I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Laurie Weahkee made national news back in May when, as a newly-elected, uncommitted superdelegate, she announced she would vote for Barack Obama. Now the Native American voting activist will be making news again – literally – for ABC News as she travels to the Democratic National Convention in Denver next week.
A few days ago, Weahkee told me, ABC News asked her to keep a video "Convention Diary" of her days leading up to and throughout the convention.
The network sent her a flip-camera to record her daily thoughts and activities, and Weahkee, a member of Zuni and Cochiti pueblos and the lead organizer for the Native American Voters Alliance, has thrown herself into the challenge of revealing what’s important to her as a representative of New Mexico.
A self-described camera-phobe, she said she’s chosen to focus more on external events than her own private thoughts.
"I said ‘yeah, yeah, yeah…send me the camera.’ But I don’t do well with the talking-head stuff," she said.
Because Weahkee’s heart lies in Native American organizing and saving sacred sites, she made sure to include some background about her efforts several years to stop a controversial road extension through the Petroglyphs on sacred ground just west of Albuquerque.
She also included footage of a recent meeting of the New Mexico Native American Caucus, which is led by longtime Native activists LaDonna Harris, Laura Harris and Darva Chino, among others.
"It’s newly-revived," explained Weahkee. "One of the things we are talking about is why Native Americans have historically shunned voting."
On a lighter note, Weahkee will also chronicle some convention-related wardrobe drama and reveal an early revolt within the New Mexico delegation.
Initially, the state Democratic Party wanted all of the delegates to wear matching blazers every day at the convention.
Untailored, men’s blazers.
But way too many of the female delegates complained, so, in the spirit of democratic compromise, the delegates will wear matching t-shirts instead, Weahkee reports.
Weahkee’s diary, along with those from other delegates across the country, will start appearing at http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/ beginning today.
