WHO WE ARE

Akenabah Begay, B.A.
Administrative Assistant
NNI/Bush Foundation partnership

Address: 803 E. First St., Tucson, AZ 85719
Phone: (520) 626-4579
E-mail: begay2@email.arizona.edu

Biographical Note

Her father decided, if his next child if a boy would be named after him but if the baby were born a girl, she would be given a Navajo name. Akenabah Cicely Begay is the name her father gave his daughter. Akenabah in Navajo, Ahéénbaa’, means “she came back from war”.

Akenabah is Tó’áhaní (Near the Water clan) and born for Nát’oh Dine’é Táchii’nii (Red Streak Tobacco/Hopi clan). Akenabah’s maternal grandfather is Tó dich’íi’nii (Bitter Water clan) and her paternal grandfather clan is Ma’ii deeshgiizhnii (Coyote Pass/Jemez Pueblo clan). Akenabah was born in Tuba City, Arizona and grew up in Page, Arizona. Her parents are Reuben Begay, Sr. and from the Seba Dalkai, AZ area and Bernice Austin-Begay from Black Mesa, AZ. Her maternal grandparents were Buck and Lilly Lake Austin and her paternal grandparents were Denet and Ruby Begay.  Akenabah studied at Diné College-Tsaile during 2002-2003. Akenabah is a 1997 Page High School, 2006 Pima Community College alumni and a 2010 University of Arizona graduate with a Bachelors of Art in Religious Studies with a minor in American Indian Studies.

During Akenabah’s undergraduate studies, she was a member of the University of Arizona Native American Student Affairs Programming Board, which she was the student volunteer coordinator for the 2009 American Indian Youth Conference. Akenabah was a participant and liaison for Project SOAR /Native SOAR and worked with six Mansfeld Middle School American Indian students. Akenabah volunteered with the Ronald Mc Donald House Tucson, UA Indian Intro to Medicine (IMED), Arizona Indian Education Association, and Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. Akenabah truly enjoys community service and volunteer work. In her spare time, Akenabah enjoy spending time with family and friends, attending UA and Arizona Diamondback sporting events, music concerts, academic lectures, hiking, swimming, yard sale hunting, traveling, and learning to speak and write the Navajo language.