"My great-great-great grandmother was Choctaw and part of the Trail of Tears," says Krystal Kight, a Hardin-Simmons University student. "But she never made it to Oklahoma," adds Krystal. Oklahoma was the end of the trail for the Choctaw and other native tribes who lived in the eastern and southern part of the country in 1831.

The senior from Coleman, with strawberry-blond hair and a hint of freckles, says she just needed a few more classes to have enough hours to graduate in December with a degree in criminal justice.

For her minor in sociology, she needed three more credit hours, so she signed up for the Maymester class enticingly labeled "Navajoland."

Arriving early to the 9 a.m. class, Krystal observes a "Study Overseas" flyer tacked on a bulletin board in the Skiles Building with a photo of a group of students. She points to the photo saying, "That's me -- that's when we studied in England, Ireland, and Scotland."

"I love the whole cultural experience," says Krystal. She and 12 other students will most certainly be immersed in the cultural experience as they travel this week to Fort Defiance, Arizona, a former powder keg of bad blood between soldiers and Navajos during the late 1850s and the early 1860s.

Dr. Joanne Roberts, head of the HSU Sociology Department, and Melissa Milliorn, assistant professor of social work, are guiding the students on the trip. Milliorn tells the students, "You will have the need to understand other customs and beliefs as you encounter people in your career field."

Roberts explains to the class that they will witness religious ceremonies that are off-limits to people not in one of four Navajo clans. "Part of the ceremony includes the use of peyote, a hallucinogen," she muses. "It has been used for thousands of years by some native tribes who believe that it is God-given and planted in this world for people to use as a cure."

"We may also get to witness ceremonies that could include the customs of stargazing, hand trembling, sand painting, and other herbal medicines."

Roberts and Milliorn want the students to understand and respect customs and beliefs that may seem strange to them. Roberts tells the students the Navajo version of the creation story, which is quite different than the version in Genesis. Roberts asks, "Can we use our creation story as a frame of reference? Can you see any similarities; any parallels?" Krystal taps her pencil as she ponders that question. "Christianity: are we that far away from the Navajo?"

Roberts continues to build the picture for the students, "There is a great deal of mistrust of Christianity. Little wonder," she continues, "considering their first encounters with Spanish missionaries in the 1700s." Roberts plays an educational clip posted on You Tube on the classroom's Smart Board. A Native American woman quotes her father,"They taught us to pray by closing our eyes and bowing our heads. When we looked up, they had taken our lands, our language and our traditions," says the woman in the video.

Krystal and the other students left for Ft. Defiance this past Sunday. They will also study the Navajo language, which itself has a very interesting history. Athabaskan, as it is called, is part of a family of languages that has been mostly lost. The Navajo did not have an alphabet. The language is mostly tonal and was not written until 1939, explains Roberts.

Oh, by the way, if you are wondering what happened to Krystal's great-great-great grandmother...why she never made it to Oklahoma? "The Trail of Tears for her stopped in Conway, Arkansas. She was one of two children traded for food," says Krystal.

Krystal's family has quite a line of genealogy. Explaining her reddish hair and freckles, "My family is kind of a mixture. We're like mutts, I guess. My family had a castle in Ireland called Beeston that's now in ruins...and we can trace our family heritage back to William the Conqueror. But both sides of my family claim Indian tribes. My mother's side comes from at least four different tribes."

Krystal says she hopes with this experience, and a June internship in child advocacy through the Abilene Police Department, she will one day be prepared to work for Interpol, the international police organization, which she says is her dream job.

Chances are the other 12 students taking this enticingly labeled course will not be disappointed either.