AAA Native Arts - Navajos showcased on TV

AUTHOR: Cindy Yurth, Navajo Times

Navajos showed up on three television channels simultaneously the last Sunday in October, and the spurt of Navajo celebrity isn't over yet. Billy Luther's documentary "Miss Navajo" aired Tuesday, Nov. 13, on PBS. And Elsa Johnson, a Navajo cultural consultant for the film and television industry, recently worked on an episode of Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" filmed on the reservation, and said that show is set to run in January on FX.

While the Georgia Yazzie family of Piñon, Ariz., reacted to their new house on ABC, Jacoby Ellsbury was helping the Boston Red Sox to a World Series victory on Fox, and FSN was broadcasting an air race that took place in Monument Valley this summer.

Navajo Nation Tourism Department Manager Thomas Boyd said Monday he expects to get a few phone calls in response to the shows. "Every time the Navajo Nation is on TV, we get a little spike of interest," he said.

Boyd himself was switching between "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and the World Series Sunday evening. He thinks the makeover show, which introduced a close-knit Navajo family and showed some examples of Navajo dancing and culture, will pique viewers' curiosity about Diné Bikéyah.

But in the case of the World Series, the interest flowed the other direction. "I know a lot of Navajos who were watching the World Series for the first time, just to watch the Navajo kid (Ellsbury) play ball," he said. "I made a point of it."

Navajo Times entertainment reporter Jan-Mikael Patterson, who dubbed Sunday "Navajo night on TV," thought it was "cool."

Like Boyd, Patterson flipped back and forth between "Extreme Makeover" and the Red Sox.

"The last time I can remember the reservation being on TV was when they did the Piestewa home makeover (in 2005) and built that veterans' center in Tuba City," Patterson said.

What about Oprah Winfrey's visit to the rez last year?

"I'm not even going to count that," sniffed Patterson. "She pops in here, doesn't even eat any mutton, and makes it look like we're all impoverished and living in shacks. There's a lot of good stuff going on out here too, and I think people saw that on the shows last night."

Elsa Johnson, a Navajo cultural consultant for the film and television industry, said she was "ecstatic" to see Navajos featured on three channels, even though she's sure "Extreme Makeover," which she worked on, lost some viewers to the World Series. (Even so, according to "Extreme Makeover" senior producer Diane Korman, the Pi–on show had the highest rating of any episode so far this season.)

"Who knew these two young Navajo men (Garrett Yazzie and Jacoby Ellsbury) would dominate viewership on a single night?" Johnson said. "I'm sure the word 'Navajo' came up in conversations all over the country."

Johnson said she wasn't aware the air show was being broadcast, but she was glad to hear about that too.

"That (Monument Valley) is our landmark backdrop," she said. "I'm happy about all three situations. We're really raising consciousness about the Navajo Nation."

Johnson said she can't think of two more appropriate young Navajos to showcase than Ellsbury and Yazzie, who inspired a Navajo Times reader to request a home makeover for his family after he placed in a national science competition two years ago.

"I hope all our young Navajo athletes were inspired by Jacoby Ellsbury," she said, "and the same for Garrett Yazzie in the academic area.

"The message to the youth, or anyone, is the same: If you remain dedicated and persistent, you will excel and things you never might have imagined will happen," she said.

Miss Navajo Jonathea Tso said she doesn't have TV at her Window Rock apartment and had no idea about "Navajo night" until a Navajo Times reporter called her for a comment.

But her first response was, "Cool buckets!"

"Our young people get so much pop culture and so much negativity from TV, I'm really glad we're getting some good publicity and some good role models out there," Tso said. "I'd like to say congratulations to Jacoby Ellsbury and to the Yazzie family."

Tso also pointed out the Navajo pageant winners who appeared on the shows.

"I believe Jocelyn (Billy, last year's Miss Navajo) was on the 'Extreme Makeover' (episode) and Miss Diné College sang the national anthem for the air race, and they're excellent role models too," she said.