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At a church and former school on the Navajo Nation, century-old buildings house both history and healing

3/24/2023

15 Comments

 
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Pictured: A rainbow spans the length of Navajo Gospel Mission's 21-acre plot in the Hard Rock, AZ community of the Navajo Nation. Image credits to volunteer Erica.
​The history of the grounds of a church and school site previously known as the Navajo Gospel Mission runs deep. From its origins as the home of Navajo families living traditionally in hogans, to its fifty years as a Baptist missionary-run boarding school, to its current presence in the Hard Rock, AZ community as a church and gathering place - its story is one that reflects the complexities of the twentieth and twenty-first century Indigenous experience.
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Pictured: Rocks that once served as the backyard of traditional hogans, one of which belonged to the family who gifted the Stokelys the acreage on which the Navajo Gospel Mission was built. Image credits to volunteer Erica.
Before the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Stokely - Baptist missionaries from California - to Hard Rock in the 1930s, the land around the rocks pictured above was home to several Navajo (Diné) families whose material and spiritual lives were deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Hogans - the traditional dwelling place of the Diné - dotted the landscape, sheep herds roamed the rocky ridges of the area, and families lived the way of Hózhóójí - the wellness philosophy of balance and harmony that anchors Diné spiritual practices.

When the Stokelys arrived to the area amidst the ongoing Great Depression seeking to establish a mission and school, a local family offered several acres of land towards their efforts. The land the family gifted to the Stokelys would go on to become the Navajo Gospel Mission and, eventually, the Navajo Christian Academy, a boarding school for Navajo children. As with many Native boarding schools, the experiences were extremely difficult and traumatizing for some students. Other alumni of the Academy living in the area have reported positive experiences. Though the school closed in the mid-1980s, the site continues to host church services, and has for many years served as a hub for community events and volunteer groups such as those carried out by the Tipi Raisers.

In many ways, the site is representative of a complex collision of cultures in the twentieth century American Southwest and the difficult truths which drew forth from it. However, its evolution into a community gathering space that now hosts Hopi and Navajo families, elders and youth from all generations and backgrounds and volunteer groups from across the country represents a hopeful vision of unity, collaboration, and service as part of a shared future.

These twenty-one acres are now the home of bike repair workshops, service projects in support of local Navajo and Hopi families, lodging for volunteer groups (including three Tipi Raisers groups since September 2022), community dinners, and more. In this way, the land and buildings here have become central to local life, rooting and uplifting the community in a shared spirit of gathering that has been evident to us during each visit.
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Pictured: 1950s school portraits of Navajo Christian Academy students, currently displayed on the walls of the main community building at the site.
The deep history which permeates the walls of the nearly one-hundred year-old structures at the Navajo Gospel Mission is written on the faces of the Navajo elders and students depicted in photos that line the halls of each building. And just as these photographs have weathered and aged, so too have the buildings that house them. Leaky roofs and faulty shingles have recently threatened the integrity of several on-site buildings, prompting the site’s Diné caretakers to request the support of the Tipi Raisers and our volunteers with repairs as part of our March 12-17 Service Trip to the Hopi and Navajo Nations.​

Our volunteer crew, who were also lodging at the site and sharing cross-cultural connection and community meals under the roof of the main building, worked last week on the roofs of the three buildings in most need of repairs. After several days of removing aging shingles and exposed nails, installing new shingles and roll-roofing, and sealing up leaky areas, the three buildings are now prepared to more effectively withstand rain and wind for years to come. This project would not have been possible without the beautiful partnership that took place between local Diné friends who steward the site, skilled volunteers from Colorado, Texas, Pine Ridge and New Jersey who offered their expertise and heart work, and generous supporters from around the world whose contributions empowered us to obtain the materials needed to secure each roof. We remain committed to working with the stewards of this site to continue to restore these historic buildings.
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In the Gif Above: Before and after photos of three community buildings on which volunteers performed repairs during the March 12-17, 2023 service trip to the Hopi & Navajo Nations.
With each shingle laid, with each pause as a non-Native volunteer contemplated the lives of the Navajo children depicted in decades-old school portraits, with each echo of laughter across this high desert landscape as new friends connected under the now secure roof of a community dining room - the way forward through a complex history became clearer and clearer: we are so much stronger together than we are apart.
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Pictured: Volunteers from Colorado and community members from Pine Ridge, including a Gen7 youth, remove old shingles atop the community building at the Navajo Gospel Mission during the March 12-17, 2023 Tipi Raisers service trip.
15 Comments
Charles Houston
7/22/2023 11:33:57 pm

I was the last non-Navajo Pastor to live full-time in the "Community House" with my family at Hardrock from 1989- 1992. I was there initially to hold Sunday and mid-week services, for the non-Navajo staff, and Navajos on the compound. Some who had been there for many years, working to train the local Navajo Family Camps to "take-over" (if you will) the work of evangelism. My other joy included working with four of the local key Navajo pastors, encouraging and training them to take the leadership role the that non-Navajos had done for so long. It was great to see the photos by The Tipi Raisers, showing what was done on the buildings and our former house, and repairing them for the "DINE" who later did indeed, took our places.

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Christen Mitchell
8/17/2023 01:46:01 pm

I lived at NGM from 1976 to 1978. My parents were the dorm parents for the girls dorm

Reply
Angela Witherspoon
10/22/2023 01:23:19 am

I lived in the dorms during that time period were your parents Tim and Darcy Gill?

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RAYMOND D HELZERMAN
12/20/2023 12:20:38 am

Was your name Angela James when you were in the girl's dorm?

Christen Mitchell
5/6/2024 06:28:57 am

Hello Angela, I'm so sorry I didn't ever get notification of your response to my post so I'm just now seeing this! Yes my parents are Tim and Darcie Gill and my mom says that you were one of the girls that were kind to me included me, thank you for that! Where are you at now and how is life treating you?

RAYMOND D HELZERMAN
12/16/2023 06:51:56 pm

We were in Boys Dorm from 1972-1977. Our names are Ray and Karen Helzerman. We remember your parents. And I think we have a picture of you.

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Andi Penner link
4/23/2024 11:52:38 am

Thank you for posting those photos and an update of the restoration work being done at Hardrock. In 1985-86, I lived in Pinon, Arizona, and worked with Navajo Gospel Mission with one other white missionary couple and two Navajo pastors at the Pinon Gospel Church. We attended the NGM "Candidate School" and "Days of Prayer" at Hardrock. Even then, it felt anachronistic--colonnade of trees leading up to the stone church; mostly older, anglo missionaries. I was happy to be "stationed" at Pinon, instead, and after a while wondered why we were even needed when Navajo pastors and parishoners were doing the work and needed services that I, then a 26-year-old missionary wife with a baby, was not equipped to provide--electricity & water, employment & empowerment. But that time in Pinon changed my life, and I am grateful to the Navajo people I met there and still think about. We stayed with NGM for several more years, doing campus ministry at NAU in Flagstaff until the early 1990s. Many years later, I taught at San Juan College in the Four Corners area; I lived 5 min. from the northeastern edge of Dinetah. A' he'e to the people and to the land, always in my heart.

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Raymond Helzerman
4/23/2024 05:07:24 pm

I have the 1986 calendar from NGM. I see your picture. We were at the mission from 1972-1977 in the boys dorm. Did you know Jackson Williams?

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Andi Penner
4/23/2024 05:21:11 pm

Ya' at' eh, Raymond! Yes, of course--we lived next to him in Pinon. He was one of the Navajo pastors, along with Nelson James, at the church there. Is he still living? I'd love to see the NGM calendar--I don't ever remember seeing a copy. Are you on Facebook? If so, you can find me there and send me a DM so we can continue this conversation there and maybe exchange email addresses.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=587445199

Ray Helzerman
4/23/2024 10:31:24 pm

I could not open the Facebook link. I am on Facebook
Ray Helzerman
Went to Fowlerville High School

Lives in Citrus Heights, California

From Fowlerville, Michigan

Joined April 2009

Reply
Phil glason
4/29/2024 04:15:27 pm

My parents worked at hard rock mission from 1950 until 1980. Fred & Evelyn Gleason.I graduated from the school in 2968

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Andi Penner link
10/21/2024 11:10:09 am

I remember your parents. I think they were still at Hard Rock when I lived in Pinon, but maybe they had moved to Flagstaff/NGM HQ by then. They were industrious people!

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Brian Hogan
10/21/2024 10:52:50 am

My wife Louise and I were the last Boys Dorm Parents at Navajo Christian Academy. 1987-1989. We had 15 boys who were the greatest! We have kept in touch with some of the Hardrock families we were especially close to. Especially the Helen Tishie, the Tahes (Lena and Tony), Martin Whitehair and the Roberson clan, . . . miss the Hardrock folks so much. Went on to Mongolia and God used all we'd learned from the Dine.
Sorry to report that Linda Wisdom, principle of N.C.A. died two months ago.
Brian Hogan

Reply
Andi Penner link
10/21/2024 11:06:49 am

Hi, Brian. Thank you for the news about Linda. I had heard from another former NGM-er about her death. You mention the Whitehairs; I wonder if Martin is related to Jimmy & Maggie Whitehair. I believe they lived somewhere between Pinon and Hardrock? I always enjoyed their visits to our home in Pinon. Do you know anything about them these days? I believe you and Louise and I (and Doug) were in candidate school the same summer--is that right? Hope you're both well. Where are you now? I'm in Albuquerque, NM. Hello to Louise for me.

Reply
Karie Dunks
5/1/2025 01:00:23 pm

To All,

So interesting I stumbled on to this. My Dad Bill Dunks and my Uncle Allen Burwell were board members. I knew the Gleason's really well and also Jackson Williams. As a kid, my mom dropped he and I off at Disneyland for the day, which was really interesting, but fun. I used to hunt and ride motorcycles at the mission with the Dologans and Lucases....What fun times!

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