council, of which Duane was a member, bought the library and had it delivered to his classroom. The “library” is a red box with two shelves, a plexiglass door and slanted roof.

Nathan Begay, the head of Navajo Nation Shopping Centers, gave them permission to put it up in a busy retail center in Window Rock.

It took some doing. Principal Audra Platero and the Window Rock Unified School District board agreed to donate books and help with required permits. Businesses offered trees and benches. On June 21, 2018, the library opened. Duane was out for dinner with his mom not long ago, and they watched from a distance as a young couple picked out books from the little library.

“This is why, mom,” he told his mother. “This is why we did this.”

And it’s why he wanted to do more.

Sunday: Spreading the words.