Talking Navajo Before You Know It—Free Navajo phrase booklet

Within the last year or so I have become more and more familiar with Public Domain and Creative Commons content. There is so much available to the public, it is amazing. Oh, the possibilities. I enjoy sites like LibriVox, Project Gutenberg, and others that allow the public to have this content.

What I discovered recently is that documents published and written by the government are all public domain content. If you want to read the small print it is HERE. Exceptions can be found HERE.  This opens a lot of doors. And as it turns out the Department of Interior published some content for those learning the Navajo language. These are public domain!! Oh happy day.

I searched my local library for Navajo books and Talking Navajo Before You Know It came up in my list of results. This booklet was published back 1954 by the Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Navajo Agency, Window Rock, Arizona. I doubled checked with the libraries copyright office to see if they had any objections about scanning and uploading the content onto the internet for others. They had no objections, but cautioned that any photos and such in the document might still be under copyright. That wasn’t a problem with this document.

The booklet is about 50 pages and a majority of the pages are dedicated to different phrases and vocabulary. There are separate sections dedicated to obtaining information, transportation, in the classroom, and medical Navajo. So this booklet is a treasure. I am contemplating reformatting the text for an easier read; the original booklet was created on a typewriter.

The document has been uploaded onto Archive.org, just search for “Talking Navajo Before You Know It” and you should find it. Or go HERE. It can be viewed online or downloaded for your personal library.

Enjoy!