The Quest for Knowledge

BY LORI GILBERT

Herman Roanhorse voluntarily left the Navajo reservation in Arizona at the age of 10 in 1950 to attend the Intermountain Indian School for Navajos in Brigham City, Utah.

He only returned to his Arizona home to visit family, but he did register his six children as Navajo.

That lineage made it possible for his granddaughter, Stanislaus State sophomore Kaitlyn Nannie, to earn a scholarship from the Navajo Nation for the second consecutive year. This year’s award, for $7,000, honors Chief Manuelito, Hastiin Ch’ilhaajiin (1818-1893), who encouraged the Navajo people to seek education and protect and preserve their tradition and culture.

“When I read the letter, my heart was so full,” said Nannie, 20, a business administration major.

Nannie is following her grandfather’s quest for knowledge on unceded lands of another native tribe, the Yokuts. Stanislaus State honors the ancient tribe members and its descendants as it pursues its mission to provide higher education for today’s students.

Kaitlyn Nannie learned about the scholarship when her cousins were awarded them, but she was the first to apply among her siblings after graduating from Turlock’s Pitman High School.

“I was proud of her for grasping the tools that were before her,” said her mother, Rebecca Nannie, a budget analyst for Stan State’s University Police Department and executive assistant to Chief of Police Clint Strode.

Growing up, Kaitlyn Nannie didn’t know a lot about her Navajo heritage.

“I heard stories about how my grandfather went to boarding school, and about his mom and how many children she had — eight,” Kaitlyn Nannie said. “I remember visiting the reservation when I was little.”

Rebecca Nannie’s memories are of annual summer trips to see her grandmother. “I felt like I really understood my father more when he was home,” Rebecca Nannie said. “He is very simple, very methodical, very kind. He’s a very peaceful man. I understood that more. I appreciated that.”

Herman Roanhorse chose to leave that serenity as a child.

Learning is a value that’s been passed on from her Navajo grandfather.

“My uncle talked about how nice it was at boarding school, and I got excited,” Roanhorse said.

He was homesick, and cried every night for the first three months, he said. He and his Navajo classmates were forced to give up their lifestyles and native language.

Abandoning their life was a choice forced on them by American society and leaders, Rebecca Nannie said. But her father voices no regrets, other than wishing he could still speak the language.

He is proud of the life he led, working as a welder and raising six children.

That his granddaughter is following in his footsteps in pursuing an education makes him smile.

“I’m proud of her, that she wants to go to school and wants to learn,” Roanhorse said. Kaitlyn chose Stan State because of its student-to-professor ratio and the College of Business Administration’s academic advising for new students.

When she started at Stan State, she began what she hopes is a budding business career with TJ Maxx, where she works in the Turlock store.

Although she’s still taking general education courses, she’s found them beneficial.

“I’m acquiring new skills. Some of the general education classes, like communications, are really helping me perform better,” Kaitlyn Nannie said. “I’m really excited to start my next year in school and learn more about business.”

Learning is a value that’s been passed on from her Navajo grandfather, who left all that he knew as a child and in recent years, is re-embracing his roots.

“I tend to forget the importance of it, because I get caught up in work and I’m so busy,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s something to be proud of. It’s important to take a step back and remember our family history, my grandpa’s history.”

From Left to Right: Kaitlyn Nannie and her grandfather Herman Roanhorse.