Event draws family, friends, state leaders and Zah's former students
Peterson Zah was remembered Tuesday as a visionary leader who not only helped to shape Arizona State University to be more inclusive but also laid the groundwork for the future of the Navajo Nation.
Zah was the first president of the Navajo Nation and a graduate of Arizona State University. The celebration of life held for him at the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus drew family, friends, state leaders, Zah’s former co-workers and students from ASU.
Zah, who led the Navajo Nation from 1990 to 1994 and was a special advisor to the ASU president, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from ASU in 1963 and was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree of Humane Letters from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College in 2005.
Zah’s experiences as a student in the 1960s, when there was only a handful of Indigenous students, helped inform his role as ASU’s first special advisor to the president on American Indian initiatives, a post he was recruited to by then-ASU President Lattie Coor in 1995 to help improve the retention of Native students. He served until 2011 and saw the Native student population double.
Bryan Brayboy, the current senior advisor to the ASU president on American Indian affairs, said that Zah was focused on student success while he was at ASU.
“It was his first concern, always,” Brayboy said.
“We have 72 Indigenous faculty and 4,000 Indigenous students. That starts with Pete. It is a continuation of his vision for what this place can be and should be.
“It is a start for us and not an end for us. We are constantly thinking about him and ensuring those faculty and students are healthy and whole.”
ASU President Michael Crow said Zah helped to set ASU on the path toward being a New American University, inclusive of everybody and accepting of Indigenous knowledge and culture.
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