OCR Text |
Show (Continued fTom p. 3 of Aldumn, 1958, Newsletter of St. ChTistopheT's Mission to the Navaho, 4 Bluff, Utah) 111i1es. In addition, our weekly half-hour on the radio in the Navaho language covers the greater part of the whole Navaho Reservation, 28,000 square miles with close to 100,- 000 People. Vjsitors are often amused and surprised to see mud hoghans with antennae for their b~ttery radio sets. THE NEWSLETTER, through which most of . you know us, has grown, too. It began when our little band found out how hard it was to write letters to friends and relatives telling of what we were doing. First we used carbons, then a hektograph. When we really began to face the problem, we decided to pool our letters and our mailing lists. We were all amazed at the size of this first list, and decided while we were at it to let it grow, and we added to it practically everybody that any of us knew. As visitors came to the Mission, and as some of us went abroad to tell of the work, and as friends told friends, so the list grew. Mimeograph served for a while, but more recently printing has been possible for your reading comfort. All this you have made possible by your gifts. SO MUCH for the past. What does the future hold '? As our first ten years convinced us that the basic principles with which we had set out were sound,so t he next five and the coming years have been and will be devoted to the same ends. But on all fronts we must expand to meet growing needs. Often our small clinic has been full - and Catherine has many times given up her own bed to a patient. If native leadership is to be a reality, our school must gr ow ; it must offer facilities comparable in the academic field with those of secular schools and must be ready to integrate learning with the life in grace. More priests and more diligent pastoral care in our vast area are imperative. If it be true that culture is man's way of life determined by his manner of meeting the basic needs of life, then Navaho culture is bound to change. Sheep culture and barter are giving place to a money economy. Contacts of adults with whites and the Government's school proj ect have resulted in a great |