H enry Greenberg and Georgia Greenberg. Carl Gorman 's World.
( A l buquerque: Univers ity of New M exico P r e s s , 1 984) 1 9 5 p p . ,
$45.00.
H enry a n d G eorgi a Greenberg w e a v e an interesting fabric w i t h t h e
s t o r y o f the life of C arl G o r m a n . The w arp threads g i v e insight i n t o the
history and b ackground of N a v aj o culture while the weft threads that
m o v e between the w arp tell us about C arl Gorman. The events of his life
a d d color a n d texture to the w arp. At times the weave is tight while at
others quite loose, sometimes with holes or gaps that seem to contradict.
Significant highlights add bright color or rough texture to the life of this
man who is artist, educator, soldi er, administrator, father, and husband.
A m o n g the colorful highlights is an early rebellious act of speaking the
forbidden N avajo l anguage at the Reboth Mission School. H e h a d been
sent there r ather than to a government school because his mother
thought the l atter would be too harsh for an eight year old. Punishment,
at the Reboth School, for his act of s p e aking N av aj o was to be chained in
a dark b asem ent and fed only bread and w ater for a week. Upon release,
instead o f conforming as expected, h e escaped, taking his cousin and
y o u n ger brother with him. The w al k home from the school over s n ow·
covered m ountains took three days. The surprised p arents listened to his
story with horror. They allowed C arl to remain at home but made the
other two return to school.
These two acts of rebelli o n : sp eaking N a v aj o when forbidden and
escaping fro m the school when expected to conform, offer a basis for
u n derstanding C arl Gorman. The first s p arked his life· l o n g interest i n
N a v aj o culture and the s e c o n d m ay have b e e n the seed of creative
development that led him to beco m e an artist. His fath er once obj ected to
him w asting time drawing pictures, but his m other encouraged him in
his art and also introduced him to classical music. The father' s support of
his escape fro m school m ay have been related to " T h e Long Walk, " an
i n famous period i n N av aj o history which had been told to him by his
father, C arl's grandfather.
At the c o m m a n d of Kit C arson, 7000 N av aj o s were rounded up and
m arched fro m Ft. Defiance to Bosque Redondo, 300 miles away. Two
thousand escaped but several h u n dred died enroute; 2000 died in the
camp of dysentery, pneumonia, and m alnutrition. Four y ears l ater,
General Sherman m et with the I n dians and agreed to return them to
their homeland. One p art of this agreement required I n dians between the
ages of six and sixteen be s ent to government or mission school. This is
why C arl had been sent to Reboth and why h e l ater went to the S anta Fe
I n dian School where his mother had gone. H ere h er interest in classical
music had begun.
C ar l ' s p arents lived comfort ably. His father h a d land, cattle, and two
32
Explo rations in Sights and Sounds No. 5 (Summer 1 985)
trading posts. His mother, a weav er, supplied the B abbitt Trading Post
with her rugs and those of women s h e trained to weave. Both of C ar l ' s
grandp arents w e r e leaders in the Navaj o community; his mother's father
was a noted j eweler in New M exico.
Gorman was not a good student; his interest was in sports. Upon
gradu ation fro m S anta Fe, h e received a certification instead of a
diploma. He returned to work on his father ' s ranch at the age of twenty. A
year l ater he m arried Adelle Brown and the following year their son
Rudy, to be know as R. C . , w a s born. C arl predicted R. C. would become a
great artist.
After w o r k i n g s e v er a l j o b s , C ar l b e c a m e a n i n t erpreter fo r t h e
Governm ent. Later C arl was fired, as w ere all N a v aj os , l e aving only
Anglos and bitter feelings among the N av aj o s . After being fired, C arl
volu nteered for the M arine C orps to get aw ay from it all. This event
became a bright color in his life fabric. H e helped organize the N avaj o
C o d e Talkers. Their codes, which w ere n ev er deciphered, helped turn the
tide of w ar against J ap a n . H e gained pride and s elf-respect through
developing these codes using language for which h e h a d been punished
as a student.
An incident at Gu adacanal made him more conscious of his cultural
background. A frien dly s ergeant asked w h at was his religion; he
answered, "Pres byteri an. " The s ergeant called that a " w hite man's
religion" and w anted to know about I n dian religion , asking C arl, "Are
you trying to be White Gorm an?" Much of the book, Carl Gorm a n 's
Wo rld, is about C arl's s e arch for a sense of self as a N a v aj o , an
understanding of his cultural b ackgr o u n d , a n d a quest for knowledge
about Navaj o religion.
Following the w ar, with his m arriage to Adelle dissolved, C arl enrolled
in the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. He encountered other N av aj os in
Los Angeles and with them began the Navaj o C l u b w hich consumed
much of his time. H e m arried an Anglo, whose father had at first
befriended him but who bitterly opposed the m arriage until the birth o f
their s o n . T h i s s o n , Kee, g r e w to be a precocious youn gster and was quite
talented. H e exhibited his p aintings with his father and was destined for
a bright future u ntil an auto accident snuffed out his life. This was
definitely a low s pot in the life of C arl Gorm an. U ntil this time h e had
been exhibiting and selling his work. After the death of Kee he stopped
painting for a long time. His first son, R. C . , had become well known as an
artist and p ersuaded his father to return to p ainting. Together they held
several shows. As h e p ainted again, C arl became active as a teacher and
arts administrator. H e helped develop a program o f l n dian Studies at the
University of C alifornia at D avis and became an important l ecturer o n
N av aj o C u lture. H e also s e r v e d in a n u m ber o f positions w i t h the N a v aj o
Tribe, initiating or becoming p art of s everal research proj ects to preserve
Explo rations in Sights and Sounds No. 5 ( S u m m er 1 985)
33
m u c h of the N a v aj o culture.
The story o f C ar! Gorman is the story of an artist whose life h a s been in
s e arch of self-dignity; of teaching y o u n g N av aj o , as well as other
I n di a n s , the im portance oftheir culture; and of promoting the i mportance
of living in h armony with the n atural environment.
- E ugene Grigsby, Jr.
Ari z o n a State Univ ersity
S u s a n Guyett e . Community-Based Research: A Handbook for
Na t i v e A m ericans. ( L o s A n ge l e s : A m e ric a n I n d i a n Stu d i e s
C e nt e r , U n i v e r s ity o f C a l i fo r n i a , 1 9 83) x v i i , 3 5 8 p p . , $ 1 5 . 0 0
paper.
Co m m u n i ty-Based Researc h h a s a clear s e n s e of purpose: "This
h a n db o o k i s intended as a practical research guide for an era of self­
determination in c o m m unity development" (xvii ) . The author seeks to
provide the means for research to b e planned, designed, and implem ented
b y c o m m u nity members with the research priorities set "by the com­
m unity that lives the socio-economic conditi o n s , rather th an by a n
outsider w h o studies the c o m m unity for inform ational purposes" ( 2 ) .
F o l l o w i n g a discu s sion of comm unity development research purposes,
the a u th o r provides clear b u t dull i n troductory c h a p ters for begi nners on
doing applied social science. These include ch apters on the n ature of
researc h , needs a s s e s s m e n t s , survey research , evaluation, social sta­
tisti c s , a n d c u ltural arts . The l atter outlines the use of tape recordi ngs of
oral h i s tory and m u s i c and the use of still photogr a p h y , fi l m , and video
for data collection and record keeping.
C o ncise, practical ch apters describe fa miliar nondescript applied
social science research with strong echoes of standard textbooks, such as
H u bert Blalock's So cial Sta tis tics and Borg and Gall ' s Ed u c a t i o n a l
Res e a rc h , which are cited a s i n termediate texts. Indeed, the author's
m aj or dilem m a is m atching the sophistication of the text with the abilities
and the needs of the reader s . A student of the social sciences will have
used the i n termediate texts in one of m an y courses on methods and
theories in the social sciences or educati on during the third or fo urth year
of college. A genuinely unschooled, community-b ased researcher, without
previous experience with for m a l , social science research techniq ues, will
fi nd this beginner's textbook rather challenging, albeit a worth while
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Exp lo rations in Siu h ts and S o u n ds No. 5 ( S u m m er 1 985)