Seven years ago I moved to Elko from Tohatchi, New Mexico. Since that time I have tried to learn my Navajo culture, language, and tradition through my family living here. It is hard to do when living off the reservation, but I m doing it. My project focuses on the different ethnic groups that come to Elko. How do they keep their traditions, cultures, and languages an everyday practice?

In this project, I have learned that traditions, cultures, and languages can be forgotten and even lost. It has to be up to the person to keep it in their everyday lives. It may be harder living away from the "homeland," but enough faith and even hope in yourself can make a whole lot of a difference.

After talking to some people on and off the record, I found that I have started to try harder to learn the ways of my people. The youth of today can learn a lot from their parents and grandparents, even from a complete stranger. People of every ethnic group face the same challenge of losing their traditional ways. In order to pass on our values, we must first learn them ourselves.

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