SALT LAKE CITY — A man who is based in the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation is trying to give new life to the Navajo language and culture through a kid's TV show that uses puppets.

Pete Sands says that during the pandemic, he had the opportunity to travel to homes on the reservation and realized a large disparity between the older and younger generations.

"We started knowing the disparities between the older generation, the elder generation and the younger generation - they had no communication," Sands explained.

"The younger folks didn't know, they don't speak the language. They don't understand it."

Sands knew that he had to find a solution to keep his culture and language alive and teach it to the rising generation in a fun way.

In the early months of 2021, he saw with his own eyes how a teacher used a puppet to teach young children in her classroom and a light bulb went off.

"It was this an epiphany (...) I had seen this one thing where a teacher got the attention of children with a puppet," Sands said.

"Maybe I can create a puppet show where we teach a Navajo language and that's where it started."

Sands used his contacts in the film industry to help connect him to a puppet maker based in Los Angeles.

After sketching his vision for what he wanted the puppets to look like, Sadie, Ash, Grandma Sally and Uncle Al were born.

Gofundme

The four puppets, who were made with Navajo features, are meant to bridge the gap between the older and younger generations and are the main characters in the TV show, "Navajo Highways."

Sands recruited some help from a teacher who created a language program to teach Navajo.

The teacher is the host of the show and also voices the grandma puppet.

There are plans to film ten episodes and each episode will have a specific theme.

The first episode will focus on introduction and learning about the Navajo culture.

"Navajos had complex, complicated classes and it breaks it down to just really simple," Sands explained.

"Instead of making it so complicated, we break it down simple where people can understand it."

The show will also focus on unity between native Navajo people and others in the community.

"I think it's important not just to show specifically just native Navajo people, as to show them interacting with people outside the reservation and really bring everything together to show unity," Sands said.

"Just to help them expand beyond what they know...it's okay to be different."

Unlike English, the Navajo language is mainly phonetic, which can be a challenge when trying to teach it to others.

Sands is hoping that by teaching with puppets, it will make challenging lessons more fun to learn and kids will be able to retain the information more easily.

"[Enlgish and Navajo are] intertwined [in the show] because the little kids are learning to speak it in the show," Sands said.

"So that's how the audience grows with them - with the kids. They learn how to speak it."

As Sands and his team work on creating and filming episodes, they're looking for funding for the project.

A Gofundme page has been set up to collect donations.

Sands hopes that when the episodes are completed, he'll be able to put them on a platform that is free for everyone to watch.

"This is special, this is this is something way outside the box," he said.

"They see hope that this can really work. And I really think it can work. I mean, it's never been done before.

Sands says they've been chosen to do a few live shows on the reservation and in Arizona.

This year, they will potentially travel to Los Angeles for a live show.

He says the more that people see the special puppets and their potential to teach kids, the more they want them to come and participate in their own communities.

This story was first reported by Melanie Porter at KSTU in Salt Lake City.

SHONTO, Arizona — Living conditions on the Navajo reservation resemble a third-world country. Households lack necessities taken for granted in much of America, including running water, electricity and internet access.

"I did not grow up with running water. It's normal. You just work 10 times harder than anybody else to obtain water," Shanna Yazzie, who grew up on the Navajo Nation and is raising her children there today.

Yazzie is a project manager with the Navajo Water Project, an indigenous-led nonprofit working to bring running water and solar power to homes on the Navajo Nation.

Dirt roads and worn gasoline pumps are a constant reminder of generations left behind. Through numerous treaties, the U.S. government made promises to maintain and support the needs of Native communities in exchange for land. But calls to address these failings have often been ignored.

"What's really struck me has been their resilience. It really is a strong sense of community," said George McGraw, founder of DigDepp. "And that's what's really allowed them to survive — despite a world around them that in many ways is organized to erase and destroy their culture."

Left vulnerable to the deadly pandemic, challenges on the reservation were put in the national spotlight. At one point, the reservation had the highest rate of COVID-19 infections per capita in the country.

Now, these basic needs are within reach for tribal communities and reservations across the U.S., with the newly-signed infrastructure bill promising to address decades of unfunded projects and broken promises.

"This infrastructure bill is really like a once-in-a-generation opportunity to work on this problem," said McGraw. "It's hundreds and thousands of projects, all shovel-ready."

The bill allocates $3.5 billion for the Indian Health Service (IHS). The agency says the funding will be enough to address more than 1,500 projects nationwide on its list of water and sanitation issues, including water lines, bathrooms, sanitation facilities, and water treatment plants.

"It's really difficult to understate what impact that will have on native communities. To take, you know, decades of projects that have sat there unfunded and really languished and push them all forward," said McGraw.

He says 30% of Navajo homes don't have running water. Families must travel for miles to haul back every drop they need to survive.

The infrastructure bill also provides $4 billion in funding to fix roads and $2 billion to expand internet access.

"We're going to be watching that process really closely, assisting where we can, representing communities and making sure their voices are heard. But it will not solve the problem. It will not close the water gap fully in the United States. That's going to take significantly more investment," said McGraw.

Advocates are calling for better data collection on the problem.

"We're using old data to estimate access," said McGraw. "We're going to have this new influx of money. What collection mechanism do we have to prove that that money is getting where it's needed? That that number is shrinking? And it's something that we're talking to federal agencies and to lawmakers and to tribal officials now, but I don't have a good answer to that question now."

But he says the bill is historic and gets tribal communities on the path to finally accessing life-saving infrastructure needs.

"It gets us, you know, into that fight," said McGraw. I have a lot of hope."

SHONTO, Arizona — Connected by endless stretches of dirt roads, the Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the United States. It covers over 27,000 square miles and extends into Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

With nearly 200,000 tribal citizens, homes are spread out over remote, rural area, with many lacking necessities often taken for granted in America.

"Lack of transportation, housing development, electricity – some of the basic needs we definitely lack," said Shanna Yazzie, a project manager for the Navajo Water Project.

Yazzie says growing up without running water at home was normal.

"I think that's where my mindset of always having a plan A, B and C came from. Thinking at least three steps ahead in case a watering point is frozen, ran out of water or is closed," said Yazzie. "And when I say a watering point, we had to travel more than 15, 20 miles to a watering point to get water."

Left out of historic federal investments, infrastructure disparities have long stunted the reservation's economic opportunity and quality of life.

Navajo citizens are among more than two million Americans living without running water and basic indoor plumbing.

"Race is the strongest predictor of whether or not you and your family can just turn on the tap and get water," said George McGraw, founder, and CEO of DigDeep.

The human rights nonprofit organization is dedicated to ensuring every American has access to clean, running water.

"If you're indigenous, you're 19 times more likely not to have running water than a white family. If you're Black or Latino, you're twice as likely," said McGraw. "And that's because the way we've invested in these communities and in these systems has, you know, had a racial component from the very beginning. And certain communities were deliberately left out."

DigDeep partnered with the Navajo people to bring running water and solar power to families on the reservation. McGraw says 30% of homes lack these basic needs.

The indigenous-led Navajo Water Project has provided 300 homes with solar power and underground water systems. Drivers deliver clean water to remote homes each month.

"We make things happen quickly," said Yazzie." We don't have any red tapes, except just getting permission from the homeowners and the community, the local chapter officials."

They prioritize helping elders, veterans, people without transportation, homes with children, and tribal citizens with disabilities and chronic
health conditions.

"Often, when they see us or our water trucks, they will run to the road and try to stop one of our technicians because they need physical help," said Yazzie. "We're kind of like the adopted grandkids for them."

Yazzie says 40% of the team doesn't have running water at home.

"But when you have a way to put a cistern underground, install a water pump, install solar in case you don't have electricity – anything is possible," said Yazzie.

With the newly signed infrastructure bill, that sentiment is closer to reality now than ever before. Billions of dollars are going directly to tribes and reservations to address projects that have gone unfunded for decades.

The historic investment promises to address the decades-long backlog of unfunded infrastructure projects.

"It's hundreds and thousands of projects, all shovel-ready. Some are very big, think water treatment plants and miles and miles of pipe. Some are very small, like a bathroom facility at a public building," said McGraw.

Funding to the Indian Health Service is supposed to be distributed over five years.

"We're going to be watching that process really closely, assisting where we can, representing communities, and making sure their voices are heard."