Anany Scott is pictured at the Harry Kent building Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, at Heritage University, in Toppenish, Wash.
As a mother and a full-time college student with a double major, Anany Scott is a busy person. There’s little free time in her life.
But if others need Scott for something, she will find time to help them. Scott is a generous person. She is generous with her skills and she is passionate about supporting people, organizations and issues important to her.
Scott is president of the Heritage University Native American Club. The club has about 15 members and organizes the university’s well-attended All Nations Student Powwow in the spring. The third powwow since the pandemic is set for April 25.
The student powwow is a lot of work — months of work — but “once we get going, I feel like it all literally falls into place,” she said.
Last fall, the club held a solemn gathering to honor and remember Indigenous children who attended and died at government- and church-run boarding schools. Club members wrote “Every Child Matters” on 300 small orange flags, which they placed all around the teepee on the Great Lawn.
Those events were open to the public.
“She organizes events that extend beyond the campus community and engages neighbors throughout the Yakima Valley who care about Native issues,” club advisor Yesenia Hunter wrote in nominating Scott for 39 Under 39.
Club members also had a float in the annual Yakama Nation Treaty Days Parade, collaborating with the family of Mona Renee Vallo in remembering and honoring Vallo, who was killed in a hit-and-run outside Albuquerque on March 9, 2022, and other missing and murdered Indigenous people. And they helped greet members of the Medicine Wheel Ride when they stopped at the Yakama Nation on their way to Sturgis, S.D.
Like Scott, club members are welcoming. They are proud to celebrate and share their Indigenous heritage with each other, and others. The club was created to provide enrichment opportunities for Native American students, as well as other Heritage students; any Heritage student may join.
Membership has increased in the last few years, Scott said. The club meets at noon every Thursday in the Harry Kent Center. Meetings include lunch, with some bringing food for all. Members try to keep the fridge in the adjacent classroom stocked. It’s part of the effort to ensure members have something to eat and are supported in other important ways, such as making sure they keep up with classes and homework.
“If you’re in HUNAC, I feel like you’re taken care of,” Scott said. “We’re a family. I don’t like leaving people out. We’re family, not just a club. This place is literally our second home.”
Sharing with each other includes aspects of traditional knowledge such as foods. Club members do the root digging for the powwow meal, which also can be a learning experience for Yakama and other tribal citizens. They had a first digger ceremony for one member, and provide guidance and support when they’re digging.
“I feel like it’s calming being out there,” Scott said. “We usually like to go as a group.”
Advocating for others
A 2006 graduate of Yakama Nation Tribal School, Scott was born in Toppenish and grew up in the Lower Yakima Valley. She is a citizen of the Yakama Nation, is of Nez Perce descent and the oldest of six. Their mom, Helena Scott, was “a single mother trying to take care of all of us growing up,” Scott said.
Scott began at Heritage in the spring of 2024 as a criminal justice major. Last year she decided to double major in criminal justice and history. She’s also considering law school, but before anything else, she wants to graduate and get her private investigator’s license. “Then maybe go into probation,” Scott said.
She wants her private investigator’s license so she can help address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people. The issue has received more attention in recent years, but more work is necessary for permanent solutions to end it.
“We shouldn’t have this many people hurt or missing,” Scott said. “I really do try to advocate for the MMIW cause. I want to help the families get closure in any way.
“That not knowing feeling can really eat you up,” she added.
Her mother, who died on Jan. 13, 2020, struggled with alcoholism, as did Scott. She is four years sober. “These last four years have been awesome,” Scott said. “I was an alcoholic. Now I’m recovering. I just want to be better every day.”
She is also a domestic abuse survivor. If people ask about the scar on her face, she’ll tell them what happened. “I just try to be stronger for myself and my kids,” she said.
Support of family, friends
Scott hopes to graduate from Heritage in 2028. She is taking five spring semester classes — three online and two in person. She is the mother of a 1-year-old, a 2-year-old, a 6-year-old, 12-year-old twin boys and a 17-year-old. Her oldest child will graduate from Toppenish High School this spring.
She tries to get her school work done on campus and appreciates having Harry Kent as a place not only to socialize and learn, but also to study. “I really try to keep the weekends for family stuff,” Scott said. “When we have stuff here, I try to bring them.”
Her children are watching her, Scott noted. “I always tell my boyfriend our babies are reflective of us,” she said of Isaac Bobb. “He supports me to the fullest.”
She credits many others with helping her in school and in life. They include her auntie and uncle Julie and Steve Hoptowit. Close friend Brittany Yellow Owl, who graduated from Heritage last year, was among the reasons Scott chose Heritage, she said.
Her first year at Heritage Scott didn’t have a car, so she took the Pahto Passage bus to campus until best friend Tristan Ryan started picking her up and taking her home. That was important for her to stay on track at Heritage, she said. And Scott mentioned her foster parents Arthur and Linda Badolla, whom she was with from 2004-06.
“I love her a lot,” she said of Linda. Scott also appreciates the support of Corbin Schuster, Kansas Arnoux, Twálatin (Gregory Sutterlict), auntie Delaine DeMontiney and Hunter.
Despite her busy days Scott is a patient person, even as she’s in online class with her youngest on her lap and another young child in the background asking, “What are you doing, mom?”
“I’m still here because I want a better life. I want to be better for my family and my community,” she said.
And as an older student, she encourages others who are considering but haven’t committed to college — yet. “It’s never too late to go back,” Scott said.
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