KJZZ's Fronteras Desk: Changing Woman

The Nizhoni Girls are redefining what it means to be Navajo. They're shaking down their assimilated ways in their songs and holding onto key Navajo beliefs in their activism.

Like thousands of other Navajos, Haley Laughter was raised Mormon and had to seek out her people’s spiritual teachings. Today she bridges that cultural gap that so many young Navajos are trying to leap across.

Jeneda Benally is making music that empowers indigenous youth because she wants her daughters to grow up in a world where they feel strong and powerful. She and her brother just released an album called “Fight Like A Woman.”

Meet Navajo Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty. Crotty, whose middle name means “warrior,” has started her own #MeToo movement — without the hashtags. She’s confronted her colleagues and has written policies about the violence against women that pervades her culture.

Meet Navajo historian Jennifer Denetdale. Through her story and the book she wrote about her great-great-great grandparents, better understand how the power of Navajo women has been repressed.  

The first episode of Changing Woman focuses on the Navajo coming of age ceremony for girls, one of the most important and sacred rituals is experiencing a resurgence today. Hear parts of the songs and the rituals from the kinaaldá and learn how powerful an impact it can have on a young woman.