Warlance Chee
Warlance is from Lake Valley, a part of Western New Mexico known as the Checkerboard, named because of the pattern state, federal, and native land designations create on a color-coded state land-use map. Warlance attended Lake Valley Navajo School and Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico. He attended the University of New Mexico, where he graduated with a BA in American Studies and a minor in Native American Studies. He received his master’s degree in Diné Culture, Language, and Leadership from Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Warlance has been a Diné language and culture teacher for the past 11 years and has taught in the Cuba, New Mexico Independent Schools, the Tóhajiilee’ Community School, west of Albuquerque, and most recently at the Native American Community Academy, or NACA, in Albuquerque. Currently, Warlance is the director of Saad K’idilyé, the grassroots organization which has created a Diné language nest in Albuquerque.