Rose Jakub

Rose contributed to the creation of the script for the Navajo (Diné) language and is the voice behind the female Diné recordings. She is also an active member of the Lingua Bear board and participates in numerous community organizations. Employed by the largest school district in Salt Lake City, she mentors and teaches Navajo. Rose also works at the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake and serves as a Navajo interpreter for LDS conferences. In 2019, she received an Award for Outstanding Leadership from the state of Utah.

“I am a member of the Navajo Nation. We are called Diné “The People”. I am Tábááhí (Edge Water Clan), born for Tódich’ii’nii (Bitter Waters Clan). My paternal grandfather is of the Hashtł ‘izhnii (Mad Clan) and my maternal grandfather is Táchii’nii (Red Steek in the Water Clan). I was born in a small community called Chilchinbeto, in Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation—Navajo is my first language. I attended day school in my community up to the 3rd grade, and then went to boarding school in Kayenta, Arizona. In the 7th grade I began an LDS program in Snow Lake, Arizona, where I lived with a Mormon family and finished my undergraduate studies. I then served an LDS mission in Arizona and New Mexico, and after, worked for LDS Social Services on the Reservation. Later on, I attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and am now a translator for the LDS church as well as a mentor for our native American students in the Granite School District. I have two wonderful children, my daughter Shándíín and my son Denver. She lives in New York City and he lives here in Salt Lake City, Utah.”