Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life

by Jim Kristofic

Just before starting second grade, Jim Kristofic moved from Pittsburgh across the country to Ganado, Arizona, when his mother took a job at a hospital on the Navajo Reservation. Navajos Wear Nikes reveals the complexity of modern life on the Navajo Reservation, a world where Anglo and Navajo coexisted in a tenuous truce. After the births of his Navajo half-siblings, Jim and his family moved off the Reservation to an Arizona border town where they struggled to readapt to an Anglo world that no longer felt like home. With tales of gangs and skinwalkers, an Indian Boy Scout troop, a fanatical Sunday school teacher, and the author's own experience of sincere friendships that lead to ho?zho? (beautiful harmony), Kristofic's memoir is an honest portrait of growing up on--and growing to love--the Reservation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Native American, Native Americans, Indigenous, Audiobook, Biography

230 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2011

About the author

Jim Kristofic grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. He has written for the Navajo Times, Arizona Highways, Native Peoples Magazine, and High Country News. He is the author of The Hero Twins: A Navajo-English Story of the Monster Slayers, Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life, Medicine Women: The Story of the First Native American Nursing School, Reservation Restless, and Send a Runner: A Navajo Honors the Long Walk (all published by UNM Press). He lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished NAVAJOS WEAR NIKES and I have the urge to start it again, it was that good. You know a book is something special when you think about getting back to reading the next chapter during most of your busy day, and when you stay up late into the night to read just one more word. Kristofic takes you into a world that feels unvarnished. He's an outsider, a newcomer to the reservation as a young child, as are we who know nothing of this world. With the author, we are initiated into the foreign and the familiar. We wince with the pain of brutality, ache with his sorrows, and always throughout it all there is laughter. As we laugh at the narrator's keen observations and at the original pranks that only kids on the reservation could possibly think of, we feel ourselves starting to fit in and understand.

Kristofic is a wise and witty narrator and I recommend this amazing memoir to anyone who is looking for a great read, for entertainment, and for words that will take them where they have never gone before. Truly an outstanding experience!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Navajo from Tuba City, I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I looked askance at this book's relevance as a valid look at modern Native American experience. It is written by a white man, Jim Kristofic. I looked at the description closer and saw he grew up on a Navajo reservation from the age of 6 to high school age, 1980s - 1990s. I decided this experience gave credibility enough for him to share his opinions as any other modern white person.

Kristofic's mother was a moderately paid nurse at the nearby medical center. She couldn't afford private school (it wasn't even a consideration) so he and his younger brother went to public school. He didn't use specific methods to earn the trust and friendship of his Navajo classmates. He got no help from teachers, his single mother or school therapists. Kristofic just took the blows mentally and physically and persevered. It eventually worked.

Kristofic wrote that most of his Navajo classmates eagerly anticipated being able to leave the reservation. Kristofic enjoys the time he can get back but doesn't live there either. That says something in itself. Maybe he values the unique experience he was given but like his schoolmates, doesn't care for the harshness and lack of opportunity on the reservation. This book helps me bridge the gap between my white look at the world and the Navajo way of looking at us.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that you'll want the audio version of, unless you tell me that the print version has awesome photos or some other cool feature. To hear this in Kristofic's own lyrical voice, even translating Navajo for us, is priceless. It's a nostalgic and unflinching view of growing up some place that most of us are only lucky enough to catch a glimpse of.

I just really very much enjoyed this book and his unique cultural experiences. Jim, I hope you know that your mom is a tough noodle! I'm so glad that she listened to her heart when you guys were little. As a nurse, I would dearly love to hear her stories. :)

[Alvaro Francisco Hidalgo Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of growing up in the Navajo culture as a white person. I did learn quite a bit, and the good and bad aspects of the author’s experience are both given their importance as to the final feeling of reverence he feels for the place of his youth. Worthwhile, especially if you are interested in Navajo culture in its present form.

[Alexander Bahe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I really had a connection with the Author. I am a full blooded Navajo, thought this book was a good depiction of our culture. It was well written and was easy to read. When ever I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I also lived in the same city he moved to, Page, AZ. This book addressed some topics that needed to be exposed, and he did it in a tasteful way. I recommend this book to anyone interested it what it's like to grow up on the reservation.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Kristofic, although not of Native American descent, grew up on the Navajo Nation reservation. Over the course of the book he writes about his experiences there - how he viewed the Navajos, and how they viewed him. How he fit in, and how he didn't. How he now views his place in the world, and what the experiences meant to him and molded him into being. It's a fascinating story, and a compelling explanation of what it's like to walk in two different worlds.

Kristofic doesn't shy away from elaborating on both the beauty and the violence of his upbringing, and of the problems that plague Indian Country then and even today. He offers the history that confined the people to a Reservation, and how Navajo rights continue to be infringed upon. He also talks about how the racism that many experience go both ways - and how that experience stretches into border towns, into more complex disputes.

Kristofic is a compelling storyteller. His stories follow a beautiful rhythm that I've come to expect from Native American writing. He weaves in and out of experiences, paints full pictures that challenge some of the more beautiful nature writing I've read over the years. This is a person who has walked the walk more than talking the talk, so to speak. He's a compelling writer, and his life is more interesting than the stereotypes people hold towards Rez living might suppose.

So? A good read. I'd definitely be happy to read more of his writing.

Also, a beautiful integration of Navajo language into the story, and a great respect towards the taboos of the people.

[Kayla DeVault · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. Personally, I struggled getting through it. However, I was very interested as a resident of the Navajo Nation and an enrolled member of a different tribe. I live down the road from Ganado, so it was definitely interesting reading about the things that are (and aren't anymore) there. I also get a lot of the cross-cultural stuff, although for me it's in a different form. I have a unique status as being an "other" Indian, and also part white. Probably the things that bothered me the most, though, was what other people might take away from it. For example, his mother's weird obsession with an entire race of people. I'm not comfortable with how this book almost started to normalize that attitude. I'm mostly not comfortable with it because of how others have even mentioned her obsession as some kind of positive emulation. Yeah, that's how people justify racist mascots. I understand that he was also a very young person for most of this story, so probably the depth of philosophy isn't well reflected in the way of life, but I think that's an important differentiation that can demonstrate how there is no "Indian" obsession - the cultures are far too diverse if you truly understand what you claim to be obsessing about. Finally, there's the idea that I'm not sure was completely dispelled: about the Rez being some awful place. Sure, there are awful elements, just like in any community, but people too often focus on that. There is also rich culture and resilience and a very distinct way of life that people want to maintain. For those who think kids want to, should be able to, and simply can't leave the Rez - I wish you would stop thinking like that. We are facing a "brain drain" crisis where kids ARE leaving, and if they can't get an education and come home to jobs, what will be left in a 100 years? They need to see the beauty in it and not focus on these stereotypes. That's all...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Navajos Wear Nikes should be required reading for high school, or possibly middle school, students everywhere. For that matter, adults should read this slim volume too. Kristofic moved from Pittsburg to Ganado on the Navajo Nation with his mom and brother when he was in the second grade, and lived on or just off the Nation through high school graduation. His mother, a nurse, ultimately married a Navajo and had two more children. Kristofic gained a rare perspective on Navajo life and culture as a white person, and remains respectful and clear-eyed about the experience. He describes a childhood full of tough teasing and fist fights -- even the "play" was rough -- but the experience made him tougher without becoming hard. He's now a young man working as a teacher and completing an oral history project of Navajos. All in all, an important window on Navajo culture and an enjoyable read.

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest books about the reservation that I read. The whole grade school sections rang true from what I know about living on the reservation. It made my heart ache to know that I've been away for so long and while I was there, I didn't appreciate the beauty of home.
I also appreciated his unhindered quest for knowledge and that he held the Navajo teachings so close to his heart. He really lived in a Dine World and wanted to be one boys. He has a deeper understanding than some Dine people currently have.
This books is going on my shelf at home as a new favorite. I will recommend to anyone who asks me about the reservation.

[Cuchillo Lope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m around the same age as the author and I’m Navajo, growing up in Gallup, New Mexico and I gotta say he really captures what it was like hanging out with those kids. It was like reading pieces of my own childhood. Playing in washes, fighting with bullies, and exploring a world with a specific cultural lens that defines what you see. It really made me miss home.
My only real complaints is some of his views of race were a little deaf. It’s systemic from a government that absolutely destroyed my people. A destruction we survived. We just didn’t end up this way for fun. It comes from the trauma of genocide. He also glazes the cops a bit too much for my taste.
Overall it’s a great book that captures a certain era of life, early 90s on the Navajo Nation. The gift was opening my memory and transporting me back.

[Stephen Heiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book delivers as much as you can expect from its original premise: a white man lives on a reservation for formative periods of his life, and attempts to explain life on the reservation and the perspectives of the people who've lived there for generations.

I would have liked to have learned more about the Navajo and their history, but then this would be a history book and not a memoir about a man who had a struggling single mom and who was wondering about his own identity.

Worth a read if you'd like to learn more about Navajos and how they've been treated and how they currently live in the structures of the United States.

[Joy Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good bio about Diné culture for those coming from an outside perspective, you get to learn as the author grows up

[Alana Karma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite a unique interpretation of the D'nié as it is coming from one of European descent. The experiences he had there are so raw, true and valuable. #respect

[Elizabeth Cottrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This highly readable book offers a fascinating and thought-provoking twist to the typical "coming of age" memoir. The author's gift for story-telling lends depth and emotion to the unusual story he has to tell of being a white boy raised on a Navajo reservation ("The Rez") during his elementary and high school years while his mother took a job at a hospital there.

The unfortunate cruelty children can inflict on each other when faced with their fears and insecurities is exacerbated when they are separated by cultural and racial barriers that go back centuries. The physical and emotional cauldron in which author Jim Kristofic found himself could have damaged him for life. Instead, he became a "Tough Noodle" and learned to embrace the world of his Navajo friends, their beliefs, their legends, and their close connection to the natural world.

This is no rose-colored view of a tough childhood. Kristofic brings us along through his pain, fear, and hardship. His identity is challenged yet again when he moves back to the east coast for college and is immersed in a WASP culture that butts up painfully against things he had come to value in his years in Arizona.

The result is a clear-eyed perspective on life and its vagaries, reminding us to take the best out of all our experiences and reject what does not serve us in our journey. The book combines all the things I require to give it a five-star rating. It offered me a glimpse into a world and culture I could not get otherwise (in this case the world of the Navajo Indians). It entertained me in its highly readable, story-telling narrative. It was thought-provoking in its reminder of the hardship of going through school in any setting and in making the reader answer for himself or herself the question of who we are and what formed us.

Reading this book while visiting in Santa Fe for Indian Market certainly added to its relevance and fascination for me. When you get to the end of a book and feel that every second was worthwhile, you know you've found one you can highly recommend. Jim Kristofic's NAVAJOS WEAR NIKES is such a book.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the book I thought it would be; not about running or athletes. It's unlike your typical book about life on the rez by whites. Usually whites swoop in and live among the Navajo or other tribes for a year or so, observe and report and return to their lives. Such is not the case with this author. He can never really leave the rez like many Native Americans. It's in his identity now. Although he no longer lives on the rez he grew up on the rez and cried when he left Ganado, AZ to live in Page, AZ, a town close to the rez but not of it. It's a heartfelt memoir of growing up as one of the few white kids in an entirely Navajo school. His mom was a nurse with the Indian Health Service who had an affinity for Indians and the American West. Now ironically the author has returned to Pennsylvania where he was born and teaches there but he still comes home to the rez during the summer to visit his childhood friends. This book has a lot of soul in it. The author realizes he will never be a Navajo by blood but he is one in spirit. He tells it like it is. The rez is both a beautiful and dangerous place. And yes it looks like the shoes on the cover, not one of them is a Nike. LOL.

[Julie Capell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would subtitle this book "Boys will be boys." The author is a gifted storyteller with an incredibly detailed memory of things that happened to him throughout grade and high school. He tells a series of anecdotes about those early years against the backdrop of being a white kid growing up on a Navajo reservation. For me, the stories were a little light on interracial/intercultural insights and too heavy on bullying. Having been bullied a lot when I was a child, I really dislike stories like those in this book, many of which detail the ritual hazings and random cruelty children inflict on each other. The author presents the bullying in a matter-of-fact way, and seems to regard most of it as a necessary rite of childhood. In fact, the book is generally upbeat, but that did not compensate for all the fighting and name-calling in my opinion.

[I listened to this book as read by the author. I would recommend the audio version because the author pronounces all the Navajo words expertly, and slips in and out of the Rez accent effortlessly. That was the best aspect of the book for me.]

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the personal memoir of Jim Kristofic. Jim moved to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona from Pennsylvania right before starting second grade. His mother was a nurse, and had taken a job at a hospital on the reservation. Jim experienced a little bit of a culture shock, a white kid trying to fit in with Natives. There are a lot of experiences and memories recounted in this book that I don't want to share so that it doesn't spoil the whole thing, but I really appreciated the candor. Eventually, Jim went on to have some siblings that were half Native. The family moved off of the reservation and back into the mainstream white dominated world, and that was another culture shock. I loved learning different things about Native culture, and also about the struggle to fit in. I loved the lessons of love and acceptance in this book. There was also some humor in the book, which I loved. I hardly ever read a book that has humor in it, so when I find one, it is a real treat for me.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Kristofic moved to Ganado on the Navajo Reservation in third grade (early 90's) from Pittsburgh with his single Mom, a nurse who took a job at the hospital there. HIs Mother basically leaves him and his younger brother to fend for themselves. As a bilagaana (white person) he was unmercifally bullied but eventually Ganado becomes home. I expect any boy's passage through school is fairly rough these days but the Navajo culture particularly prizes "being a tough noodle" and heroism is measured in scars and misdeeds. Along with learning to survive in a culture that would have suburban white parents in an uproar Kristofic develops a deep appreciation for the Dine life and people which he has gone on to share as an adult.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the author Jim Kristofic was in second grade, his mother took a job as a nurse on a Navajo reservation. The book is the story of Jim finding his place with other kids on the reservation and becoming a “tough noodle.” Some of the experiences are difficult but they ring true and I believe them. The question he is asked over and over, as a child and as an adult, is “Are you an Indian?” He gives you many ways to think about that question and pretty much lets you answer it yourself.

My husband and I have read a number of books about reservation life and this is by far the best.

[Asdzáá g · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bilagaana?

Had its good moments, especially towards the end. The author did pretty good with his dineh bizaad, could tell he really tried hard, it's a hard language..only someone born into it can fully enunciate the words correctly. . Although, the "Anglo world" really can't fully grasp our beliefs or, what makes us tick..it's really no body's business and shouldn't be left to ponder upon. But, we live day to day and try to make the best in both worlds.

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Kristofic challenges stereotypes and shares traditions in Navajos Wear Nikes. It’s a readable, enjoyable memoir that provides a unique insider’s experience of Navajo culture.

See my full review in Local iQ:
http://www.local-iq.com/index.php?opt...

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this auto-biography since i have spent some time on the reservation and hope to go back. this is a more realistic, honest book about the navajo culture, more useful than a lot of library navajo books i've read.

[Hope Georgantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Kristofic was my 9th grade? English teacher and one of the only teachers I remember from high school. That’s how memorable he was- a fantastic teacher. I cannot believe it took me this long to read one of his books. Shame on me! But I am looking forward to reading the rest.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a neat perspective, and so accessible. Too controversial for a wide middle school audience, but so glad Kristofic has contributed his voice to this discussion.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

After living on the Navajo Reservation, I found this book to be a printed version of what I saw. It was truly a magical experience for me. I was living there while reading in Indiana.

[Abesheet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should have been entitled: "Navajos can be mean too"
=========================================

I don’t know how I feel about this book. Whether I hated it or mildly disliked it. If the distaste came from listening to the audible version and hearing a white guy trying to talk like a Native American [only a Native American, and no body else]. Or because the title made me think it was a comedy and the book turned out not to be?!

The good:
The book has certainly given me some [new] information: About Navajo life and the attitude of neighbouring tribes. That not all natives see one another as rend from the same garment. About Ganado Mucho [whom the writer has great affection for, I can tell] curfews, and the liberal use of profanity.

Some.. but not a lot. Certainly not as much as, say, Barbara Kingsolver's "Bean" series did.

It is also written and narrated well with the exception of some phrases that threw me for a loop in the paragraph where Jim is discussing salvation with an "Orthodox" Christian classmate.

And then... the bad. The subtle criticisms [in terms of bullying, sexual and physical abuse... of Navajos being a bunch of "jerks" who dished it out as well as they got] with no research/explanation whatsoever. With no "by your leave" [background info] on how the American government systematically destroyed Native American communities when genocide wasn’t enough and what was stolen from them and its lingering effect. How this battle was never a battle of equals. How the right to speak in your own language at your work place for a nation of people whose children were stolen and sent to a white missionary school so they would forget who they are isnt just about stopping a few bad apples from using dirty language.

You would say "It is a memoir. Dude is writing what happened to him as a kid." And that maybe true. Still, it felt to me as if Kim Kristofic was more obsessed with the idea of being a Navajo instead of truly understanding [and not just trying to imitate their language and way of living] who the Navajos are. Needless to say, showing someone behaving badly without providing enough information as to why.. only lends justification for unfair biases/stereotypes.

This stereotype, I must add, seems to have gone beyond the drinking/child & wife beating/sexually violent Navajos to African Americans, whose reverence given to their "life style" by young Navajos the author seems to despise. More than once, the writer has equated loving hip hop and "dressing like an inner city black kid" with "ghetto living". On the other hand, white people are praised for their courage and determination, for their love and acceptance of their children's choices as well as for their commitment and family value. [Which brought to mind J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" where a writer, who kept professing love and respect to his "hillbilly" family and friends put all the blame of their short comings on their square shoulder. Funny that both writers are born of mothers who are nurses with no father figure around 😁]. Yes, there are a few words thrown in passing paying lip service to the "thou shalt not stereotype" mantra. But it didn’t feel genuine or heart felt. Kinda like Charles Dickens creating one benevolent Jewish character in "Our Mutual Friend" after his long and extended anti-sematic campaign in almost all of his books.

The other thing that should have been left out are the Navajo/Dineh/Dine terms repeatedly used [after the writer already gave their English translation] with no apparent spiritual or cultural significance in/to them. An unnecessarily long paragraph detailing the killing of a Dibé, sheep, comes to mind. It makes the writer sound like a show-off. Which, again, goes back to that question of maturity.

Another word that made me almost wince when I heard it is the word "Anglo". Kristofic's use of it to describe white people almost feels like a shrugging off of one's privileges and responsibility that comes from being White in America. Like trying to separate himself from what white people did and are doing to Navajos in particular and non-whites in general.

The use of the term "Americans" is also weird when coming, not as a reported speech of an outsider, but a statement from a white American living in Arizona. But.. I guess.. this is what it means not to belong, not to be a part of. You can pass off for this or that, even amongst people who willingly embraced you, but you would always be an observer/a by-stander/suspect.. and/or be taken for one. With your motive always questioned and your observations scrutinized more than one born and raised in it would be. Just as I did.

BFD?!

[Deborah Bausmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for the romantic notion of “the West”. I know better as I’ve grown up, but I still remember cowboy heroes & the majesty of the Native American. I’ve taken trips to the SW, loved Monument Valley, enjoyed the experience of spending a night in a Navajo hogan, mattress on the dirt floor, watching bright stars through the smoke hole. I’ve found Hubell Trading Post years ago, driving through free-range land, waiting for sheep & cattle to wander across the road.

So I grabbed Jim Kristofic’s memoir about growing up on a Navajo reservation as an Anglo. I enjoyed his stories of the challenges that he & his brother went through when they were so obviously outsiders. But yet he became a part of the reservation by persevering (being a “Tough Noodle”) & learning to understand by being open to the people & the land. I’m amazed how he became such a wise advocate for the Navajo.

So despite being born in Pennsylvania, he’s “still more comfortable around my Navajo friends and relatives than I do around most Anglo people I’ve met, even some of my own relatives. . . That’s the trick: I don’t really know how to answer whether I’m “Indian” since it’s mostly a racial question. . . But I do know that I feel great gratitude to Ganado and the Rez, where life is wonderful and terrible at the same time.”

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Write up comes from Goodreads books details page. "Just before starting second grade, Jim Kristofic moved from Pittsburgh across the country to Ganado, Arizona, when his mother took a job at a hospital on the Navajo Reservation. Navajos Wear Nikes reveals the complexity of modern life on the Navajo Reservation, a world where Anglo and Navajo coexisted in a tenuous truce. After the births of his Navajo half-siblings, Jim and his family moved off the Reservation to an Arizona border town where they struggled to readapt to an Anglo world that no longer felt like home. With tales of gangs and skinwalkers, an Indian Boy Scout troop, a fanatical Sunday school teacher, and the author's own experience of sincere friendships that lead to ho?zho? (beautiful harmony), Kristofic's memoir is an honest portrait of growing up on--and growing to love--the Reservation."

Mom wanted an Indian husband and found one. This is about Jim's struggle in his early years growing up on a Reservation. Had some bullies, made some friends and his family grew.
Sorry but I just did not like this book much. I feel things were left out to give you an overall picture and other parts were repetitive. Just another hard ship book with someone getting what they want and dragging others along the way.

[Jacob Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about Jim’s life on the Navajo Reservation. He moved to Ganado, AZ as a kid and shares his experiences on life on the Navajo Nation and compares some to his life in Pittsburgh. His mom moved them to Ganado for a job at the hospital. He talks about how the kids were mean to him and played tricks in him in school. Through time, he gains friends and starts to understand the how things work on the reservation. He has Navajo babysitters who come in smelling like fry bread. He tells of how he wanted nothing more but to leave and go home to Pittsburgh, then grows to love and hate the reservation. He talks about how the people lived on the nation. He shares stores of ceremonies, uses our language with understanding, and how the people take care of each other. They moved to the reservation begay his mom always had an obsession with Indians. He grows up on the Navajo Nation and his mom meets a Navajo man and they get more siblings who are half Navajo. They later move off the reservation and find life very different from the reservation. They got used to the reservation and felt a part of it and felt misplaced when they moved.