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.
Officials from the City of Grants and the Navajo Nation sign a historical joint human rights initiative.
Farmington and Grants aren’t the only two New Mexico cities with which the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission would like to have a formal working relationship. Albuquerque also received a request from the NNHRC to sign an agreement that establishes a framework for cooperation on human rights. Of the approximately 60,000 American Indians who live in Albuquerque, about half are Navajo. City officials say they’ve been working on the language in the agreement and expect to have discussions with the NNHRC about agreement on an edited version soon.
The town of Grants has already signed the agreement, as presented by the NNHRC. But in Farmington there’s been a snag due to the desire by some officials, including the mayor, to strike from the agreement language describing historical racism and discrimination experienced by Navajos. The town’s Community Relations Commission is currently reviewing the agreement, and will meet with the NNHRC in Shiprock in early August to continue discussions.
Albuquerque officials also edited controversial language in the document
In Albuquerque, there’s been similar editing to the document, with the historical sections trimmed significantly but not entirely gone, the city’s human rights investigations officer, Juanita Martinez, told The Independent.
“There’s still a piece of the historical information in the document. We didn’t wipe it out completely,” she said. “…If that’s important to the Navajo Nation it should be important to us. It’s about sensitivity.”
NNHRC Executive Director Leonard Gorman previously told The Independent that the historical language is important, because people need to acknowledge and remember the past to ensure it isn’t repeated.
While she would not share the edited version with The Independent, Martinez said she felt the historical concerns still shine in the document. The edits to that section were largely due to the need for the document to be “progressive,” she said, demonstrating current efforts of the city to be responsive to American Indians.
“The most important pieces of the agreement are intact,” she said, “that allow our organizations to work closely together, and to find meaningful ways to create opportunities for urban natives.”
The agreement calls for regular meetings and reciprocity, with both the city and the Navajo Nation proactively working to improve coordination and cooperation to improve race relations, including public education initiatives and conducting trainings on human rights.
The agreement is currently being reviewed by the city legal department, she said, and the city still needs to have discussions with the NNHRC before settling on what the final document will look like. But she expressed optimism about the outcome, saying it represents an opportunity that can be built upon with other tribes.
“It really is a springboard,” she said. “If we can come to an agreement, and work together to try to resolve the issues that urban natives are facing, then we’ve potentially opened doors to the Pueblos that surround Albuquerque to. So it’s an opportunity to draw from the well, and if we’re able to make some considerable achievements and other tribes see we are making sincere efforts, we can make a much more comprehensive effort.”
Albuquerque’s human rights office administers the city’s human rights ordinance, which means it investigates complaints about discrimination in things such as employment, housing and public accommodation.
‘The situation in Albuquerque is tragic’
Martinez said there aren’t a lot of comprehensive studies to bolster the anecdotal information about discrimination against the Indian population, but she pointed to a 2003 HUD sponsored report by the Urban Institute that shows a clear pattern of discrimination in the quality and quantity of rental housing available to American Indians vis a vis other groups in the city.
A human rights report by the NNHRC will be released next week that compiles testimony gathered from 25 listening sessions, one of which was in Albuquerque. Native Americans testified that they clearly felt that racism and discrimination exist against Navajos in the region surrounding the reservation.
Some advocates characterize the Albuquerque human rights environment for American Indians in much blunter terms.
“It’s dismal,” said Gwendolyn Packard of Rain Cloud Off Reservation, a local behavioral health collaborative. “I’ve lived and worked in a lot of tribal communities, and I’d say the situation in Albuquerque is tragic.”
Packard said the formal agreement with the city requested by the NNHRC shows there is a problem in Albuquerque.
“A disproportionate number of our people are homeless, are showing up in the emergency room or in the criminal justice system,” she said. “The agreement recognizes there’s a problem, and that we all have a responsibility to address it.”
But Packard said such an agreement should be made with groups like hers in the city that work with the population as a whole, as well.
The population in Albuquerque is best thought of as an “off reservation” group who don’t have representation in decision-making bodies, she said, rather than smaller groups of different tribal members. This is because they share a collective experience, and lack support in the city from the tribes as well as the state, city and county governments. There is very little infrastructure that helps the off reservation community come together to address problems, she said.
“It’s pretty common to hear about race and discrimination,” Packard said. “But working together, we can change the dynamics by educating ourselves about who benefits from our status, and how we need to work together to change our status.”
