Welcome

Keana Gorman, current Harvard College student recently featured in Teen Vogue, will be on campus Wednesday, November 16 delivering a talk in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. Gorman’s talk is entitled Seeking Nádleeh Wisdom: the Herzog Navaho Collection of Hosteen Klah.

Gorman is in her final semester at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts studying History and Literature and Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. As a Diné (Navajo) trans woman and a nádleeh, Gorman wrote her undergraduate thesis, Seeking Nádleeh Wisdom. 

Broadly speaking, nádleeh refers to a person, being, concept, and verb that denotes a cyclical changing/becoming. In the context of gender, nádleeh refers to gender nonconformity and its many performances in Diné/Navajo society.

Gorman’s thesis includes significant work from her journey to the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, Germany during the summer of 2022 where she traveled to gain access to the wax cylinder collection of Hosteen Klah, a nádleeh chanter. The contents of the Herzog/Navajo collection comprise ceremonial songs of a number of chantways–the basic units of the Navajo ceremonial system–and serve as an important aspect of Navajo oral tradition.

By analyzing a set of twenty-four songs sung by Hosteen Klah, Gorman connected nádleeh people and ceremonial philosophy via linguistic and comparative analysis of Navajo song. Spotting inconsistencies and bridging gaps in translation allowed Gorman to construct better understandings of how Navajos have thought about themselves, the world, and the universe over time: cultural truths and ways of knowing and being that had nearly been lost due to centuries of colonization and cultural theft. “There are ways we could revitalize our culture, language, and understandings of gender… through Indigenous artifacts that are sitting in museums gathering dust,” Gorman explains. These deeper understandings of gender allowed Gorman to further explore her own identity as a trans woman and as a nádleeh herself, understandings that her ancestors once freely possessed.

To Gorman, Hosteen Klah’s chantways are not simply pieces of the past, but keys to the present and the future: “[With access] to them, we can fill in gaps… [and see] how language itself has adapted and shifted based on needs over time.” 

And, while there is great beauty interacting with nádleeh wisdom of Hosteen Klah, there is injustice in Gorman’s having to travel to Germany to access her own cultural heritage. Reclaiming artifacts is not just about ownership; it’s about the ability to engage with cultural heritage: “We don’t just want our stuff back just because it belongs to us. We want to engage with them. It’s our history.” 

Families are invited to campus on Wednesday, November 16 at 4:00 PM to listen to Gorman’s talk, which will be held on campus in the Capen Room. Please check in at Reception first; you will be directed to the Capen Room from there.