Wednesday, March 26, 2025

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Native American students make up 11% of public school enrollment in New Mexico. Yet there are not enough resources for them to learn their Native languages.

A bill passed in the recent legislative session would create new schools under a state-tribal compact to address those gaps.

Reporter Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more.

New Mexico has 23 sovereign tribes and among those tribes eight languages are spoken, but only seven are taught in school districts.

Senate Bill 13 would create a five-year pilot program with five schools prioritizing distinct Native languages of Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Keres, Apache, Zuni, and Diné.

The bill’s co-sponsor, State Sen. Benny Shendo Jr. (Jemez Pueblo/D-NM), says that many Native parents and grandparents have been conditioned to believe the only way to succeed was to speak English.

“But that’s not true. I was born and raised speaking my language. It wasn’t much later, you know, that I began to learn English. So how can that be when those of us that were fluent Native speakers are able to be successful in college and all the stuff that we’re doing today?”

He says a lot of Native students are struggling because they don’t feel that they belong.

“And if we can really reground them in who they are, then I think it gives them that confidence for them to be able to go out and compete in the world in a way that they should be competing, not with anxiety about, ‘Who am I? Where do I belong?’”

Native American students have historically reported lower achievement and graduation rates than their peers.

The New Mexico Indian Education Act stresses the importance of maintaining Native languages and culture, but programs providing these opportunities are currently limited within public schools.

In 2018, a ruling in the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit determined the state had failed to provide a sufficient education to Native American students as well as those learning English, living with disabilities, or from families with low incomes.

The Legislative Education Study Committee’s analysis of the new legislation suggested it could offer the state an opportunity to respond to the lawsuit.

The bill does not contain an appropriation, but will provide operational and capital outlay funding for immersion schools.

A shelter for victims of domestic violence in Merrill, Wisc., funded in part through a grant from USDA.

A new study shows intimate partner violence disproportionately impacts Indigenous women more than any other ethnic or racial group in the U.S.

Judith Ruiz-Branch reports.

The murder rate for Native American women and girls is up to 10 times higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, yet they account for less than 1% of the population.

Desiree Tody, outreach program coordinator at the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse and a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, said violence against Native women is underreported and unaddressed.

“There’s jurisdictional issues that come into play as to how things are investigated, how things are tried, and there’s always racism. There’s less attention paid to the individuals that some of these things happen to.”

The Wisconsin Department of Justice created a task force to combat violence against Native women across the state after legislation which would have addressed the issues failed to pass.

There are currently no upcoming task force meetings listed on the newly updated DOJ website.

Poor tracking and data collection are among the many issues contributing to the epidemic among Indigenous women.

During a multistate march last month, Tody read a list of names of Indigenous people from Minnesota who had died from domestic violence.

No such list currently exists for Wisconsin and Tody noted she is working to change it.

She emphasized the great need to address the systems in place, which continue to fail Native people.

“I have three daughters that I want them to grow up as strong Native women and I want them to grow up safely as strong Native women. This is their futures on the line. This is their ability to walk down a street safely.”

Research shows Indigenous women also face significant barriers when seeking help after experiencing domestic violence.

A survivor of domestic violence herself, Tody works with the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse to provide resources for those affected in Bayfield and Ashland counties.