Storytelling helps him connect with Indigenous students

Growing up on Kiiłtsoi bitó’, which translates to bushes where the yellow flowers are, Mitchell called Diné Bikéyah, the Navajo Nation, home until moving to the Valley his sophomore year of high school.

He said Kiiłtsoi bitó’ was especially beautiful during the summer, when monsoon rains would draw out the crisp smell of sagebrush, which grows in abundance and coats the land in a golden layer of yellow flowers.

Mitchell’s great grandfather established a trading post on the reservation soon after Hwéeldi, the Long Walk, when more than 8,000 men, women and children were forcibly removed from their homelands as the United States moved to expand its territories across what is known today as the Southwest.

Mitchell remembers traveling around the Navajo Nation to visit family with his Cheíí, grandfather, who would always tell him stories about how the mountains and landmarks surrounding where they lived came to be.

The stories passed down from one generation to the next have stood as a reminder of strength and hope that has helped the Diné people carry through challenges put in their path throughout history.

“Within Navajo culture, at least the way that I see it and the way I’ve been brought up, is that we always move forward,” Mitchell said. “We move forward with three things: songs, prayers and stories. So everything we do in our culture is related to those three things.”

“Growing up with that context my whole life, I never knew anything outside of that. And I’m grateful for that,” Mitchell said.

Being raised by a family of storytellers, Mitchell felt his passion for storytelling rekindle in a mythology class while a student at South Mountain Community College, where Mitchell shared his favorite Navajo story from childhood about the Warrior Twins.

To Mitchell, telling these stories in the original tongue Navajo is a spiritual experience that allows him to connect to the history of his ancestors as well as look forward to the future of Indigenous communities.

Helping Native students get scholarships

Storytelling began to open up opportunities in the community, Mitchell said. In 2015, he was asked to run South Mountain Community College’s Hoop of Learning program, or HOOP, a bridge program aimed at helping American Indian high school students get scholarships and transition into college.

The program’s name was inspired by the medicine wheel, a concept held in Indigenous communities that focuses on emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health.

The program covers the cost of tuition, books, and course fees and holds regular cultural events. Mitchell advocated for the representation of Indigenous communities in schools, and implemented the program’s first cultural classes, a Navajo language and Navajo government course.

“The thing that I’m most proud of is that the students were able to embrace their identity through the program and look at what it means to be Indigenous in education,” Mitchell said.

“The population I was serving, the students I was seeing, were a reflection of what I’ve experienced,” Mitchell said. “I used storytelling to shape the experience that I had, and make it relatable enough for them to connect to it.

Under Mitchell’s direction, the program held an average 3.6 GPA among students as well as a completion and retention rate of 100%.

Guadalupe Mayor Valerie Molina met Mitchell around 2016, just after he began his position at the SMCC Guadalupe Center and she was elected to her first term in office.

Molina says Mitchell is still the first person she goes to when it comes to launching programs in the community.

“He’s so good at what he does, working with kids, making people feel at ease,” Molina said. “Kyle has his own story of where he came from and what he had to do to get to where he’s at. He can relate to a lot of our students. It gives them a sense of hope.”

Molina, who currently serves as the Native American program coordinator for the Tempe Union High School District, has worked in the education field for 16 years.

“My kids are just in awe of Kyle when he speaks to them,” Molina said. “He garners attention and they listen; he’s a great storyteller.”