Davina Two Bears

Yá’á’tééh, hello, my name is Davina Two Bears and I am Diné (Navajo). My clan is Tódich’íi’nii, “Bitter Water Clan,” born for the Táchii’nii, “Red Running into the Water Clan.” I come from northern Arizona. I am currently a doctoral student in the Archaeology and Social Context PhD Program with a Minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. 

My dissertation research focuses on the history and cultural memories of a Navajo Indian Boarding School, the Old Leupp Boarding School (1909-1942), which currently exists as a historic Navajo archaeological site in Old Leupp, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. The Old Leupp Boarding School was one of two majorNavajo Indian Boarding Schools located on the western side of the Navajo Reservation in the early 20th century, yet it's existence and contribution to early Navajo education has never been thoroughly researched and documented, although memories associated with the Old Leupp Boarding School exist in the oral history of the local communities. I am interested in what constituted the daily lives of  Navajo children, and how they resisted and maintained their Navajo identity, language and culture despite the United States government's attempts to assimilate them. My research incorporates archival research and oral history interviews with Navajo elders.

For the future, I hope to teach anthropology, archaeology, and/or Native American Indigenous Studies courses at the university level, publish, and to do meaningful community-based anthropological and archaeological research and/or other heritage management projects with my people on the Navajo Reservation.