In honor and memorial of Dr. Larry Emerson,
who was known to many of the students that were a part of TDK, as simply Chei

What does it mean to be a good human being?    

How do we live in harmony, balance, and beauty?

Tsedaak’aan Learning Community (TDK) emerged organically over time in response to the questions above. Most people say you just can't describe TDK, so we won't try much. Its quiet and  humble and off the radar, and we don't have a "plan" (and we actually prefer it this way). We are friends, relatives, and neighbors, and we are working together to support the restoration of relationship...with ourselves, with each other and with the Earth.

TDK is a learning community that evolved organically over the years out of the simple effort of simple folks to explore what it means to be a good human being and to restore hozhoin, which translates into a sense of being and living as humans in harmony, balance, and beauty.

Now, TDK mostly serves the local Dine' community and is home to numerous meetings, gatherings, and community projects. We built an adobe multi-purpose Sunhouse and a shadehouse, and have been reviving traditions and implementing techniques for natural living that can serve as a model for others to experience and learn from including swales, companion planting, traditional foods and medicines, a rocket stove, beehives, and a compost toilet. We follow natural cycles of learning by relating to seasons, earth, sky, sunrise, and sunset and promote a safe space from which to learn, think, be, feel, grow, and know.

Our efforts have been experiential, wholistic, natural, restorative, and relational, offering opportunities for non-modern being, learning, and knowing. We nurture kinship and community, and we are a place where learning never ends ... where life and learning are a participatory, 24/7 process, that Is likened to what a “traditional Indigenous multi-versity” might look and feel like .

We probably shouldn't even be writing about this online, but we do love it and hope you will keep us in  your thoughts and prayers.

Where?

Tsedaak’aan is a community on the Diné Nation. The Diné Nation is a sovereign nation and has its own political jurisdiction and laws, language, history, and culture. The Diné Nation is situated within what the Diné call the Four Sacred Mountains or
Dinétah. These mountains are Sisnaajinii (referred to in English as Mount Blanca near Alamosa, Colorado), Tsoodzil (referred to in English as Mount Taylor near Grants, New Mexico) Dook’o’oosl77 (referred to in English as San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona), and Dzi[ Dib'nitsaa (referred to in English as Hesperus Mountain near Durango, Colorado).

Tsedaak’aan is about 5000 ft above sea level. The land is a high desert plateau situated at the base of the southwestern Colorado Rocky Mountains (Cortez and Durango). Tsedaak’aan is the name of a monocline sandstone formation just north of Highway 64. The farming community around the monocline is called Tsedaak’aan east of Shiprock and west of Farmington, New Mexico. The community is located in what is referred to in English as the “Four Corners” area of the United States.

What?

TDK is an informal learning community that supports indigenous teaching and learning and indigenous ways of knowing. We are developing Indigenous traditional farming methods and indegenous permaculture to rethink and decolonize the practice of food survival and local food production and sustainability. We have built an adobe outhouse and compost toilet, traditional shadehouse, and a low-cost, multi-purpose adobe building known as the Sunhouse that is used for meetings, gatherings, workshops, as well as sleeping, eating and sharing. The round earthen Hoghan, where some of the gatherings take place, is a traditional Diné dwelling, ceremonial structure, and gathering place that embodies earth woman, plants, flowers, rain, sea, moisture, sacred corn, and other foods. The Hoghan and Hoghan teachings are central to Diné lifeways and world view.

How?

                       Principles:
TDK provides an immersion and an educational and learning experience that:
  • Follow natural cycles of learning by relating to seasons, earth, sky, sunrise, and sunset

  • Promotes a safe space from which to learn, think, be, feel, grow, and know

  • Is experiential, wholistic, natural, restorative and relational

  • Practices non modern being, learning, and knowing

  • Practices community, learning community, and participatory learning

  • Is a 24/7 process

  • Is likened to what a “traditional Indigenous multiversity”
    might look and feel like
Restoration of Kinship

A Ke'-based, safe, and nurturing place for community gatherings and meetings.

Diné Peacekeepers, Women in Circle, Men's Healing Circles, Youth Activitsts, The Walkers, Teacher's Forum, Traditional Weavers, Artisans, and Singers, Northern youth Council, Indigenous Researchers, etc
Intergenerational Learning

An indigenous hoghan-centered  process for teaching and learning.
  • Family Camps
  • Service Camps
  • Peace Camps
  • Hoghan Dialogues


Following natural protocols of living and being in what we could describe as an" indigenous multi-versity" learning model.
Language Revitalization

A  community-engaging opportunity to restore language and culture through real-life learning in real-life places linking youth with fluent elders, adults, and community wisdom-keepers.

Passing on the Diné language and culture to future generations through community-based learning.
Decolonization & Resiliency

A land-based, hands-on learning opportunity for exploring de-colonization and sharing models of resiliency.

Models include: natural water catchment, companion planting, traditional foods and herbal medicines, building with earth, compost toilets, rocket stoves,
seed-saving, bee-keeping, composting, and more.

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