Indigenous youth, and the involvement of Indigenous people in the museum world and the arts. IT’S IMPORTANT BECAUSE…
I find these issues important because I’ve struggled to manage diabetes myself, especially as a teenager. There’s a lot of research and resources regarding diabetes prevention but little focused specifically on management of diabetes in Indigenous youth. Diabetes is a chronic illness that affects mental and physical health, which is pivotal in the development of our youth. I’ve also been introduced to the realities of the museum world. This is a challenging area. I didn’t fully comprehend the historical intersection of Pueblo people, art and consumerism. Growing up close to Santa Fe, a center for Indigenous arts and tourism, I was surrounded by people and places that shape what being an Indigenous artist means, what classifies as Indigenous art, and the ways we can protect our arts. Repatriation and laws to protect what anthropologists, ethnographers and collectors have taken from Indigenous people are also closely related to the work I hope to learn more about and participate in. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE POLICY THAT HAS IMPACTED TRIBAL COMMUNITIES, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
While there are many laws and policies that I would love to erase from history, I’d pick the Dawes Act of 1887 for its impact on the disconnection of our relationship to and autonomy over our land. Land, in itself, is sacred and essential to our sacred ceremonies and spiritual identities. The greatest challenge we face as Indigenous people, and for society in general, is climate change. Western expansion and colonization have put a monetary value on Mother Earth’s natural resources, resulting in extraction of such resources and violence toward those trying to protect them. I am concerned about the impacts of fracking in Chaco Canyon and the shrinkage of Bears Ears in Utah, as well as the massive extraction of resources by big corporations plaguing Indigenous populations of México and South America. WHO IS YOUR GREATEST INFLUENCE AND WHY?
With the historic election of fellow Pueblo woman Debra Haaland and Ho-Chunk tribal member Sharice Davids, Indigenous women are retaking our traditional places as leaders. Indigenous women’s leadership has always been vibrant in my life, as I was raised by my family’s matriarch, my grandma. I continue to be captivated by the actions of other Santa Clara women that founded movements for change, recently and historically, such as Pablita Velarde, Kayleigh Warren and Marissa Naranjo. Even at Stanford, the Indigenous women are amazing. Their personal and cultural insight and support for one another demonstrates how critical Indigenous women are in the makeup of society. Collectively, Indigenous women are my greatest influence. I aspire to be one of these amazing ladies and help cultivate other great women. IN 2050, MY PUEBLO COMMUNITY WILL BE…
• truly sovereign, having created our own standards for an Indigenous education system and its educators. • speaking and teaching Tewa as the first language in homes. • able to provide the resources necessary for students to go to college and help others choose paths to learn skills they need to succeed. • able to provide an alternative to blood quantum. • able to find an alternative to casinos to contribute to our economic well-being. • able to tell stories of their times at the Santa Clara Canyon to their children as they’re fishing or camping in the canyon. • able to say that they have few or no community members that are diabetic, alcoholic or have addictions. They will be mentally and physically well.¢
OP-ED: HSFNM Campaign Staff
Health Security for New Mexicans Nationwide, health care was the number one concern of voters in the fall elections. With constant threats to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there are lots of reasons to be worried—especially in New Mexico, which had the second-highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation before the ACA was passed. Along with dismantling important patient protections in the ACA, the message from Washington, D.C. has been to shift responsibility for health care coverage to the states. What approach should we take? What if New Mexico set up its own health plan? What if we set up one large pool of almost all New Mexico residents to share the risks and reduce the costs? What if our premiums—along with funds already going toward health care for some New Mexicans, such as Medicare and Medicaid—could go into that pool, instead of paying into large insurance company coffers with high administrative costs?
What if New Mexico Set Up Its Own Health Plan?
Even those of us who can afford health insurance know all too well the struggles of navigating a fragmented, convoluted and opaque system that serves shareholders rather than patients. What if the competitive schemes and market manipulations to cover only the healthy were suddenly no longer incentivized by the existence of hundreds of competing plans that offer the same benefits for enormous premiums and bankrupting deductibles, not to mention copayments and coinsurance costs that continue to rise? What if New Mexico residents, consumers, local businesses, medical providers and communities made key decisions around the allocation of health care resources, with need rather than profit driving those decisions? Can’t get an appointment with a specialist or even your primary care provider for three or four months? Not an uncommon scenario under the current system of health care delivery. But what if there were no networks? Without networks, additional providers would be freed up and available to see you. Oh, the freedom to choose our doctors and keep the doctors we choose! What if businesses could compete with each other on a level playing field, without worrying about providing health care coverage for their employees? If health care coverage is a given, businesses of all sizes can gain recruitment and retention advantages. And workers can change jobs to advance their careers, or take on a job that is more suitable for them or a job they are more passionate about, without the threat of losing their health care coverage. What if patients no longer had to worry about what is covered and how their coverage works? What if medications, medical supplies and medical equipment were negotiated to reasonable prices, with the weight and force of approximately 1.7 million New Mexicans in one pool as leverage? What if premiums were based on income, with an upper limit cap, so they would be truly affordable? What if doctors, other health care providers, and their staff could spend more time with patients rather than time on the phone with insurers, begging for prior authorizations and disputing billing issues? What if such a plan attracted physicians and providers from around the country to New Mexico, where we have a chronic shortage of medical professionals and specialists? More and more doctors are
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