Native Americans
Tribal Courts Across US Expanding Holistic Alternatives to Criminal Justice System
Inside a jail cell at Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, Albertyn Pino's only plan was to finish the six-month sentence for public intoxication, along with other charges, and to return to her abusive boyfriend.
That's when she was offered a lifeline: An invitation to the tribe's Healing to Wellness Court. She would be released early if she agreed to attend alcohol treatment and counseling sessions, secure a bed at a shelter, get a job, undergo drug testing and regularly check in with a judge.
Pino, now 53, ultimately completed the requirements and, after about a year and a half, the charges were dropped. She looks back at that time, 15 years ago, and is grateful that people envisioned a better future for her when she struggled to see one for herself.
"It helped me start learning more about myself, about what made me tick, because I didn't know who I was," said Pino, who is now a case manager and certified peer support worker. "I didn't know what to do."
The concept of treating people in the criminal justice system holistically is not new in Indian Country, but there are new programs coming on board as well as expanded approaches. About one-third of the roughly 320 tribal court systems across the country have aspects of this healing and wellness approach, according to the National American Indian Court Judges Association.
Combining legal advocacy and support
Some tribes are incorporating these aspects into more specialized juvenile and family courts, said Kristina Pacheco, Tribal Healing to Wellness Court specialist for the California-based Tribal Law and Policy Institute. The court judges association is also working on pilot projects for holistic defense — which combine legal advocacy and support — with tribes in Alaska, Nevada and Oklahoma, modeled after a successful initiative at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana.
"The thought and the concept will be different from tribe to tribe," said Pacheco. "But ultimately, we all want our tribal people ... to not hurt, not suffer."
People in the program typically are facing nonviolent misdemeanors, such as a DUI, public intoxication or burglary, she said. Some courts, like in the case of Pino, drop the charges once participants complete the program.
A program at the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe in Washington state applies restorative principles and assigns wellness coaches to serve Native Americans and non-Natives in the local county jail, a report released earlier this year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation outlined. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma has a reintegration program that includes financial support and housing services, as well as cultural programming, career development and legal counsel. In Alaska, the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's wellness court helps adults in tribal and state court who are battling substance abuse and incorporates elements of their tribe's culture.
"There's a lot of shame and guilt when you're arrested," said Mary Rodriguez, staff attorney for the court judges association. "You don't reach out to those resources, you feel that you aren't entitled to those resources, that those are for somebody who isn't in trouble with the law."
'You are better than the worst thing you've done'
"The idea of holistic defense is opening that up and reclaiming you are our community member, we understand there are issues," Rodriguez said. "You are better than the worst thing you've done."
The MacArthur Foundation report outlined a series of inequities, including a complicated jurisdictional maze in Indian Country that can result in multiple courts charging Native Americans for the same offense. The report also listed historical trauma and a lack of access to free, legal counsel within tribes as factors that contribute to disproportionate representation of Native Americans in federal and state prisons.
Advocates of tribal healing to wellness initiatives see the approaches as a way to shift the narrative of someone's life and address the underlying causes of criminal activity.
There isn't clear data that shows how holistic alternatives to harsh penalization have influenced incarceration rates. Narrative outcomes might be a better measure of success, including regaining custody of one's children and maintaining a driver's license, said Johanna Farmer, an enrolled citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and a program attorney for the court judges association.
Some tribes have incorporated specific cultural and community elements into healing, such as requiring participants to interview their own family members to establish a sense of rootedness and belonging.
"You have the narratives, the stories, the qualitative data showing that healing to wellness court, the holistic defense practices are more in line with a lot of traditional tribal community practices," Farmer said. "And when your justice systems align with your traditional values or the values you have in your community, the more likely you're going to see better results."
While not all of these tribal healing to wellness programs have received federal funding, some have.
Between 2020 and 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice distributed more than a dozen awards that totaled about $9.4 million for tribal healing to wellness courts.
This year, the Quapaw Nation in Oklahoma started working on a holistic defense program after seeing a sharp increase in cases following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a large area of eastern Oklahoma remains a Native American reservation.
So far this year, about 70 cases have been filed, up from nearly a dozen in all of 2020, said Corissa Millard, tribal court administrator.
"When we look at holistic approaches, we think, 'What's going to better help the community in long term?'" she said. "Is sending someone away for a three-year punishment going to be it? Will they reoffend once they get out? Or do you want to try to fix the problem before it escalates?"
For Pino, the journey through Laguna Pueblo's wellness court wasn't smooth. She struggled through relapses and a brief stint on the run before she found a job and an apartment to live in with her son nearby in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her daughters live close by.
She largely credits the wellness court staff for her ability to turnaround her life, she said.
"They were the ones that stood by me, regardless of what I was choosing to do; that was the part that brought me a lot of hope," she said. "And now where I'm at, just to see them happy, it gets emotional, because they never let go. They never gave up on me."
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Land Back movement gains ground, but full tribal control still out of reach
Land Back is a global, Indigenous-led movement advocating for the return of stolen lands.
While Indigenous communities have long engaged in that fight, “Land Back” as a meme began to gain popularity in 2019.
It now describes a decentralized international movement that emphasizes treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, climate justice and cultural revival.
“Land Back is like a prism with many facets to it,” said Alvin Warren, a former lieutenant governor of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico who has spent decades advocating for the restoration and protection of Indigenous lands.
“For me, within the paradigm of the United States legal system and land tenure system, it absolutely means the restoration of full title to Indigenous people of a particular piece of land that is part of their original homeland.”
And it doesn’t stop with the transfer of legal title.
“It’s about reviving the land-based aspects of our ways of life,” he said. “It could be agriculture, it could be subsistence hunting, it could be gathering things. It is about reuniting, reconnecting us with our homeland, about undoing the many layers of separation and disconnection from our homelands that has been the goal of colonization in this country and in other parts of the world.”
Nick Tilsen, an Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, gained national attention in July 2020 for blockading the road to Mount Rushmore ahead of a visit by then-President Donald Trump.
Shortly afterward, the NDN Collective activist launched a #LandBack campaign for “the reclamation of everything stolen from the original peoples.”
“When they [the federal government] took the land, they took everything from our people,” Tilsen said. “They took our governance structures. They took our culture. They took our language. They tried to destroy the familial structure of our people, our ability to make decisions over our food systems and our education systems.”
Tilsen believes the U.S. government should return all public lands, including the Black Hills, which the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty designated for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of Sioux Bands, today known as the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires).
That treaty was nullified without the tribe’s consent in the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1876 after a government and scientific expedition confirmed the presence of gold in the hills.
Is getting that land back a realistic goal?
James Swan, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe in South Dakota, doesn’t think so.
“It’s a pipe dream,” the founder of the grassroots Indigenous rights group United Urban Warrior Society, said. “But let’s say the U.S. government does return the Black Hills. Then what?”
Swan points out that tribes are not truly independent.
“They're part of the U.S. government,” he said. “A tribal chairman might be elected by the tribe, but he can't do anything without the tribal superintendent’s permission, and the superintendent works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”
Fragmented land ownership
In 1887, the government allotted some treaty lands to Native American heads of household. The remaining land, over 36 million hectares, was sold to settlers or granted to newly formed states to generate funds to support public institutions such as schools, jails or hospitals. States were allowed to sell off some of their trust land “for no less than ten dollars an acre.”
Grist and High Country News recently reported that states today hold more than 809,000 hectares of surface and subsurface land on Indian reservations.
Federal oversight
The U.S. government legally owns 21 million hectares of reservation land that it holds in trust for the benefit of tribes and their members.
Federal rules limit what tribes can do with that trust land — they can’t sell, lease or transfer it without Interior Department approval and must follow strict environmental rules for many projects.
Within that trust land are restricted-fee lands that are owned by individual Native Americans or tribes but cannot be sold or transferred without federal approval and are exempt from state or local land-use regulations.
There are also fee-simple lands within those reservations that are owned outright by individuals or tribes.
“The fee-simple owner is the absolute total owner,” said Robert Miller, a law professor at Arizona State University and an expert in federal Indian law. “You have all the rights of ownership. Leave it to whoever you want. Sell it to whoever you want for a dollar or a million dollars.”
Previously, tribes were advised to purchase reservation land under a fee-simple title.
“But the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 and 1998 that if a tribe holds land under [a] fee-simple title, the state can impose annual taxes on it,” Miller said. “This has led tribes to request that the Interior Department take their fee-simple land into trust to avoid state interference.”
Pathways to land back
In December 2012, the Interior Department launched the Land Buy-Back Program, which purchased and restored to tribal trust more than 1.2 million hectares of land in 15 states over 10 years.
“The Land Buy-Back Program’s progress puts the power back in the hands of tribal communities to determine how their lands are used — from conservation to economic development projects,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said ahead of the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington.
But some Native Americans are skeptical about the program.
“It is not about returning lost lands and putting them into trust for Tribes,” Todd Hall (Hidatsa) wrote in Buffalo’s Fire, an independent news platform run by the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance. “It is about dispossessing Individual Indians of their landownership rights and converting those rights to the collective ownership of the Tribal governments which were enacted by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.”
Today, tribes across the U.S. continue to buy fractional interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers, often with help from conservancy groups and private landowners.
In September, the Western Rivers Conservancy transferred a 188-hectare former private cattle ranch to the Graton Rancheria in California for “permanent conservation and stewardship.”
Individuals also make private donations of land. In October 2018, Iowa citizen Rich Snyder voluntarily signed over land he owned in southern Colorado to the Ute Tribe.
In June, California announced it would return 1,133 hectares of ancestral land to the Shasta Indian Nation. Montana is currently considering the return of 11,800 hectares of trust land to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation in exchange for federal public lands outside of the reservation.
A University of Montana study in 2023 identified 44 laws placing federal public lands into tribal trust. Many, however, upheld existing rights such as access, grazing, mining or water use. Others stipulate that the land remain “forever wild” or be used only for “traditional purposes” such as hunting or holding ceremonies.
There are also legal routes to getting land back, especially with the U.S. Supreme Court establishing a key precedent in the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma case, which reaffirmed that a large area of eastern Oklahoma still belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“I predict there will be 30 to 50 years of litigation over every little issue if the state, feds and tribes don't cooperate,” Miller said.
Wisconsin agency issues permits for Enbridge Line 5 reroute around reservation
Enbridge's contentious plan to reroute an aging pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribal reservation moved closer to reality Thursday after the company won its first permits from state regulators.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials announced they have issued construction permits for the Line 5 reroute around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's reservation. The energy company still needs discharge permits from the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The project has generated fierce opposition. The tribe wants the pipeline off its land, but tribal members and environmentalists maintain rerouting construction will damage the region's watershed and perpetuate the use of fossil fuels.
Permits issued with conditions
The DNR issued the construction permits with more than 200 conditions attached. The company must complete the project by November 14, 2027, hire DNR-approved environmental monitors and allow DNR employees to access the site during reasonable hours.
The company also must notify the agency within 24 hours of any permit violations or hazardous material spills affecting wetlands or waterways; can't discharge any drilling mud into wetlands, waterways or sensitive areas; keep spill response equipment at workspace entry and exit points; and monitor for the introduction and spread in invasive plant species.
Enbridge officials issued a statement praising the approval, calling it a "major step" toward construction that will keep reliable energy flowing to Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region.
Bad River tribal officials warned in their own statement Thursday that the project calls for blasting, drilling and digging trenches that would devastate area wetlands and streams and endanger the tribe's wild rice beds. The tribe noted that investigations identified water quality violations and three aquifer breaches related to the Line 3 pipeline's construction in northern Minnesota.
"I'm angry that the DNR has signed off on a half-baked plan that spells disaster for our homeland and our way of life," Bad River Chairman Robert Blanchard said in the statement. "We will continue sounding the alarm to prevent yet another Enbridge pipeline from endangering our watershed."
Tribe sues in 2019
Line 5 transports up to 23 million gallons (about 87 million liters) of oil and natural gas daily from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. About 19 kilometers (12 miles) of the pipeline run across the Bad River reservation.
The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the pipeline from the reservation, arguing that the 71-year-old line is prone to a catastrophic spill and that land easements allowing Enbridge to operate on the reservation expired in 2013.
Enbridge has proposed a 66-kilometer (41-mile) reroute around the reservation's southern border.
The company has only about two years to complete the project. U.S. District Judge William Conley last year ordered Enbridge to shut down the portion of pipeline crossing the reservation within three years and pay the tribe more than $5 million for trespassing. An Enbridge appeal is pending in a federal appellate court in Chicago.
Michigan's Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking to shut down twin portions of Line 5 that run beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow waterways that connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel argued that anchor strikes could rupture the line, resulting in a devastating spill. That lawsuit is still pending in a federal appellate court.
Michigan regulators in December approved the company's $500 million plan to encase the portion of the pipeline beneath the straits in a tunnel to mitigate risk. The plan is awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
New Mexico helps Indigenous people search for missing family members
The U.S. Department of the Interior says American Indian and Alaska Native people are at a disproportionate risk of going missing, experiencing violence or being murdered. In the Southwest state of New Mexico, some Indigenous families are using a new grant to help expand their search for justice. Gustavo Martinez Contreras has our story.
Native Americans share mixed reactions to Trump win
In 2020, a record-setting six Native American candidates secured seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. This year, nine Native candidates ran for Congress, including four incumbents.
Confirmed winners
Representative Josh Brecheen, a Choctaw Republican representing Oklahoma's 2nd District, retained his seat, securing 74% of the vote. He thanked his supporters afterward, promising "to continue our work to secure our borders, rein in deficit spending and put a stop to our currency devaluation driving inflation."
Republican incumbent Representative Tom Cole, Chickasaw, was reelected to serve Oklahoma's 4th District for an 11th term.
Kansas Democrat Representative Sharice Davids, a Ho-Chunk citizen, retained the House seat she won in 2018.
"We are going to keep up our fight. We are absolutely going to keep up our fight," Davids told supporters. "To do things like expand Medicaid, making sure that we have good public schools, making sure we're funding public education including special ed, making sure we have a Kansas that actually works for everyone."
Incumbent Representative Mary Peltola (Yup'ik), a Democrat, has represented the Alaska district at large since 2022. The race has not yet been called, but as of Friday evening, she was behind her Republican opponent. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, by which voters rank candidates in order of preference. Election officials are still waiting for incoming ballots that have yet to be counted and hope to certify results by the end of November.
Results are still pending on whether former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez will win his bid to represent Arizona's 2nd District in the House.
"We're still waiting for some votes to come in, especially in the counties that are more highly Democratic, so it will be interesting to see how those votes look," Nez told local news outlet InMaricopa.
How Natives voted
As VOA previously reported, experts indicate that Native voters are not strictly partisan; instead, they prioritize issues that best address tribal needs. While they have traditionally leaned Democratic, recent statistics reveal a shift of the Native vote toward the right.
The exact number of Native Americans who voted on November 5 remains unknown. This year saw expanded efforts by organizers to mobilize Native voters, especially in swing states such as Arizona and New Mexico. However, barriers to voting persist for many Native communities, including limited access to polling locations and mail services on reservations, which can make casting ballots challenging.
"Indian people are microcosms of society," Aaron Payment, former chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa in Michigan, commented on the Native America Calling podcast Wednesday. "A lot of Indian people live in rural areas … so people voted based on what they heard."
He cited the impact of Christian missionaries, as well as the pro-life movement and the National Rifle Association.
Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump in Indian Country include Myron Lizer, former vice president of the Navajo Nation.
"Our people have been voting Democrat for over five decades and nothing's changed," he told the Navajo Times in late October.
Cherokee citizen Senator Markwayne Mullin and Representative Cole, both of Oklahoma, also backed Trump and stand to play key roles in the new administration.
Project 2025
The conservative Heritage Foundation in 2023 released Project 2025, a mandate for a future Republican administration. It proposes some substantial changes that directly affect tribes.
"His Project 2025 plans will centralize power in the executive office, an extreme threat to Tribal-federal relations and our rights as sovereign nations to make decisions about policies that impact our lands, resources, and people," Judith LeBlanc (Caddo), director of the Native Organizers Alliance, wrote for Native News Online Thursday.
The plan proposes to reverse Biden/Harris climate change policies and prioritize coal, oil, gas and mineral mining.
"Project 2025 specifically calls for expanding the Willow Project, drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, and shrinking Bears Ears National Monument," said Gussie Lord, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Tribal Partnerships Program.
"Historically, these kinds of activities have resulted in negative impacts to tribal resources, such as serious long-term pollution and destruction of sacred sites and cultural resources. The tribes we work with at Earthjustice are fighting to preserve natural areas so they can continue to be used," Lord said.
While unwelcome news for some tribes, the plan could be good news for others.
"There are some tribes, I think energy [producing] tribes, that are probably going to be pleased with the outcome because they didn't quite jump on board on the clean energy [agenda]," Payment noted during the Native America Calling discussion.
Trump has vowed to launch unprecedented deportation operations and continue work on the southern border wall. The Tohono O'odham tribe, whose members straddle the U.S.-Mexico border, have complained that wall construction damaged cultural sites and restricted free movement across the border.
The Heritage plan calls for restructuring or abolishing some federal departments. It would eliminate the Education Department and shift its Indian education program to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It would also eliminate the Head Start child care programs that currently serve tens of thousands of Native American children.
Project 2025 does not explicitly mention moving the BIA to the State Department, an idea that was reportedly floated during Trump's first term.
Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), publisher and editor of Native News Online, advises caution.
"Given the complexities of issues impacting tribal nations, more research and at least a year-long consultation should be conducted with tribal leaders and only after an agreement has been reached should such a drastic change take place," he told VOA via email. "Ideally, a separate department or federal agency called Indian Affairs should be created so that tribal nations can be afforded the due respect they deserve."
But Project 25 does propose restructuring the Interior Department (DOI); possible contenders to head DOI include Doug Burgum, governor of oil-rich North Dakota.
Looking forward
Tribal leaders are urging citizens to set aside differences and focus on the work ahead. After all, they've endured much over the centuries.
"Now is the time to come together as a Tribe and support each other and look out for one another as has been our way for generations," Jaison Elkins, chairman of the Muckleshoot tribe in Washington state, posted on the tribe's website. "There will be opportunities and obstacles in the upcoming months, as there always are, but together we can handle anything."
A guide to Native American candidates for Congress in 2024
Native Americans comprise 3.4% of the U.S. population but hold only 0.07% of all elected offices. In 2020, a record-breaking six Native Americans were elected to Congress. This year, nine Native Americans, including four incumbents, are vying for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES:
Incumbent Josh Brecheen (Choctaw), Oklahoma, 2nd District
Brecheen is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Budget Committee. He previously served in the Oklahoma Senate, where he limited himself to an eight-year term.
In an editorial for the McCarville Report following a 2023 trip to the U.S. border with Mexico, Brecheen cited nearly 4.7 million illegal crossings since 2020 and record levels of drug and human trafficking. He argues that policy changes, including halting border wall construction and revising federal immigration laws, have weakened border security.
Brecheen would like to complete the border wall and implement advanced security technology, including ground sensors, to improve surveillance.
He prioritizes a strong military and supports gun rights. He opposes abortion and defunding the police.
On financial issues, he pushes for budget cuts to reduce inflation and the national debt, and he says he is committed to protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Sharon Clahchischilliage (Navajo), New Mexico, 3rd District
Clahchischilliage currently serves on the New Mexico Public Education Commission and is running against the incumbent Democrat, Teresa Fernandez.
The district includes most of northern New Mexico and some of the eastern part of the state. Her district holds large fossil fuel and mineral reserves, which Clahchischilliage says are vital to economic development.
“It’s time for Congress to hear a voice like mine, someone who has served our country, taught in the classroom, raised on the family farm and fought against the radicals in Santa Fe," she told the Albuquerque Journal in September. "From energy production to protecting the farmers, ranchers and herders, New Mexicans need someone who has lived their experiences, not tell them how to live.”
Clahchischilliage previously served in the state Legislature, supporting water rights and investments in infrastructure, education and economic development. During a candidate forum October 7 in Santa Fe, she said she does not believe in climate change.
“The earth is cleansing itself,” she said.
She opposes gun safety laws and believes the government should focus more on crime involving the use of guns rather than on the weapons themselves.
Incumbent Tom Cole (Chickasaw), Oklahoma, 4th District
Cole was elected to Congress in 2002 and is serving his 10th term. He is the longest-serving Native American lawmaker in House history.
In April, he became the first Native American to chair the House Appropriations Committee.
“States and the federal government must work with Native Americans to maintain the integrity of their heritage, culture, and rights,” Cole wrote in his weekly column shortly after being named. “At the same time, the federal government must uphold its constitutional oath to tribes to provide basic resources such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, and law enforcement, among many others, in Indian Country.”
He says veterans' services, Social Security reform and border security are his top priorities.
In the final days of his campaign, Cole led a bipartisan delegation to the Middle East to strengthen alliances and deepen collaboration on security challenges. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials briefed the group on current military operations and hostage rescue efforts.
Yvette Herrell (Cherokee), New Mexico, 2nd District
Herrell is challenging Democratic incumbent Gabe Vasquez in a district that includes a chunk of the southern border with Mexico.
A former U.S. representative for this district from 2021 to 2023, she favors restarting construction of the border wall and ending so-called "catch and release" policies that hold migrants in detention rather than allowing them into the community while they wait for their hearings.
Endorsed by the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association and the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, she advocates "defending" rather than "defunding" police. Herrell strongly supports Second Amendment gun rights and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
Herrell says she prioritizes economic growth through reduced regulation, lower energy prices and increased domestic oil and gas production, which, in part, could fund state education programs. She opposes abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES
Dennis Baker (Muscogee of Euchee descent), Oklahoma, 1st District
Baker is an attorney and former FBI special agent whose platform focuses on worker rights. He supports raising the federal minimum wage, protecting and expanding labor unions and strengthening worker protections.
Baker says he was moved to run for political office after watching the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I saw the results of political extremism and said, you know, that's not my values. I don't think it's America's values,” he told Tulsa’s FOX23 News in July.
Baker opposes any state-level challenges to tribal authority. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that state governments have the authority to prosecute certain cases on tribal lands. Baker opposes any state-level challenges to the authority of 39 recognized tribes in Oklahoma.
Baker also supports reproductive rights and marriage equality.
Incumbent Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk), Kansas, 3rd District
Davids was elected to represent Kansas' 3rd District in 2018, one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress — the other was Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna), representing New Mexico’s 1st District and currently U.S. secretary of the interior.
Davids has a background as a lawyer and former mixed martial arts fighter. Her career in Washington has focused on reducing living costs for families, promoting economic growth and advocating for government accountability.
She worked with Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which addressed domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking She and Cole also introduced the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2024, a bill that, if passed, would create a commission to investigate the federal Indian boarding school system and recommend actions to promote the healing of survivors and descendants.
In her district, Davids secured more than $1.5 billion in federal funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve the state’s infrastructure.
Incumbent Mary Peltola (Yup’ik), Alaska, District at Large
Peltola grew up in towns along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska. She began her political career early. In 1998, at age 24, she won a seat in the state House of Representatives, the first Alaska Native to serve in that position. In 2022, she won Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House, and just days after being sworn in, she introduced a bill establishing an office of food security within the Department of Veterans Affairs, which passed in the House with strong bipartisan support.
A strong advocate for Alaska Natives, her top concerns are subsistence fishing, food security, infrastructure and the impact of climate change.
She also worries about out-migration from her state.
"We are seeing this negative trend of our young people leaving and people not moving to Alaska," Peltola told Alaska Public Media on October 30. "I think that we really need to be talking more and finding more solutions on food security, on shipping costs, on energy costs."
Madison Horn (Cherokee), Oklahoma, 5th District
Horn is running for a seat in Congress for the second time. In 2022, she lost her bid for a U.S. Senate seat. This year, she is looking to unseat House Republican incumbent Stephanie Bice.
Her background is in cybersecurity and national security. She was a founding member of Siemens Energy’s global cyber practice and later CEO of Critical Fault, an Oklahoma-based cybersecurity firm whose logo is “paranoid with a purpose.”
In a recent post on X, Horn noted that China, Russia and Iran are advancing their cyber capabilities and building alliances to threaten U.S. security. Her key concerns include a digital Cold War with China over economic security and the risks of quantum computing to current encryption systems.
“We need technical expertise and with a strategic vision to craft modern policies that enhance American resilience against evolving threats,” she said.
Jonathan Nez (Navajo), Arizona, 2nd District
Nez began his political career as the vice president of the Shonto Chapter, one of the 110 local, semi-self-autonomous districts on the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the U.S. Later, he served on the Navajo Nation council, and in 2015 was elected the Nation’s vice president and served until 2023.
He steered Navajos through the COVID-19 pandemic and organized a vaccination campaign through which 70% of Navajo citizens were vaccinated.
Nez says his policy priorities include protecting voting rights, advancing border security and immigration reform, ensuring water security and environmental sustainability in the face of climate change, and upholding reproductive rights and marriage equality as matters of individual autonomy.