WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.170 --> 00:00:03.960 align:middle line:84% Natalie Diaz grew up in Fort Mojave Indian Village 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.140 align:middle line:84% in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:84% She is a Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:11.520 align:middle line:90% Community. 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:14.430 align:middle line:84% After playing professional basketball in Europe and Asia 00:00:14.430 --> 00:00:18.900 align:middle line:84% for several years, she completed her MFA in poetry and fiction 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:20.820 align:middle line:90% at Old Dominion University. 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.370 align:middle line:84% Her first book, When My Brother Was an Aztec, 00:00:23.370 --> 00:00:27.750 align:middle line:84% was published in June 2012, by Copper Canyon Press. 00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:30.480 align:middle line:84% She currently lives in Mojave Valley, Arizona, 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:33.150 align:middle line:84% and directs a language revitalization program 00:00:33.150 --> 00:00:35.890 align:middle line:84% at Fort Mojave, her home reservation. 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:39.390 align:middle line:84% There, she works and teaches with the last Elder speakers 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:41.500 align:middle line:90% of the Mojave language. 00:00:41.500 --> 00:00:42.000 align:middle line:90%