LAS CRUCES – Pan American audience members had the chance to hear the national anthem sung in the Navajo language, Diné Bizaad (Diné is the term for the people and Diné Bizaad refers to the language), before the start of the men’s basketball game between the New Mexico State Aggies and the University of New Mexico Lobos last week.
Singer Vanisha Sam is a nursing student at NMSU and president of the Native American Business Student Association on campus. She is originally from Coyote Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, which is on the Navajo Nation.
She said she volunteered to sing after finding out that the director of the American Indian Program was looking for someone to sing in their native language at the game.