Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Democracy on the Reservation
The Tyranny of Democracy
Marcos Martinez
Here in New Mexico, there are 21 Indian tribal communities. These includes nineteen pueblos, along with Apache and Navajo reservations. There are also thousands of Native Americans who live in cities like Albuquerque and Farmington. When the first Spanish military expeditions came here in the sixteenth century New Mexico?s Indian communities already had sophisticated forms of democratic self-governance.
On the banks of the Rio Grande, south of Albuquerque is the Pueblo of Isleta. Verna Teller has lived here all her life, and served as pueblo governor from 1986 to 1990. Teller says a matrilineal clanship system provided for maximum input in tribal decision-making.
Verna
"Any issue, anything that would impact our people, tribe, land, if people were sick, or disharmony, it was a decision of the clan leaders. So it was a long drawn out process and it was very democratic. And it was more democratic than what we have now even though we have a constitution based on American jurisprudence."
After their arrival, the Spanish soon imposed a new form of secular government, designed to meet the needs of colonization. This new government existed side by side with the traditional ways, and remained in place thru the Spanish, Mexican and American periods. Some of New Mexico?s pueblos still use a traditional system in which the religious leaders meet and select the governor. Ted Jojola, also from Isleta Pueblo, is a professor of community and regional planning at the university of New Mexico. He describes the responsibilities of being selected for leadership in the traditional system.
Jojola
"The interesting part is that once you were served, you couldn?t say no. if you did say no there were repercussions, from the record, people were ostracized or kicked out if they were unwilling. The compensation was not monetary; this was your responsibility, to give back. The community reciprocated by making sure your daily needs were met; in all sorts of forms."
In 1934, the U.S. government devised the Indian Reorganization Act, which offered tribes the choice of adopting a constitutional form of government, with a popularly elected governor, tribal council and tribal courts. Verna Teller says the government handed down cookie-cutter constitutions that were flawed.
Verna
"In 1947 the pueblo of Isleta adopted a constitution, subsequent to IRA. Isleta, with a lot of internal dispute, we became a constitutional government. It really divided the people in 1947?.
Real debate about how leadership would be defined, in terms of traditional leadership and the modern secular leadership."
Teller explains that after world war two, young Indian men returning from the service brought home new ideas about more participatory government. At that time Indians could vote in tribal elections, but they didn?t have the right to vote in state or federal elections. An Acoma Pueblo war veteran named Miguel Trujillo sued the government and won native Americans the right to vote. It was these types of changes, and a growing dissatisfaction with the way tribal government was being run that led Verna Teller to become the first woman candidate for governor of Isleta Pueblo in 1986. Despite efforts to prevent her from running, or winning, she was elected. The result, she says, was a lesson in political reality and grassroots democracy.
Verna
"It was an uphill battle from there on. I became the governor. Then the two losers who were trying to keep me off the ballot became council president and vice president.. Nothing we could do with that council. They had two or three recalls, conjured up things. It was living hell with that council. The only recourse is that the people were empowered by that election. The people finally realized they were the power at Isleta. So we said okay, this council represents the people, so we?re going to the people. That?s how we functioned for four years."
Teller and her fellow reformers were nonetheless able to implement changes, including an amendment to the pueblo constitution that led to the tribal council being directly elected by voters, instead of appointed.
In New Mexico, voting rates for tribal offices are generally high, but voting by Indians in non-tribal elections is another story. Some are convinced that ensuring the future of new Mexico Indian communities will require participation in elections and in government at all levels. This election season, there are at least two voter registration and education efforts underway that specifically target Native Americans. One is taking place at Sandia Pueblo, the other in the city of Albuquerque.
Lori Weahkie
"And the idea is to build it as a potential swing vote."
Lori Weahkie is a member of the SAGE Council, a grassroots organization working to protect an area of sacred petroglyphs on Albuquerque?s west side from encroaching development and road construction. Weahkie says she and fellow activists were often frustrated in their efforts to be heard.
Lori Weahkie
"We attended numerous meetings, mrgcog, council, meeting after meeting, and we kept losing votes. We?d bring all kinds of people to these meetings and they would make impassioned speeches, why protect this area, we tried to shift our arguments. Bu the bottom line is we kept losing vote after vote. Eventually you come to the conclusion that we need some folks on this panel who can vote our way; period."
One of the successes Native Americans in New Mexico have enjoyed in recent years has been the negotiating of agreements with the state that paved the way for Indian gaming. Casinos have sprouted on a dozen reservations, and the revenues have resulted in new health care centers, college scholarships, and perhaps most importantly, political clout.
Ted Jojola
"Absolutely. That power relationship has changed dramatically within the last ten years, since the casino enterprises have been successful and now serve as magnets for non Indians."
University of New Mexico professor Ted Jojola says Native Americans have shows a high level of sophistication and astuteness in navigating the political system, specifically in winning the right to build and operate casinos.
Ted Jojola
"A good an aspect of that that?s a good example is that the employees of the casino; when you?ve got two thousand employees, in an operation like that, and less than five percent are from the tribe, then you have 95 percent have an allegiance because sandia is their employer. Sandia provides benefits like medical, etc, then an even greater success in gaining their allegiance. So when there was this meltdown impasse with the legislature over the compacts, and the state tried to rattle its saber and threaten to shut them down, who was it that came to confront the state and the state police; it was the employees, and the non-Indian employees because they were the ones most likely to lose the gain they get from employment."
Among the most successful of the casinos is at Sandia Pueblo, just north of Albuquerque. Governor Stuwart Paisano says the federal process just wasn?t working for Sandia. Funding for critical services wasn?t trickling down. Casino revenues have paid for community water services, housing and communications. Governor Paisano says the tribe recently put a new computer in every pueblo home..
Stuwart Paisano
"Gaming has also helped us with regard to playing in the same league as everyone else if afforded with regard to state, congressional delegation. Working with the governor?s office. Always in the back of our mind is our community, how can we help them, what our community needs."
Governor Paisano says Sandia Pueblo has been aggressive in pursuing a place at the table where important policy issues are being decided. On the day of our interview, Paisano was preparing to host a fundraising reception for a California lawmaker who heads an important natural resources committee in the U.S. Congress. Paisano says that in the last general election, sandia had the highest voter turnout rate in New Mexico.
But while Indian communities embrace voting and other forms of modern American democracy, remnants of the old, consensus based methods sometimes become intertwined. Professor Ted Jojola:
Ted Jojola
"I had a colleague who is Navajo who I had a discussion with one time, when the Navajos voted about whether to accept gaming. They voted again, both times no; it keeps vacillating back and forth. It was interesting what he said. He said the way we make decisions is not based on majority rule. That in fact if you look at it from how people are voting; a close vote means there?s no consensus. Half is divided against the other half. One way or the other one half could frustrate the process. There will be no significant action until you get one hundred percent no or one hundred percent yes."
And some New Mexico Indians express ambivalence about participating in elections outside their tribal communities. Petuuche Gilbert is from Acoma Pueblo. He describes modern democracy as a tyranny of the majority.
Petuuche
"I didn?t invent that, but that is the way it?s practiced. The majority decides what?s going to be good for America. You have a small percentage of native peoples. Do you play a part by voting? We are prisoners of democracy."
This election season, native Americans in New Mexico have worked hard to educate voters in their communities and ensure a high turnout, in spite of the difficulties and contradictions in the process. And once the voting is done, they?ll turn their attention to the next phase, holding those elected officials accountable. From Albuquerque, this is Marcos Martinez reporting.
