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Kobe Taylor Natachu
(They/Them/Theirs)
Laura Leekela
Student Services Assistant
Phone: (505) 782-6020
Email: laura.leekela@ashiwi.org
Student Services Center
The A:shiwi Tribal College and Career Readiness Center provides support to any and all students who want to attend classes at the Navajo Technical University or any other college or university. In addition, they support high school students who are taking dual credit courses. For more information on admission, registration, financial aid, etc., you may contact the Student Services staff.
A:shiwi Tribal College NTU Culinary Arts Fieldtrip to Whiteriver, Arizona on May 1, 2025
On May 1st, 2025, A:shiwi Tribal College and Career Readiness Center staff, Kobe Natachu and Belinda Tsabetsaye, traveled to Whiteriver, AZ on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation with culinary students Jalen Hannaweeke, Jermyn Kallestewa, and Chef Lorencita Billiman to visit Café Gozhóó. On their website Café Gozhóó is described as a…
“…Western Apache café that integrates the tastes and flavors of Apache food-ways with exciting techniques while activating ancestral knowledge in learning and service. Specialties include Nada’Ban, Squash Stew, Red Chili, Acorn Stew, frequent specials, espresso-based drinks and Cowboy Coffee, etc.
Café Gozhóó provides a needed food, retail and fueling outlet on the North end of Whiteriver, Arizona. The café is designed for Apache community members with focused lighting, an open kitchen and warm atmosphere to promote recovery. Café Gozhóó will serve place-based fresh Apache cooking with integrations of Indigenous Foods of the Americas.
Café Gozhóó is a Native American community-based vocational training center and multi-purpose hospitality facility for individuals who have participated in therapeutic programming with the Rainbow Treatment Center’s Working 2 Wellness Program. Café Gozhóó will create jobs, promote professional development and equip individuals with job skills while helping to revitalize our Western Apache food system.
Café Gozhóó is an edible education in Indigenous Resurgence in Western Apacheria.”
Staff and students visited the site to establish connections with Chef Nephi Craig to ideally have Café Gozhóó host ATC/NTU as interns in the future. This trip also served as a means for our two culinary students to put into practice the skills they continue to develop under the guidance of Chef/Instructor Lorencita Billiman. This served as a practicum in a way for our students to gain first-hand experience in a fully operational kitchen guided by Native/Indigenous systems of knowledge as a means to bridge culinary traditions and substance misuse recovery strategies.
