KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2025 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Effort To Save Navajo Language A Labor Of Love To Get Over Past Stigma And Pain

Classmates gather after a Navajo language class at Northern Arizona University.
Laurel Moralez
Classmates gather after a Navajo language class at Northern Arizona University.

Over the past few weeks, we here at the Fronteras Desk and KJZZ News have been exploring hidden stories across the Americas with reports from our Transborder Unit-- specifically at the intersection between the U.S. and Colombia and this week we’ve heard about saving the once-dying Palenque language.

Closer to home, there's another language that also needs attention. As the largest tribe in the United States, more Navajos speak their mother tongue than any other indigenous language in the country. But the Navajo language is still considered endangered. And each year fewer Navajo children speak it. As such, there's an effort to not only preserve the language but to revive it.


Laurel Morales was a Fronteras Desk senior field correspondent in Flagstaff from 2011 to 2020.