Defining Well-Being from Inside The Navajo Nation: Education As Poverty Derivation and Poverty Reduction

The stated purpose of this study was to facilitate Navajos through a process of determining for themselves what poverty is, what indicators determine well-being, and what factors contribute to the phenomenon of poverty on the Navajo Indian reservation. The study used a Q-Squared Participatory Poverty Assessment to gain a better understanding of how the Navajo culture and Navajo people themselves view and operationalize wealth and poverty. Semi-structured participatory interviews performed with 22 Navajo Indians, in the reservation communities of Chinle, Arizona, and San Juan, New Mexico, discussed and determined what it means to be poor in Navajo households and communities, and defined various levels of wellbeing on the reservation