Carefully rolling her long, black hair into a bun and wrapping it four times—twice on each side—and tying it with white yarn, Krystal peered at herself critically in the mirror. Her pleated, velvet skirt and blouse, woven sash belt, and concho displayed designs in the deep, rich colors of turquoise and terracotta. She then slipped on leather knee-high moccasins and threw a shawl around her shoulders.

 

POTTERY MAKING: Holbrook’s students are nationally 
known for their skill in pottery making.My family would be pleased to see me in my Navajo clothes, Krystal thought. I’m glad I’m allowed to wear my native dress here, even though I don’t do it often.She then grabbed her textbooks off the desk and hurried to class.

 

Unlike most other schools off the reservations in the U.S. state of Arizona, Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School not only allows but encourages its students—most from the Navajo tribe—to embrace their Native American culture and keep alive their traditions.

 

“Even though academics are very important, Holbrook’s main mission is to teach the students about Jesus,” says principal Janet Claymore-Ross. “But we also promote respect for their native culture.”

 

Claymore-Ross, a member of the Lakota tribe and the first Native American principal since the school was established in 1946, says that many of the values held by Native American people are the same as those cherished by Christians.

 

“They value honesty and respect for each other as well as for nature,” she says. “If we really are Christians, 
if we really follow what Jesus says 
in the Bible, our beliefs blend with much of what they have learned.”

 

Holbrook Indian School—HIS, for short—is a K-12 Adventist boarding mission school for Native Americans situated on 70 secluded acres about 90 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, and 225 miles northeast of Phoenix. Almost all of its 64 students come from reservations in Arizona and other surrounding states and are not members of the Adventist Church. Some, such as Krystal, arrive on the school campus as young as 4 years old. Ten years later and now a sophomore, Krystal is still there—and thoroughly enjoying her experience.

 

“I like it a lot; I liked it even when I first came,” Krystal says. “At home there was no one my age to play with, and here it was fun staying in the dorm and eating different foods. The school has lots of activities, the classes are fun, and we go on field trips, like to the Petrified Forest or to the park to play games and have a picnic.”

 

Krystal’s parents separated when she was young, and her grandmother—whom she stays with during home leaves and weekends—believed that Holbrook would provide Krystal with stability, nurturing, and education. Although not an Adventist, her grandmother was also confident that the school’s values would not conflict with her own and that it would instill pride for Krystal’s cultural heritage.

 

 “Krystal speaks her native language and is able to plant and grind corn,” says vice principal and registrar Shannon Brown. “The Navajo culture keeps alive many of the ancient traditions. Our students have to learn how to dye wool and weave cloth before they can graduate. So Krystal can do all the things expected of a traditional native woman.”

 

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING: 
Holbrook’s administration building houses both offices and classrooms. 
Most important, Krystal has learned about Jesus at Holbrook—that she has a Savior who loves and cares for her. Although she has not yet made a decision for baptism, she says she is “working her way there.”

 

Holbrook is accredited through the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities. Its 18 full-time certified teachers and administrators provide instruction in the sciences, liberal arts, mathematics, communication, and technology, such as welding and small-engine repair. The students are also nationally known for their skill in pottery making, a class currently taught by former student Lynessa Stanley. The primary mission of the faculty and 14 support staff, however, is to help prepare the students for a life of service to others and for eternal life with Jesus.

 

“We have baptisms every year,” Brown says. “Some of the students do it because their friends are doing it, but most do it because they really believe.”

 

She adds, “Baptism makes use of ceremony, and the Native American community is very ceremony-based. When they’re baptized the students say, ‘Now I need to live my life as a Christian.’ It’s their passage into this new life.”

 

Holbrook is supported by the Pacific Union Conference, and is the only union-supported school in the Adventist Church’s North American Division. The union subsidy covers about 25 percent of the school’s operating budget. Other funds are provided through tuition, room, and board—$75 a month for those in high school; $65 a month for elementary—but most families can’t afford to pay it.

 

“Our operating budget depends mostly on donations and money left to us in wills,” Claymore-Ross says. “We basically go on trust and faith that the Lord will supply the money.”

 

And He obviously does. To exemplify God’s care, Claymore-Ross tells of a time she asked the associate business manager, Eunie Banuag, “How are we doing?”

 

“We really need to pray,” Banuag responded, then added, “We’re going to have to take some money out of [one area of the operating fund] in order to meet payroll.”

 

“Is there any other way?” Claymore-Ross asked.

 

A LONGTIME STUDENT: Krystal, now a sophomore at Holbrook 
Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, 
has been a boarding student there since she was 4 years old.“I don’t think so.”

 

“Then let me get my mail and then we can prepare the paperwork to do that.”

 

Claymore-Ross picked up a handful of letters and opened the top one. Inside was a check for $30,000—the exact amount needed.

 

“It just continues to be like that,” she explains.

 

The development and public relations director, Barbara Willis, corroborates these experiences.

 

“Sometimes a check comes in the mail on the very day you need it,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a phone call. That person may be contemplating a gift, and maybe they’ve been contemplating it for a week, but it comes on the very day that you need it. It’s a daily faith walk.”

 

Most of the students at Holbrook come from low-income and single-parent or no-parent homes, bringing with them what Claymore-Ross describes as “severe emotional and abandonment issues.” Physical and emotional abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, and violent gangs are everyday realities for these youth, she says.

 

“Alcoholism is definitely a big issue,” Claymore-Ross says. “Last year we hired a vice principal [Shannon Brown] who has a school psychology degree, and it’s made a huge difference in the way the kids are getting counseling. They are coming to her for help. It’s a big improvement.”

 

Brown concurs that the challenges at Holbrook can seem daunting.

 

“A lot of our parents send their children here because they’ve gotten involved in drugs and gangs,” Brown says. “Parents know that when their children are here, their children are safe.”

 

Describing Holbrook as a school of second chances, Brown explains, “Some of the kids who come had gotten involved either with drugs or alcohol or got into fights. One of our boys came from public school, and he was on probation for alcohol use. He told me he wanted to make a new start. ‘I’m going to be clean’ he said—and he has stayed clean. His grades are good. He’s a junior this year, and he’s already expressing interest in Adventist colleges.

 

“We have our success stories and our not-so-successful stories. But we hold on to the successful ones,” she says.

 

Math and Bible teacher Arthur Miller has taught at Holbrook for 11 years. He says he didn’t want to do the “average, everyday thing. I wanted to do something where I can share my faith on a daily basis and really make a difference.”

 

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Janet Claymore-Ross, a member of the Lakota tribe, is the first Native American principal since the school was established in 1946.“This is definitely a mission field,” says Miller, recipient of the 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Alumni Awards Foundation. “Most of our kids aren’t Christians, let alone Adventists.”

 

The school deans see some of the challenges more directly than other staff. Associate boys’ dean Sam Hubbard, who has worked at the school for three years, says the spread in ages is a unique feature.

 

“High school kids have different problems from the little ones,” Hubbard 
says. “But they’re all learning about Jesus.”

 

Hubbard describes the dorm setup for those in the younger elementary grades as more “open and community based.” The older students live in individual rooms, as in a typical school dormitory.

 

Addressing short-term realities, Hubbard says, “We may not see a lot of results right away in the spiritual and emotional growth of the students, but in the long-term, their experience here will make a difference in their lives.”

 

The challenges as well as the successes of the school are not new. Idaho Conference Education superintendent Paulette Jackson served as Holbrook principal for more than three years—July 2003 to December 2006. Although she sees the school’s mission as multifaceted, she says one of its prime objectives is “to provide a safe place for kids to learn about Jesus”—and the school seems to accomplish that objective.

 

“We just never had any trouble on campus,” Jackson says. “Gangs are the biggest problem on the reservations, but even though we took some kids in who were trying to get out of gangs, we never had any trouble on campus. They were very safe.”

 

Jackson believes another reason parents send their children to Holbrook is that they are free to retain their culture within the school environment. “They could wear their native clothing any time they wanted to,” Jackson says. “We taught native history, and it was incorporated throughout the curriculum…. Even when we taught them about God, we taught them in a way that related to nativeness.”

 

Jackson admits, though, that Holbrook can’t solve all the problems. “There are only one or two Adventist pastors for 300,000 people on the Navajo reservation,” she says. “They have no youth programs; they have nowhere for these kids to go for support once they leave Holbrook. It’s very discouraging…. Sometimes after they graduate the students come back to visit. They’ll help out in the cafeteria, stay in a guest room. It’s a comfortable place for them. They feel like it’s their home. It’s a great place.”

 

ACADEMIC AND SPIRITUAL MISSION:Holbrook’s 18 full-time certified teachers and administrators provide instruction in the sciences, liberal arts, mathematics, communication, and technology such as welding and small-engine repair. The school’s primary mission, however, is to help prepare the students for a life of service to others and for eternal life with Jesus.Principal Claymore-Ross, who holds a doctorate degree in Educational Administration and whose husband, Duane, also teaches at the school, says several options are available to Holbrook graduates.

 

“Some go on to Adventist colleges, but most of these kids go back to the reservation,” she says. “They find work as auto mechanics, welders, they can become doctors—everything that a person does on the outside can be done on the reservations. They have community colleges on the reservations, so they can go to college there.

 

“They also see military service as a very good choice to make. It pays for their education, and it’s very structured. Native American people have been brought up to respect the military because their warrior society is very well respected.”

 

Witnessing to and helping those in the local communities have strengthened the school’s image with its neighbors. As part of Holbrook’s curriculum, faculty members transport students into town every Friday afternoon to pick up trash, do yard work, and read to children in the public school kindergarten class.

 

“Because of this, people in the community feel very good about Holbrook,” Miller says.

 

Faculty member Lowell Jenks and a group of students travel one hour each Sabbath morning to worship with people who are keeping Saturday as the Sabbath but who are not Adventists. The school is planning to hold an evangelistic series there this summer.

 

Pacific Union Conference associate education superintendent Thambi Thomas sees Holbrook as a success story.

 

“The children here come from challenging backgrounds; in some cases families are almost nonexistent,” Thomas says. “I talked with one young woman who told me her parents are divorced. ‘Whom do you stay with when not at the school?’ I asked her. ‘I stay at my grandma’s.’ ‘Do you like it here?’ I asked. ‘I love it. People here care about me.’

 

“For kids growing up in a dysfunctional home or where the family structure is not strong, Holbrook is a haven,” Thomas says. “There is a deep commitment on the part of the teachers. I take my hat off to them.”

 

Holbrook students, such as 8-year-old Adrian, overwhelmingly express love and appreciation for the school. This young man, however, is philosophical about his experience there.

 

“I play around and sometimes get into trouble,” he admits candidly, “but it’s a good school; I really like it here.” Although his favorite things include pottery and physical education classes, he stresses, “I think [the school is] good because you learn about Jesus here. I like that.”

 

For more information about Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, go towww.hissda.org, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call 928-524-6845.