Navajo Technical University Press publishes children’s book on Navajo geology

Navajo Technical University Press has put a children’s geology book into Navajo classrooms with a clear purpose: make science feel local. High Desert Treasure, commissioned by Navajo Technical University under NASA’s MAIANSE program, is aimed at K-8 students and is being distributed in 3,000 copies across the Navajo Nation.

The book centers on a grandmother and her twin grandsons in a remote part of the Navajo Nation, where a treasure hunt leads them to the high desert around them. Along with the story, the book includes back matter on the rock cycle, geological time and the interconnectedness of Earth’s environment, giving young readers a science foundation that is tied to place instead of detached from it.

That matters in Apache County, where the ground itself is part of everyday life. A US Geological Survey publication describes the county’s central area as covering about 3,300 square miles between the Navajo Indian Reservation and U.S. Highway 60, with sedimentary rocks ranging from Pennsylvanian to Quaternary age and widespread basaltic lava flows and cinder cones in the south. In a county with that much visible geology, a book that connects stories, landforms and science can give students a starting point that feels familiar rather than abstract.

The author, Daniel W. Vandever, brings that connection into the project from his own background. Vandever is a Navajo from Haystack, New Mexico, the grandson of Navajo Code Talker Joe Vandever Sr., and he works as communications director at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico, where he also serves as an adjunct instructor. Salina Bookshelf identifies him as part of a long line of educators, a detail that fits the book’s mix of family story and instruction.

MAIANSE, the Minority University and Research Education Project for American Indian and Alaskan Native STEM Engagement, is part of a longer NASA-Navajo Nation partnership that has produced K-12 curricula and in-person programs for Navajo educators and students. High Desert Treasure extends that work into a form younger readers can pick up on a bookshelf, in a classroom or at home, while keeping the lesson rooted in Navajo land, Navajo experience and the science underfoot.