Issues

Democrats recognize and respect tribal sovereignty and acknowledge the fundamental Trust Responsibility of the United States government to American Indian and Alaska Native People and tribal governments as grounded and embedded in treaties, laws, and court decisions. Democrats will work to promote positive government-to-government relations and effective collaboration between the state and Indian Nations, Tribes, and Pueblos. Democrats will honor, strengthen, and fulfill the sovereign, inherent rights of Tribes and Pueblos in New To respect and honor the history of the Tribes and Pueblos of New Mexico, understand their unique political, economic, social, cultural strengths and challenges, and recognize their contributions to the growth, advancement, and development of our state; and

1. All levels of state and local government work with Tribes and Pueblos to develop formal and informed processes whereby tribal leadership and stakeholders can exercise their right to self-determination and are given opportunities to collaborate in developing and enacting laws and policies that affect them; and

2. To actively recruit and engage members of our State’s Tribes and Pueblos and other American Indians and Alaska Natives into the Democratic Party of New Mexico and ensure equitable participation in all Party proceedings and leadership roles; and

3. To work with and invest in tribal communities to provide voter outreach, voting access, and education to eliminate voter suppression and discrimination and increase awareness of their voting rights and responsibilities and encourage their participation in the election process; and

4. To acknowledge the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations; the principles of self-determination and governance; the relations and connections to lands, sacred sites and cultural resources, and the sacredness of language which is critical to self-governance.

We Will

1. Recognize, honor, and protect the sovereignty and capacity for self-governance of the Tribes and Pueblos of New Mexico; and

2. Begin all Democratic Party of New Mexico events and proceedings with a land acknowledgment; and

3. Ensure all Native constituents have a mailing address to receive a voting ballot and have equal access to polling locations; and

4. Support and assist New Mexico Tribes and Pueblos in obtaining sufficient and meaningful resources to bolster and strengthen economic development and self-determination in sustainable and culturally sensitive ways; this includes access to the basic social determinants of health, sound infrastructure development (clean air and drinking water, waste water services, and electricity), access to broadband connectivity, utility accessibility, and road improvements prioritizing school bus routes; and

5. Support Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos in protecting their original and currently recognized homelands and helping ensure that water, air, land, and cultural resources and sacred sites are protected from damage, disturbance, and contamination utilizing existing state and federal laws. We affirm that tribal communities have the right to implement their own EPA standards and ensure restoration of their original homelands, in addition to the federal government standards; and

6. We commit to supporting equitable compensation to Indian Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos for rights-of-way, leases, and other uses of their lands and resources; and

7. Provide support for existing tribal and pueblo agricultural practices that include the protection of traditional seed-saving, irrigation systems, and other cultural traditions; and

8. Support and assist Tribes and Pueblos in obtaining affordable and accessible quality health care and behavioral healthcare. This includes addiction treatment services through delivery systems that include the Indian Health Service (IHS), Medicare, and Medicaid. This will help in protecting funding streams that enable Tribes and Pueblos to procure multi-level health care services for their members and provide sufficient funding for eldercare services such as nutrition and caregiver programs in tribal communities. Prevent Medicaid funding based on block grant formulae; and

9. Assist and support educational programs that respect tribal sovereignty and self-determination with an emphasis on high-quality instruction, effective professional teacher development, recruitment, retention, and the development of culturally sensitive curricula including Native language retention and instruction; and

10. Will work to effectuate meaningful education policy change that includes: (a) collaborating with the Bureau of Indian Education; (b) supplementing and not supplanting federal Impact Aid funding; strengthening self-determination by enabling culturally inclusive learning techniques unique to each tribal nation; (c) furnishing and funding tribal libraries; (d) fostering the advancement of higher education that includes the re-introduction of career technical education; (e) creating and developing a literate, highly skilled, and well-educated workforce within tribal communities; (f) providing childcare, nutrition, and early childhood education programs in tribal communities; (g) protecting Title IX funding and special education assistance programs, and (h) supporting administration development and Indian Education support staff within tribal communities; and

11. Support and monitor the implementation of the Tribal Remedy Framework and the key tenets of the Yazzie/Martinez vs. New Mexico case; and

12. Protect existing laws and intergovernmental agreements benefiting tribal interests in the areas of taxation, education, voting, healthcare, and cultural resources and ensure that American Indians and Alaska Natives living on or off tribal lands in the state benefit equally from state and local funding, programs and services, with the understanding that intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration benefits the entire State of New Mexico; and

13. Support and protect meaningful tribal consultation and collaboration with New Mexico’s Tribes and Pueblos to participate and comment on all legislation affecting tribal interests as early as possible in the legislative process, including interim periods and legislative sessions, and in areas where the Democratic Party of New Mexico may have influence in tribal relations; and

14.  Support laws such as the State Tribal Collaboration Act and Indian Child Welfare Act and their implementation; and

15.  Uplift Native women to be central to the struggle for Native liberation and sovereignty.  Support Native women seeking leadership roles; and

16. We will protect all Native Americans regardless of gender from legal, political, and extra-legal discrimination, persecution, killing, torture, rape, and human trafficking; and

17. Implement and provide continued technical support regarding emergency management services on tribal land, including the implementation of Amber Alert and Silver Alert communications in these communities; and

18. Fully fund the New Mexico Tribal Infrastructure Fund (TIF), as supported by the Tribal Infrastructure Act, to include water line projects, fire stations, and other community-development projects on Native lands; and

19. Support American Indian water rights settlements and easements.