Melissa Begegege is a doctor living in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I'm Melissa Begege and I am a physician at UNM in the Department of Pulmonary sleep and critical care.

But back where Melissa grew up near Canyon Deschee, Arizona,

she'd probably introduce herself this way instead.

Is she a, Melissa Bagee and she

can an Annie in Shlindo,

to not jennie bus chine,

twos on the dachtschay,

the tachine e-shnelle

with us than in Shlen.

Melissa is a member of the Navajo Nation, the nation's largest indigenous tribe.

The Navajo Nation's lands are about the size of West Virginia and cover the Four Corners region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet.

Yeah, so I grew up on the north rim of Canyon Diche, and in Navajo it is called Seagut. There are a lot of cultural teachings that

happened there a lot of traditional people still live in the canyon. And

growing up there you were definitely taught the importance of place but then also the importance of history.

And then for myself as a young person it really taught me a lot about our connection to land and my people's connection to the seasons.

So it was a great place to live in it and grow as a young child. And handshakes are an important

part of the Navajo greeting. The Navajo greeting is very important and it usually begins with a handshake to acknowledge your

presence and their presence and then also you often say your clans, you're

you often will teach your kids from a young age to shake hands when they're toddlers and then as they're beginning to speak and going to kindergarten they often are taught there four major clans.

So it's important just to establish your lineage because it's very old and people often identify

Navajos by region and by clans.

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