by Matt Laslo and staff reports

For the first time, Native women–both Democrats–had a seat on the chamber floor during the president’s State of the Union address. Their reaction to Donald Trump’s speech was not all negative, but by and large the comments from Native members of Congress aligned along party lines. Native American members of Congress are reacting to President Trump’s State of the Union address mainly along party lines.

New Mexico Rep. Debra Halaand (D-NM) from Laguna Pueblo said she was amused by the irony of Trump drawing attention to the historic number of women who now fill the Democratically controlled House.

“Well, of course we’re happy,” Haaland said. “It’s his policies, his actions, his rhetoric that got so many women elected. So if we’re happy about how many women got elected this time around, sure, they can thank the president for that.”

But with the threat of another federal government shutdown looming over Washington, Indian Country and the nation, Halaand said parts of the address came across as tone deaf.

“He didn’t say anything about thousands and thousands of federal workers and contractors and their families being out of a paycheck for an entire month during the shutdown,” she said. “Instead he was harping on the wall that got us into the mess in the first place.”

Congress and the president have until the middle of February to fund the government and avert another shutdown.

Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a member of the Chickasaw Nation, said the address did show a more muted, bipartisan tone than he’s seen from Trump in the past, and he thinks many of the policies Trump highlighted will help Indian Country.

“I’m always anxious to have any president talk more about Native American issues, anything from keeping treaty responsibilities to addressing the problems we have on our reservations, but I think the general themes are things that people should take hope in,” Cole said.

In a written statement, Sharice Davids (D-KS), who is Ho-Chunk, said she welcomed the president’s comments on issues like rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and supporting more women in the workforce. But she said she was disappointed to hear him “continue to speak half truths and divide on issues of immigration and national security”. She also said she’s concerned about President Trump’s position on the Affordable Care Act, at a time when more people need access to affordable care.

Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, praised the president’s address in a written statement. He said there isn’t a single thing in the president’s plan that people should think is divisive. He mentioned the need to fix what he says is a broken immigration system, rebuild the crumbling infrastructure, lower health care costs, and protect national security.

Native American leaders and others are honoring Omaha elder Nathan Philips who is at the center of video widely shared and making national news in recent days. It shows Philips drumming and singing while high school students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats mocked and taunted him. The confrontation happened in front of the Lincoln Memorial following the Indigenous People’s March in Washington, D.C.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier is among those praising Phillips for remaining poised and calm in the face of negative comments and intimidation from the students.

“I want to applaud him for taking that stand, and I want to applaud everybody and thank them for standing up and reminding Americans we’re still here,” Frazier said on Native America Calling. The students are from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky. They were on a school trip for the National March For Life that same day. Frazier said he couldn’t bring himself to watch the video at first. “It really saddens me the hatred that exists in this country,” he said.

Philips said he was wrapping up near the Lincoln Memorial when he inserted himself into an increasingly tense verbal confrontation between the high school students and a group representing the Black Hebrew Israelites.

“I was wondering where the chaperones where and why did they allow them to disrespect people on the mall?” Phillips said to Native America Calling and KSFR Indigenous Foundation host Tara Gatewood.

Tribal leaders, Native American members of Congress and heads of Native organizations issued public statements expressing concern and outrage over the apparent lack of respect by the students. One of the students prominent in the video, Nick Sandman, said people are mischaracterizing his role in the confrontation.  He said he was confused and did not intentionally make faces or interact with Phillips and other Native Americans at the event.

Following coverage of the altercation, the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School released a statement publicly:

“We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C. We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.

The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.

We know this incident also has tainted the entire witness of the March for Life and express our most sincere apologies to all those who attended the March and all those who support the pro-life movement.

Catholic High School officials investigate and one of the students singled out in the video says there’s misinformation and lies about the incident.”

Acoma Pueblo officials are celebrating the repatriation of dozens of cultural items retrieved from various outlets around the country. Acoma Governor Kurt Riley called it a joyous day for the pueblo, located in western New Mexico.

“We had what we call a general meeting of as many community members as we could where we announced it and the reaction was very joyful and positive,” Riley said. “So it’s a great occasion to have some of the items we’ve been trying very hard to repatriate come home.”

The return of the items comes after years of effort by the pueblo, the U.S. Attorneys office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to locate and recover them from galleries, antique shops and museums. Gov. Riley said the continued outreach is helping curb the sale of important and cultural items that have been taken illegally. But he said it is a slow process to educate all those who profit from such sales.

“We hope we’ve made our point that the traders and the dealers as well as the pueblos, tribes and nations need to work together to educate and define to the outside world just what are cultural items.”

Riley singled out BIA Special Agent Franklin Chavez for his work in helping find and recover the items. He expressed hope that U.S. government officials continue to place a high priority on the work going into repatriating cultural patrimony.

Riley said one of the items is a sacred shield that a gallery owner in Montana voluntarily gave up after they were contacted. It is similar to the item that was part of an auction in Paris France last year that Acoma Pueblo and U.S. officials successfully halted. That item has not yet been returned.

The Navajo Nation’s economy is a major campaign issue due to the precarious future of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station, which is a major source of revenue and jobs for the tribe. The primary ballot for president includes the current incumbent, his vice president and three women among many others. It’s the first election since a purge of 52,000 people from the voter rolls. The top two vote-getters go on to the general election in November.

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The Native vote could play a role in key elections across the country. Tribal leaders and Native rights advocates see the Native vote as an important influence in election results, which could further impact policy issues for tribes. In addition, a number of Native American are seeing victories in their run for office in state and congressional seats. National Native News is following a number of these stories in our Native Vote 2018 coverage.

Navajo voters choose among 18 presidential primary hopefuls

by Antonia Gonzales

The Navajo Nation’s economy is a major campaign issue due to the precarious future of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station, which is a major source of revenue and jobs for the tribe. The primary ballot for president includes the current incumbent, his vice president and three women among many others. It’s the first election since a purge of 52,000 people from the voter rolls. The top two vote-getters go on to the general election in November.

This story is a collaboration between National Native News and High Country News. Read more here. 

State Representative Peggy Flanagan is running for lt. governor of Minnesota with Congressman Tim Walz for governor. (Screenshot)

Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Nation, is the Democratic candidate for lt. governor of Minnesota. Listen to an interview with Peggy after winning the nomination.

Lt. Colonel Donna Bergstrom is running for lt. governor of Minnesota with Jeff Johnson for governor. (Photo-Jeff Johnson for Governor, Facebook)

Donna Bergstrom, Red Lake Nation, is the Republican nominee for lt. governor of Minnesota. Listen to an interview with Donna after securing the nomination.

Sample ballots for the Navajo Nation primary election line the wall at the tribe’s election administration office. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)

A Navajo chapter coordinator is concerned the Navajo Nation voter purge discourages young voters. Under Navajo law, citizens who did not vote in 2014 or 2016 were purged and had until late July to reregister.

Supporters gather for a watch party on primary night in Kansas for Democrat Sharice Davids, Ho-Chunk, running for Congress. (Photo-Rhonda LeValdo)

Sharice Davids, Ho-Chunk, secures the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat in Kansas.

Kris Beecher held a voter registration drive for Navajo people living in the Phoenix area. (Photo-Kris Beecher, Facebook)

Kris Beecher holds a voter registration drive for urban Navajo people in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate Rules Committee held a  roundtable on voting rights, access, and barriers in Indian County. (Photo-Navajo Nation Washington Office)

Tribal leaders and U.S. lawmakers address barriers to voting in Indian Country.

Debra Haaland from Laguna Pueblo is a step closer to becoming the first Native American woman in Congress. (Photo-Andi Murphy)

Debra Haaland is a step closer to being first Native American woman in Congress.

Paulette Jordan, Coeur d’Alene, is the first Native American to win the Democratic primary in Idaho’s gubernatorial race. (Photo: Lee David Zahir, Representative Paulette Jordan Facebook page)

Paulette Jordan is optimistic about Idaho’s gubernatorial race after she wins the Democratic nomination.

by Antonia Gonzales

Debra Haaland won Tuesday’s democratic primary election for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. If elected in November, Haaland, from Laguna Pueblo, would become the first Native American woman in Congress. In an interview following her primary win, she recognized the efforts of other Native women running for office including Paulette Jordan, a member of the  Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Democratic nominee in the Idaho governor’s race.

“Maybe it’s the year for Native women because there are a lot of us running across the country,” Haaland said. Jordan made a personal appearance on behalf of Haaland’s campaign in the day leading up to the election.

Haaland’s campaign priorities include health care, education, and the environment.

“Moving to 100 percent renewable energy and having that economy create thousands of jobs, health care for every single New Mexican, and getting big money out of politics. I think all of (those) things would benefit Indian Country as well,” she said.

Haaland also says there are specific issues for Native Americans she has capacity to address, including treaties and the U.S. Government’s trust responsibility.  Tribal leaders across the country are raising concerns about Trump Administration plans such as Medicaid work requirements and the reorganization of the Interior Department.

“I’m going to make sure I do everything thing I can to make sure that those voices are at the table and their perspectives are considered when any policy that effect Indian tribes are put forth,” Haaland said.

Haaland is a former state democratic party chairwoman. She will face Republican Janice Arnold Jones and Libertarian Lloyd Princeton in November. They are vying for the seat being vacated by Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham who won the Democratic nomination in the New Mexico governor’s race.

(Photo: New Mexico 1st Congressional District democratic primary winner Deb Haaland and Idaho Gubernatorial democratic winner Paulette Jordan by Andi Murphy)

By Jackie Yamanaka

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and St. Vincent Healthcare are partners in a new program that changes the way pregnant women, suffering from addiction, are treated.  Instead of being greeted with blame and punishment these women are being met with support services.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and St. Vincent Healthcare are partners in a new program that changes the way pregnant women, suffering from addiction, are treated. (Photo-Jackie Yamanaka)

Licensed social worker Maria Russel works with these women. She said they’re highly motivated to be the best moms for her children, but sometimes addiction gets in the way.

“Addiction is about pain,” Russel said. “And we’re talking about a lot of pain, a lot of trauma.”

So instead of immediately blaming and arresting the woman and removing the child or children from the home, Russel said she’s met where she is at.

Russel was hired under the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s new program known as “Blessing New Spirits” program.

“The thought behind it is a Cheyenne tradition of this is a new spirit coming and how are we going to greet that and bring this new spirit into the world,” she said.

Russel said they’re working to create a cultural shift between the medical community and addicted moms.

“If we can support mothers with their children, that’s our first love relationship,” she said. “No one will ever replace a mom, no matter what. And if we can support them and build them up then we have lifelong healing in the family.”

Dr. Alison Rentz specializes in pediatric neonatal-perinatal medicine at St.Vincent Healthcare. She said the baby can’t be treated in isolation, rather it’s also about the immediate and extended family.

“It’s a complete paradigm shift in the medical community from how we used to care for it which was a lot of judgement, criminal proceedings, things are really not effective. That are not going to get to the root of the problem, have a lifelong good outcome for the baby, for the mother, for the extended family” said Dr. Rentz.

She said now the medical community is viewing the pending birth of a child as a potential catalyst for change.

“I have seen personally over the last 3 or 4 years many instances where we’ve had honest conversations with the mother, nothing to do with Child Protective Services,” She said. “Just, ‘We want to help you. We want you to talk to us and tell us how we can help you move forward so you can be the mother you want to be.’”

Dr. Rentz said she didn’t know of a mother who was purposely trying to harm her baby. Rather she said they didn’t have the support they need. She said this paradigm shift has positively improved outcomes for their newborns.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock was briefed on the new perinatal substance abuse treatment project during a visit to St. Vincent Healthcare. He said he recently traveled to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and heard about this project.

Bullock hoped others across Montana could learn lessons from this program. He cited statistics that of the 3,000 children in Montana’s foster care system over 60% were removed from their families because of parental substance abuse.

“We can get numb by statistics,” Bullock said. “Yet something must be done and something is being done and it gives me great hope.”

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By Leah Todd

COCHITI PUEBLO, NM – For decades in these sparsely populated valleys and peaks in northern New Mexico, the internet has been slow, unreliable and expensive. This region is not remote, exactly. Several small tribal communities are nestled a half hour’s drive from the state seat in Santa Fe and the same distance from Albuquerque, the state’s largest city. But most cell phone service drops conspicuously between the two urban centers, and internet connections are elusive.

“We’re so close to the capital,” Cochiti Pueblo education director Kevin Lewis said. “And yet so divided digitally.”

Nationally, tribal lands have some of the lowest internet access rates of any demographic. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 41 percent of people living on tribal lands in the U.S. lack access to high-speed internet. In rural areas on tribal lands, 68 percent don’t have access. Lewis’s community, however, is an outlier. Today, Cochiti Pueblo and three others are just feet away from completing a $4.2 million, 32-mile line of fiber-optic cables. The project will connect tribal libraries across the four communities at a fraction of the price internet service has cost until now. The Middle Rio Grande Pueblo Tribal Consortium, the group leading the project, is one of a growing number of tribally led broadband internet initiatives in the U.S., and one of few collaborative projects that allow rural tribes to aggregate demand and negotiate lower prices.

Though this community’s sojourn into modern day technology is far from perfect — this network connects libraries, but leaves hospitals and homes lacking, for instance — internet researchers say few other tribal nations have achieved the same level of cooperation across multiple sovereign governments. Their story of navigating federal funding streams and building consensus to launch their own internet network could chart a path for other rural communities seeking the same.

Libraries as backbone

In more ways than one, libraries are a backbone for New Mexico’s rural communities. On the four pueblos involved in the Middle Rio Grande consortium – Cochiti, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana and San Felipe – it’s not uncommon to see a troupe of cars parked in library parking lots after dark, screens aglow, drivers downloading files for homework or streaming movies. Nearly half of all tribal libraries are their community’s only source of free public internet access, according to the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums.

The Cochiti library is one of four tribal libraries connected to a tribally owned  fiber optic network. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)

“Nighttime parking lot WiFi is an infrastructure in our state,” said Kimball Sekaquaptewa, the New Mexico-based manager of tribal critical infrastructure at a tribally owned insurance provider, AMERIND Risk.                                                                                           

Such after-hours access was an imperfect solution, though, and the connections the libraries offered were glacial. For Lewis and the Cochiti Pueblo, internet bills crept upwards of $1,500 a month for a connection that didn’t even meet the federal definition of “high speed.” When one person uses the internet connection to livestream a distance learning class online at Cochiti Pueblo’s library, no one else can use the internet, Lewis said.

But traditional internet service providers weren’t doing these sparse communities any favors.

“Our patron base was too small,” Lewis said. “Who wants to spend $4 million on a network to pick up 75 customers at Cochiti?”

It’s a problem many rural communities – whether tribal or not – face.

“The market is simply failing a lot of communities, and a lot of those communities are Indigenous, whether it be Alaska or Canada, or South Dakota, or very small, rural communities where the return on investment for companies to go in and build infrastructure is just not there,” said Mark Buell, the North American bureau director for the Internet Society, an international organization that studies and advocates for internet-related issues. “There, the network solution is driven by community. Often not for profit, but not necessarily.”

While the Middle Rio Grande consortium chased funding for a fiber-optic connection, widely considered the fastest available, other tribes have used wireless technology, including this network launched by the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association. Still other rural places have turned to municipally owned networks and rural electric cooperatives to build high-speed networks, sometimes with massive federal grants, other times with loans the co-op will pay back over time as the internet service expands.

When the Albuquerque-area tribes teamed up, they aggregated demand across the four tribal communities to apply together for federal funding available to pay for infrastructure for rural communities seeking to connect schools and libraries. The program, called E-rate, has been around since the late 1990s, and while it has helped more than six out of 10 public libraries in the U.S. get discounted internet service and technology, only 15 percent of tribal libraries have used the program. Roughly $3.9 million of the $4.2 million price tag on fiber construction to the four New Mexico pueblos comes from the E-rate program, the largest E-rate award in the state in 2016. The rest will come from local matches.

Sekaquaptewa and Lewis, both members of Cochiti Pueblo, visited tribal councils, talking with tribal leaders and building consensus among elders. The going was slow at first, and weekly project meetings slated for one hour started lasting two or three.

For Everett Chavez, administrator of tribal programs and a three-time former governor of Santo Domingo Pueblo, the internet project wasn’t a tough sell. Chavez doesn’t have a home internet connection, but he knows its importance; his son drives to the top of a nearby hill to download documents for school using a cellphone hot spot.

“It’s an equity issue for us,” Chavez said. “Education is something the pueblo has promoted, and we’re proud of that.” Teachers regularly assign homework that involves an internet connection, and Lewis says more students would sign up for online higher education or high school equivalency classes if the libraries could accommodate them.

The path to laying fiber in the ground wasn’t perfect for this group. Navigating federal regulations on how subsidies can and can’t be used and keeping track of deadlines was tough. “Hard deadlines are hard deadlines, we learned that really quick,” Lewis said. The group has spent more time than they anticipated shepherding the infrastructure work, cutting into valuable time that could be spent devising a plan for service delivery, he said.

And the federal E-rate program itself isn’t perfect. Confusing paperwork can lead to denials. Applications can linger in red tape. More than two dozen projects waited nearly a year for a decision, according to research compiled by EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit that advocates for better internet access in schools. According to their analysis, three New Mexico school districts’ applications have been unfairly denied.

Locally, too, bureaucracy proved challenging.

“Bureaucracy is our biggest problem,” Gar Clarke, broadband program manager for the New Mexico Department of Information Technology, said at a recent gathering of the New Mexico chapter of the Internet Society. “If you’re a school and you apply, you can’t light up the health care clinic next door.” The state has hired an E-rate specialist to help any public school on tribal lands — but that doesn’t include all Bureau of Indian Education schools. Chavez said a Bureau of Indian Affairs school on San Felipe Pueblo won’t be connected to this fiber-optic system, for instance, because it doesn’t qualify as “public” under federal standards.

The library at Santo Domingo Pueblo provides computer training to the public. Library staff hope the broadband project will benefit community members. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)

What’s next?

For now, the group of library directors and others running the project meets once a week, going over construction updates and redesigning construction paths and budgets when necessary ahead of a planned June launch. The Internet Society is studying how the group’s efforts could be replicated elsewhere, and consortium members like Lewis and Sekaquaptewa are regular speakers at rural internet gatherings, wanting to export what they’ve learned to other rural and Indigenous communities.

Buell, the Internet Society researcher, says three factors contribute to the success or failure of a community network like the tribes’: technology, governance and a business model that will last. No one model is right for every network. Many governance models will work, Buell said. It’s about finding the one that’s right for each community and regulatory environment. Some tribal networks are more market-oriented and capitalistic; others prioritize more traditional decision-making models.

“They need to reflect communities’ priorities from governance structures all the way down to who’s deploying the technology,” Buell said. “It’s the same no matter where you go. If it’s driven by the community, it’s much more likely to succeed in the long term.”

Challenges remain for the tribal internet consortium, mostly when it comes to sustaining and expanding the internet service. Chavez met recently with New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) to push a bill that would expand the federal E-rate program to include other anchor institutions in the community, like hospitals and tribal governments, not just schools and libraries. “Right now the focus is too narrow,” Chavez said. Extending broadband internet infrastructure to homes would have economic benefits, too, by connecting local artists to a larger market, he said.

And besides having the expertise needed to navigate complicated right-of-way and inter-governmental issues, for Chavez, there was a bigger reason why it was crucial the tribes lead the effort.

“It was important the first players were the tribes, in selling this to our councils,” Chavez said. “When we talk about sovereignty…we can’t just talk sovereign, we’ve got to act sovereign.”

This story was co-reported by Leah Todd with the Solutions Journalism Network and Sarah Gustavus with New Mexico In Focus and is part of the State of Change project. State of Change is a project in collaboration with High Country News and the Solutions Journalism Network.  A group of New Mexico news organizations are examining the challenge of building resilient rural communities, and are looking at what some communities are doing to address a number of issues they face including access to the internet.