This is how I am doing somehting like what you are after, there could be a better way though.

@{var galleryFolder = Hive.Content.GetById((string)DynamicModel.GalleryMediaFolder);}

<div class="am-container" id="am-container" style="margin: 110px auto;">
@foreach (var image in galleryFolder.Children())
{
    <a rel="image" href="@image.NiceUrl()"><img src="@image.NiceUrl()" title="@image.UrlName"></img></a>
}
</div>

Thanks Aaron, but I am not trying to get images or items from a media gallery.  Here is the tree structure:

I want to get the dependent items in the Highlights document type for a specific PublishedArea.  I am trying to do this in a class so I can use it for all my web sites.  I have a GetData class which returns all the UmbracoContent but I need to be able to pull the decendents of a paricular node, this one being Highlights.

Thanks.

EDIT:

Here is my code from the GetDataController class (it is a separate class from the umbraco site that drops a dll in the umbraco bin folder so it can be referenced)

namespace Umbraco.GetData { 
    public class GetDataController : SurfaceController { 
        private readonly IRoutableRequestContext _context;
        private readonly IHiveManager            _hive;
        private readonly IRenderModelFactory     _renderModelFactory; 

 public GetDataController(IRoutableRequestContext context, IHiveManager hive, IRenderModelFactory renderModelFactory) : base(context){
    _context            = context;
    _hive               = hive;
    _renderModelFactory = renderModelFactory;
}

public UmbracoHelper Umbraco {
 get {
    return new UmbracoHelper(ControllerContext, _context, _renderModelFactory);
    }
}

public ActionResult Index(String contentType, String contentName, String publishArea) {
    List<Content> result;
    List<String> publishAreas = null;

//
// fetch the right content type
//
 if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(contentType)) {
    result = _hive.QueryContent()
          .OfRevisionType(FixedStatusTypes.Published)
          .ToList();
    }
    else {
    result = _hive.QueryContent()
          .OfRevisionType(FixedStatusTypes.Published)
          .Where(x => x.ContentType.Alias == contentType)
          .ToList();
    }
    var contentList = new List<UmbracoContentItem>();

    foreach (var item in result) {
 //
 // if we are looking for something by name, it must match
 if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(contentName) && (contentName.ToLower() != item.Name.ToLower()))
     continue;

 var contentItem = new UmbracoContentItem {
             Id           = item.Id.Value.ToString(),
             UrlName      = item.UrlName,
             Name         = item.Name,
             ContentAlias = item.ContentType.Alias,
             ContentName  = item.ContentType.Name,
             Host         = ControllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.Url != null ? 
                             ControllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.Url.Host : ""
        };

     foreach (var attrib in item.Attributes) {
         if (attrib.DynamicValue != null) {
           var contentAttrib = new UmbracoAttribute {
                Name = attrib.AttributeDefinition.Name.ToString(),
            Alias = attrib.AttributeDefinition.Alias
        };
     var values = new List<string>();

        if (attrib.AttributeDefinition.AttributeType.Name.ToString() == "Uploader") {
            try {
            values.Add(Umbraco.GetMediaUrl(item.Id.ToString(), contentAttrib.Alias));
            }
         catch {}
        }
        else {
         try {
         foreach (string s in attrib.DynamicValue.Values) {
            values.Add(s);
            }
            }
         catch {
            values.Add(attrib.DynamicValue.ToString());
            }
        }

     if (contentAttrib.Name.Contains("Publish Areas"))
        publishAreas = values;

        contentAttrib.Values = values.ToArray();
        contentItem.Attributes.Add(contentAttrib);
       }
    }

    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(publishArea)) {
    contentList.Add(contentItem);
    }
    else {
    if (publishAreas.Contains(publishArea))
        contentList.Add(contentItem);
    }
}
return new XmlResult(contentList);
}
}
}

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