Navajo Nation Washington Office

Wááshindoon Weekly

Monday, November 7, 2022

Native Candidates in the Spotlight as Mid-Terms Heat Up

There was a historical number of Indigenous candidates that ran for Federal and State offices in 2020 and that momentum is building in 2022. There are 87 Native Americans running for Federal or State offices this midterm. The Navajo Nation boarders three states—Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Arizona has five Native candidates, New Mexico has nine Native candidates, and Utah has one Native candidate. Out of the 87 running for offices across the states, 11 are enrolled members of the Navajo Nation. While most of the candidates are running for State offices, 11 are running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one is running for the Senate.

ALASKA

U.S. House of Representative Candidates – District 1

Mary S. Peltola (D) – Peltola was born in Western Alaska into the Yup’ik tribe. In 1998, she was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives. In 2010 she helped Senator Lisa Murkowski win her write-in campaign. Peltola was the Manager of Community Development and Sustainability for the Dolin Creek Mine from 2008-2014 and then served as a state lobbyist from 2015 to 2017. In 2017, Peltola was Executive Director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and from 2020 and 2021, she was a judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council’s Tribal court. Her top priority is fighting to preserve the Alaskan way of life, by reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Management Act.

HAWAII

U.S. House of Representative – District 2

Joe Akana (R) – Akana is from Honolulu, HI and is Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1984 and served 10 years. Akana graduated with a bachelor’s degree in human resource management. He received his masters degree from Hawaii Pacific University in business administration and a second graduate degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University. He is a retired projects manager and analyst with U.S. Government. Mr. Akana is currently the President of Arete Management, Inc. His top Priority is post Covid business recovery.

NEVADA

U.S. House of Representative – District 2

Elizabeth M. Krause (D) – Krause is from Las Vegas, NV and is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. She graduated with her BA in elementary education from the University of Las Vegas in 2001 and completed her MA in administrative leadership with a focus on American Indian education at Concordia University in 2016. She currently serves as a Commissioner on the Nevada Minority Affairs Commission. Krause co-founded the Indigenous Educators Empowerment to close the achievement gap among Native students in Nevada. Chair of the Nevada of the Native Caucus, her top priority is an expansion of the Native Tuition Waiver to include citizens and descendants of all Federally recognized tribes.

NORTH CAROLINA

U.S. House of Representative – District 7

Charles Graham (D) – From Pembroke, NC Graham is an enrolled member of the Lumbee tribe. He received a BS from Pembroke State University in 1973 and holds a masters in education from Appalachian State University and a Ph.D. in education from Lehigh University. Graham is a retired educator who worked as a special education teacher and program director from 1978 to 2006. In 2010 he was elected to the State House of Representatives, District 47. His current term ends in January of next year. Graham owns a companion home-health company in NC. His top priority is building an economy that works for everyone, by making education accessible and affordable.

U.S. House of Representative – District 4

Tom Cole (R) – From Shreveport, LA , Cole is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. He graduated with a bachelors in history from Grinnell College in 1971. He went on to receive his masters from Yale University and Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma in British history. In 1988 he was elected to the state Senate. From 1995 to 1999 he served as the OK Secretary of State. Elected to the U.S. House of Representative in 2002, his top priority is gun rights.

VIRGINIA

U.S. House of Representative – District 9

Taysha DeVaughan (D) – From Big Stone Gap, OK, DeVaughan is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation of OK. Graduating with a BA in communications from the University of Virginia in 2018, she began her career at the Appalachian Community Fund as a Regional Organizer and was promoted to her current position as the Donor Engagement Coordinator. She’s been active in her community since moving there in 2011, and has served as President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. She's active in Lonesome Pine Mutual Aid and she's a gubernatorial appointee of the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice. Her top priority is support for educational opportunities for kids at every level.

CALIFORNIA

U.S. House of Representative – District 33

John M. Porter (R) - From San Bernardino, CA, Porter is a member of the Long Pine Shoshone Tribe in the Owens Valley. He graduated with a BA in economics from Cal State San Bernardino and holds a post-graduate certificate in international studies from John Hopkins University. A lay minister at Catholic parishes in the U.S. and the Philippines, since 1993, he’s worked in the hospitality industry opening multiple restaurants including most recently Albi in Washington, DC. Porter’s top priority is to remove economic barriers and excessive subsides that inhibit growth.

KANSAS

U.S. House of Representative – District 3

Sharice Davids (D) – Davids is from Leavenworth, KS and is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. She graduated with her BA in business administration in 2007 and then received her Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 2010. After graduation she worked with SNR Denton (a multinational law firm) and later directed community and economic development for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In 2016 she was a White House Fellow in the Department of Transportation. In 2018 she was elected to U.S. house in Kansas’s 3^rd District. Her number one priority is lowering the cost of living throughout the states.

NEW MEXICO

U.S. House of Representative – District 2

Yvette Herrell (R) – Herrell hails from Ruidoso, NM. She’s an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She earned her Legal Secretary diploma from the ITT Technical Institute School of Business and worked as a real estate broker for Future Real Estate in Alamogordo, NM. She was first elected to District 51 as a state representative in 2010. In 2020, Herrell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives 2^nd congressional district. Her top priority is strengthening the U.S. southern border.

OKLAHOMA

U.S. Senate

Markwayne Mullin (R) – From Tulsa, OK, Mullin is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. He received his associate degree in construction technology from Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. In 1997, at the Age of 20, he took over his father’s business Mullin Plumbing and later branched out into owning Mullin Properties, Mullin Farms, and Mullin Services. He hosted House Talk, a home improvement radio program syndicated across OK. In 2012, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Mullin’s top priority is having a strong national defense by investing in advance equipment and technology.

U.S. House of Representative – District 2

Josh Brecheen (R) – From Ada, OK and is enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation. He received his BS with a dual degree in animal science and agricultural communications from Oklahoma State University. In 2010, he was elected to the State Senate 6^th district and served until 2018. Brecheen owns a quarter horse breeding operation and is motivational speaker. His top priority is to pass term limits on members of Congress.

WYOMING

U.S. house of Representative – Statewide

Lynnette Grey Bull (D) – From Pasadena, CA, she is a member of the Northern Arapaho from the Wind River Reservation and Hunkpapa/Dakota from Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. From 2014 to 2016 she was the Chair of the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs for the Governor’s Office. She was also a trainer/advisor consultant for the Department of Justice’s AMBER Alert program. Ms. Grey Bull is the Founder/Director of Not Our Native Daughters, serves on the Wyoming Governor’s Task force for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP), and the Wyoming Human Trafficking Task Force. Her top priority is energy policies for working families, states, and the planet.

Haaland v. Brackeen Oral Arguments on Wednesday

ICWA was created to keep Native American children in Native families and communities.

Photo courtesy of Whitewolfpack.com

On November 9, 2022, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Haaland v. Brackeen, a case to determine the constitutionality of certain provisions of P.L. 95-608, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which was intended to protect Native American children from being separated from their families and cultures. 

This case originates with the adoption by the non-Native Brackeen family of a boy with a Navajo mother and Cherokee father. The mother was found by a Texas state court to be unfit due to drug abuse. Both tribes challenged the adoption but having failed to find a suitable foster family, the adoption went through. Later the Brackeen family tried to adopt the boy’s sister, but this time extended family on her Navajo side were available to take the child and custody was granted to them. The Brackeens challenged that decision in Federal court, arguing that they were better able to take care of the child and that the brother and sister should stay together. They charged that denying these facts can only be attributed to unconstitutional discrimination based on their race as they were both non-Native. Several tribes and states joined the case as intervenors, arguing that their rights were also being challenged, and on appeal to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court, an en banc decision found that certain portions of ICWA were unconstitutional, while others were constitutional. All parties appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At the Supreme Court the primary arguments will likely focus on whether ICWA violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by giving a racial preference to any Indian regardless of Tribal affiliation before allowing a non-Indian to adopt a Native child, as well as whether ICWA violates the Tenth Amendment anti-commandeering doctrine, which states that the Federal government cannot force states to exercise their sovereignty in a certain way unless explicitly granted to the Federal government by the U.S. Constitution, arguing that ICWA was racist and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

While a final decision will not be provided during oral arguments, many analysts will pay close attention to the questions the justices ask to get a feel for how they will rule when the final decision comes out in a couple of months. To listen in, go to the Supreme Court’s website.

Miss Navajo Comes to Washington, DC

Miss. Navajo offered two songs at DOT’s observance of Native American Heritage Month. She was accompanied by Carletta Benally, Program Manager, Office of Miss Navajo Nation, and NNWO staff member, Marlena Forster. She is seen here with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. Photo courtesy of NNWO.

NNWO had the pleasure of receiving Valentina Clitso who was crowned Miss Navajo Nation in September of this year. Ms. Clitso was accompanied by Ms. Carletta Benally, Program Supervisor of the Office of Miss Navajo Nation.

Ms. Clitso engaged NNWO staff to discuss her priorities, which involve linking youth to elders to nurture cross-generational learning and to promote the preservation and proliferation of the Navajo language.

On Wednesday, Miss Navajo sang the National Anthem in Navajo at the Department of Transportation’s Native American Heritage Month observance and was given a tour of the Agency. She will return next week to participate in the honoring of Native veterans as the National Native American Veterans Memorial is dedicated.

Valentina Clitso is from Forest Lakes Chapter. She is Tódích’ii’nii (Bitter Water People), born for Bit’ahnii (Within His Cover), Tó’ahaní (Near The Water People), Áshįįhi (Salt People). A graduate of Monument Valley High School, she attended Arizona State University for undergraduate studies and will pursue post graduate work after her reign is completed next year.

The National Native American Veterans Memorial dedication will take place on November 11, 2022. It will include a procession followed by a dedication ceremony. To learn more about the event and activities surrounding it, click here.

Dedication of Native Building at UMD

The Piscataway Singers performed two songs for the dedication. Photo courtesy of NNWO.

On Tuesday, NNWO attended the dedication of a building at the University of Maryland (UMD) College Park campus.

The dedication was unique because the building, a dining hall, was designed to pay homage to the Piscataway Conoy—the first peoples of the DC area. The Piscataway are a State recognized tribe.

The dining hall is named Yahentamitsi, or “a place to go eat” in the Piscataway dialect of the Algonquian language. Dignitaries included Francis Gray, an alumnus of UMD and Piscataway Tribal Chairman, Keith Colston, Director of Ethnic Commissions, Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives in Maryland, and an enrolled citizen of the Tuscarora and Lumbee tribe. Darryll Pines, President of UMD, and other speakers were also part of the dedication. The Piscataway Singers offered an honoring song and a unity song.

Yahentamitsi isn’t just a place to go eat though. Its décor features Piscataway art and images and artifacts. Prior to construction, the ground was blessed by Maurice Proctor, a Piscataway citizen.

Discussions with faculty and administration officials included better ways to do outreach to Tribal colleges and a potential exchange program.

Native American Heritage Month--

Tribal Colleges - Native Ways of Learning

Since its inception Diné College has been among the top Tribal colleges in the amount of Associate Degrees offered to students. Photo courtesy of Navajo Hopi Observer.

As the civil rights movements of the 1960s heated up, marginalized communities began to assert that they wanted to be part of the American democracy and be represented in the fabric of American life as equal citizens. Activism took place in a variety of ways. Some American Indian people joined grass roots political movements, some worked in their communities to combat poverty and other issues. Perhaps one of the greatest efforts toward Native American inclusion was the establishment of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Native students experienced difficulties accessing higher education, and often it did not address their unique cultures and ways of learning.

The first Tribal college was named Navajo Community College and later changed to Diné College, which opened in 1969 in Many Farms, AZ. A piece of land was later offered to establish a bigger more permanent campus in Tsaile, Arizona. New centers and campuses were developed in Shiprock, Chinle, and Tuba City and talented faculty and staff were encouraged to teach and manage the colleges.

As Diné College was growing and beginning to offer four-year degrees, other Tribal leaders across Indian Country were energized and began their own movements to bring higher education closer to home and other Tribal colleges sprang up. Colleges wanted not just to offer curriculum that enabled students to matriculate to four-year universities, they also wanted to be places where Tribal culture and language proliferated. Schools including Tohono O’odham College in Sells, AZ, Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, SD, Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, MT and many others began to open.

In 1973, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) was formed to advocate for the proliferation and funding of Tribal colleges. Grants, Executive Orders, and engagements with Federal agencies and non-profit organizations began to develop.

Today, there are 35 accredited TCUs on over 75 campuses serving more than 30,000 students in 16 states, each run by their respective Tribal governments. Curriculums vary focusing on myriad aspects of educations including liberal arts, sciences, workforce development, and myriad other coursework.

There are also Tribal colleges in Canada, New Zealand, and Malaysia and other countries where there are Indigenous populations.

The TCUs engage in partnerships with organizations including DOI, the National Science Foundation, NASA and other universities to foster rich learning environments with curriculums that speak to the greatest challenges in Indian Country including climate change, health issues, and agriculture to name a few. Indian Country is big and spread out, so robust distance learning programs are also part of the initiative to provide access to students in the far flung areas of their reservations and urban students too.

The White House Initiative on AI/NA Higher Education is invested in strengthening education opportunities and improving education outcomes for all American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. It is committed to furthering Tribal self-determination and ensuring AI/AN students have access to educational opportunities at all levels. They are particularly interested in the notion that Native students should have opportunities to learn their Native languages and histories, receive complete and competitive educations, and be prepared for college.

TCUs have increased the success of Native American students exponentially. The American Indian College Fund reports that 86% of Tribal college students receive their degrees, while fewer than 10 percent of AI/AN students who go directly from reservation high schools to mainstream colleges and universities graduate.

NNWO Kicks Of Toys for Tots

The Navajo Nation is pleased to support the United States Marine Corps in their 2022 Toys for Tots campaign to make sure children on the Navajo Nation have a bright holiday. If you'd like to donate to Toys for Tots, click on the illustration by Charles Fazzino above.