{"id":565375,"date":"2018-04-22T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T06:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=565375"},"modified":"2018-04-23T08:25:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T14:25:17","slug":"walking-in-two-worlds-11-year-old-family-keep-navajo-language-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/walking-in-two-worlds-11-year-old-family-keep-navajo-language-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking in two worlds: 11-year-old, family keep Navajo language alive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p>

From left, Conner, Tyler, Amanda, Emily and Evans Bennallie in their living room. Tyler is showing off one of his Lego creations.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tyler Bennallie, 11, sprawls on the floor of his family\u2019s mobile home on the Navajo Nation in Fort Defiance, Arizona, while his baby sister bounces on his back. He doesn\u2019t mind when 1-year-old Emily plays horsey on him, or when she babbles loudly in his ear, or when she interrupts his efforts to talk about his favorite things, like Iron Man Legos.<\/p>\n

A tall, kind-faced boy with dark-framed glasses and a buzz cut, Tyler doesn\u2019t even object when Emily grabs his prized \u201cDiary of a Wimpy Kid\u201d books. His brothers, Conner, 4, and Bryson, 6, meanwhile play with his Lego Super Heroes — his most treasured possessions — which could be headless, legless or MIA by the time the two get done. \u201cThey usually destroy all my stuff,\u201d Tyler says.<\/p>\n

He lives with his family on the Navajo Nation, a 27,000-square-mile expanse of high plains and desert in New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, a region the size of West Virginia. Many of the Din\u00e9 (\u201cthe people,\u201d in Navajo) live in remote communities separated by miles of desolate country. Families grow up in hogans and homes without running water, electricity or plumbing. The closest grocery store might be 40 miles away.<\/p>\n

\"The

John R. Roby \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p>

The Navajo Nation<\/p><\/div>\n

The Bennallie home is urban by comparison. The family resides a few miles north of Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation, where there\u2019s a shopping center, cinema, museum, government offices, small zoo and a memorial to the Navajo Code Talkers<\/a>, who used their language to transmit military messages to the Allies and thus played a pivotal role in winning World War II.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s single-wide trailer is a cheerful clutter of toys, photos, plastic bins, science projects, craft supplies, clothes, tables, chairs and couches, arranged as neatly as possible. It is home to the four children and their stay-at-home mother, Amanda; father, Evans (an IT manager for the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation); and grandmother Mary Lou Tsosie, an account clerk at the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.<\/p>\n

Mary Lou gets the master bedroom; the six Bennallies share two small bedrooms. And there\u2019s always space for Valerie Tsosie, Amanda\u2019s older sister, who drops by to take care of the kids and \u201cget my family time,\u201d as she puts it.<\/p>\n