Navajos are facing bleak Christmas

Linda Keams knew the statistics weren't in her favor when she showed up for her first day on the job at Whitehorse High School in Montezuma Creek last year.

More than 60 percent of her students live below the poverty level on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and more than half live in homes that lack plumbing. About 25 percent won't be able to find jobs on the reservation after they graduate, and less than 3 percent will eventually complete more than four years of college.

The odds seem unbeatable, but Linda knows it can be done. She beat them herself, even after growing up on welfare with no electricity or running water. The first in her family to get a bachelor's degree, it would have been easy for her to make a decent salary teaching far from the reservation.

Instead, you'll find the 42-year-old single mother working long hours as a Navajo language teacher at Whitehorse High, determined to increase the odds for her students. But now she's uncovered a sad new statistic, and she's hoping to find a few people to help.

About 85 percent of Whitehorse teens will not get a single Christmas present this year, says Linda. Although there is a popular Navajo Santa program for parts of the reservation, "it mainly benefits the small kids and those who can afford to drive to Bluff to pick up the free gifts," she says.

Bluff is only about a half-hour's drive from Montezuma Creek, but it might as well be in Mexico. "A lot of people don't have cars or can't afford the gas to go anywhere," she says. "We're really very isolated."

Hoping that a few readers will join her crusade to give Whitehorse's 310 students something to open this Christmas, Linda asked to join me for a Free Lunch to point out the tremendous need at her school.

With per capita income on the reservation hovering around $5,000 a year, "there's really no way for most parents to buy their kids extras," she says. "It's just a fact that kids have gotten used to. But things don't have to continue this way. It's my hope to give them all a little something. I want them to feel like somebody cares."

Linda certainly does. One of the few Navajo teachers at Whitehorse, she is tough on her students because she knows that if she lowers her expectations, some might try to slide by when they're capable of getting an A.

"The dropout rate is high," she admits, "and in most cases, that's because these kids have so many pressures at home. So many of them don't have fathers around and they end up with extra responsibilities. But I tell them, 'You can't give up. There's something better out there for you. But you're going to have to work for it."'