Page High alumna teaches Navajo Shoe Game

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PAGE – Prescott College student Chyenne R. Klemme met with students from Tse’ Yaato’ High School on a warm winter day to learn about and play the Navajo Shoe Game. 

This traditional game is played only in the winter and has great significance to the Diné. Klemme, a Page High alumna, explained that many of the core beliefs held by the Diné stem from the Shoe Game including the separation of male and female, night and day, and good and evil. 

Klemme is a sophomore at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona. She is currently exploring indigenous cultures through an independent study course she designed herself. 

Her study of the Shoe Game included collecting the necessary items needed to play the game – yucca stems, a tapping stick and the yucca ball – using traditional Navajo methods. Her mentor, Carlos Begay, is teaching her the ways of the Diné to further her education and understanding of her Diné heritage.