Since there is much repetition of simple syllables, it can be easy for anyone to learn. We hear key words in the Navajo language, which help express the setting.
Story tellers can use unfamiliar language if there is repetition and context.
My experience in telling these stories hundreds of times, is that the use of the Navajo language in this way works fine with Navajo, Anglo, Hispanic, and even Mexican audiences. I do tell the story in Spanish instead of English sometimes, or even with a mixture of the three languages, if I think the audience will understand it best that way. The story of Ma'ii lends itself well to discussions of stranger danger, and the importance of making friends carefully. In this story, Saynday, the first man, tricks the prairie dogs to get a meal. I adapted it to a Navajo setting in order to have a stranger-danger story that is not exactly the tradition of the Navajo or any othe group, to eliminate restrictions in when and where the story can be told.