A Bilagana Boy among the Navajo

(Paperback)

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How did a white kid like me come to live on the Navajo Reservation in the 1960s

In 1965, six-year-old Jay is witness to his mother's affair and mental breakdown after his father's lengthy military deployment. After his parents' divorce, Jay must unwillingly live with his mother and new stepfather, a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona.

From 1967 to 1971, Jay is a "bilagana," the Navajo term for white boy, to his new friends and bullies alike on the reservation. While trying to avoid his stepfather's abuse and pending adoption he dreams of moving back to live with his father, he escapes to the hills around Window Rock and joins the Boy Scouts and a Navajo Little League baseball team. His neighbors, the Begay's, welcome and immerse him in Navajo culture and visits to their elders at their remote Hogan, while the Jackson family teaches Jay to become a real cowboy on a Navajo ranch. As he searches for a purpose and attempts to find a path back to his father, Jay knows that he will have to grow up fast on the reservation.

This memoir follows Jay's misadventures as he navigates being a privileged outsider in a group of both Navajo and white kids who are struggling to understand their place in a world shaped by racism, poverty, and 100 years of federal Indian policy. Decades later, he has come to grips with how those four years there transformed his life.

Author Bio

Jay Jones is the new author of the book, "A Bilagana Boy among the Navajo." In this true story, he chronicles his four years living as a white kid on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Window Rock, Arizona. As the son of two Air Force veterans, he was born in Tachikawa, Japan and lived across the United States. After a turbulent childhood, Jay grew up quickly and joined the Marine Corps at 17 and served in Bermuda before receiving an honorable discharge. He has worked as a pizza and short order cook, professional photographer, security guard, fire alarm salesman, employment counselor, drugstore manager trainee, hotel front desk clerk, bar manager, restaurant manager, disk jockey, beauty pageant MC, financial advisor, investment wholesaler, volunteer, and more. While working, Jay obtained his degree in Business Management and retired after 33 years as a Chartered Financial Consultant sales executive. He lives at Dove Mountain near Tucson, and his happy place is reading by the pool with his wife Liz in the Southern Arizona heat. Jay may also be golfing, traveling, or mixing mean cocktails while cooking.