About 12% of New Mexico’s population is Native Americans, but it’s still rare to see them in political positions. A new program is hoping to change that by offering training to Indigenous people interested in leadership roles. KUNM spoke with Joey Sanchez, the tribal liaison with the Native Land Institute on how his organization is helping foster future Indigenous leaders.
SANCHEZ: Our purpose of the training is to get young leaders or leaders themselves into the political environment, either through school board elections, county elections, county commission elections or also state-run senate, representatives, and even also to the congressional delegates in D.C. So our focus is to advance Native Indigenous leaders in New Mexico and Arizona.
KUNM: What is the program about?
SANCHEZ: It's a four-day in-person training. It's culturally grounded, Indigenous led and designed for leaders, or future leaders. The training will focus on the matters of organizing, messaging, fundraising, digital strategies and leading from our shared Indigenous values. You'll get the tools that you need to uplift the tools that you already have. It's just finding those ways to present them in a more structured environment, a more structured presentation. It's very powerful.
You'll meet other leaders who are in the same boat, not knowing. Like, ‘Do I run? Do I wait?’ So you'll get that inspiration from these other leaders to tell you.
KUNM: How important is it for Indigenous people to be in political positions?
SANCHEZ: It's very important. We're very underrepresented in the whole U.S., and also very underrepresented in Arizona and New Mexico. Just a little bit of facts on New Mexico. 12.7% of the portion of New Mexico population identifies as American Indian, Alaskan, Native or Native Hawaiian. [There are] 2,201 total number of elected officials across the state, 40 of those identify as Native American, Alaskan, Native or Native Hawaiian.
KUNM: And do we know if there’s any obstacles that Indigenous people face when running?
SANCHEZ: I believe it's the confidence, the ability to not have the tools needed to run for office, not knowing where to start. So this training invokes all those tools and gives them the ability to know how to start, where to begin, how to fundraise, how to get themselves out there, how to go to door-to-door, how to approach people, how to approach communities, and providing the answers that the community wants to hear, and the knowledge that you can bring to the table to represent the Native community.
KUNM: And you mentioned in a separate conversation about Angel Charley that she went through this training and now she's a New Mexico Senator. Has she spoken afterward at how beneficial the program was?
SANCHEZ: Yes, she has. She's also going to be part of the training too, to have some insight of how she's done it, and how this program and this training helped her be successful in becoming a senator.
KUNM: So let me ask you, incorporating Native Americans within political offices, both in the state and the federal level, what can they bring to the table that we're not seeing right now?
SANCHEZ: Indigenous knowledge. We've always been raised to protect Mother Earth, protect water, protect each other, be kind to one another, and just as human beings, be kind to every walk of life, regardless of who they are or what maybe their beliefs are, it’s just ideas. As Native people, we have cared about our surroundings. It goes back to our traditional teachings that we don't just pray for ourselves. We pray for the world as a whole, you know. And so that's where as leaders, or political positions, you have that ability to lead, to bring that kind of structure back into government, or back into your local communities.
KUNM: And right now, at this time, you know, we have seen, highlighted Native individuals such as Deb Haaland, who is the former Interior Secretary, is now running for the New Mexico governor. Is this a great time for Native individuals who are thinking about being in leadership roles in the state, to start running?
SANCHEZ: Yes, I believe it is. I mean, we always say, ‘well, I should have done this.’ Now is the time, you know, a lot of it's now is the time to bring your skill, your ability, your teachings, into government positions. And I think now is a time more than ever.
You can find more information about the Native Leadership Institute training here.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
