Farmington senior earns top Diné bilingual honor, Gallup banquet Friday

Amber Bizardie, a senior at San Juan College High School in Farmington, earned the Navajo Nation Seal of Bilingual Proficiency at the superior level, the highest recognition the Nation gives students for Diné language fluency. She will be honored Friday at the Navajo Nation Seal of Bilingual Proficiency Assessment Awards Banquet at Fire Rock Navajo Casino in Gallup, a daylong event set for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For families in and around Gallup, the banquet puts a local spotlight on something that reaches beyond one student’s resume. The Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education says the seal assessment is for graduating high school seniors who can fluently read, write and speak Diné, and the office that administers it, the Office of Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment Development, runs the assessment each spring. Farmington Municipal Schools says the banquet will celebrate students who earned the seal and recognize their role in preserving and sustaining the Diné language.

That connection matters in McKinley County, where bilingual education is not just a classroom issue but part of daily community life. Gallup-McKinley County Schools has said it offers students the chance to earn the bilingual seal in either Navajo or Spanish, underscoring how language achievement is tied to school success and cultural continuity. In a region where many families are working to keep Navajo language use strong across generations, the Gallup banquet turns that effort into a public honor.

Bizardie’s recognition also reflects a broader academic path that many local parents will recognize as aspirational. Along with finishing high school, she is earning an associate degree in business administration from San Juan College. She has already been accepted into the business administration program at the University of New Mexico and the engineering program at New Mexico Tech, where she plans to double-major. Her achievement shows that fluency in Diné and preparation for college and career can move together, not in separate tracks.

The seal has become an increasingly visible marker of that balance. In 2025, a record 22 students were honored with the Navajo Nation Seal of Bilingual Proficiency, and that year’s ceremony was held at Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort in Arizona. The annual awards have rotated among regional venues, but the message has stayed the same: the Navajo Nation intends to perpetuate Diné language, culture, history and government in schools and communities. With Friday’s banquet in Gallup, that mission will again be recognized close to home.