(music plays) >>IN THE ORIGIN STORIES OF ALL THE TRIBES OF NEW MEXICO WOMEN ARE CENTRAL TO CREATION.

SOME PUEBLOS TELL US CORN WOMAN IS MOTHER EARTH WHO GIVES LIFE.

THOUGHT WOMAN MADE THE UNIVERSE, THE EARTH AND THE FOUR WORLDS BELOW BY THINKING IT.

FOR THE NAVAJO AND APACHE CHANGING WOMAN IS THE CREATOR, THE MOTHER OF THE FIRST PEOPLE, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS.

SHE HAS THE ABILITY TO GROW OLD AND THEN YOUNG AGAIN LIKE THE SEASONS, REPEATING THE CYCLE OF LIFE ON EARTH.

OLD GRANDMOTHER "SPIDER WOMAN" SPINS THE WORLD INTO BEING WITH WHAT SHE IMAGINES.

AT THE CENTER OF ALL IS WOMAN AND NOTHING IS SACRED WITHOUT HER BLESSING, HER THINKING.

(Different Native Language >>In my grandfather's prayers he always thanked all the deities and one of them was Mother Earth.

We were taught that the forces of nature were all sacred, and to me that became a core value of mine.

From the earth comes our food, our nourishment, everything comes from the earth.

And to think about just the beauty, the concept of beauty, to grow up with it, to think that that is a feminine force, a feminine energy.

You're told the origin stories and you were told about how important you are and the role that you're going to play, how you are a balance to man in this world.

>>The creation tells us when everything was put on this earth when everything around this earth was created, the moon, the Sun, the stars, that came from our mother.

That element that brings life, that brings the ability to prosper, to have strength wisdom.

And for the Pueblo communities that has been the cornerstone of our existence and our survival.

(Dine spoken) >>I mention my clan.

I also acknowledge my relatives.

People who are of those clans, and in doing so, then I also acknowledge too that I am a child of Changing Woman, who's a principle diety.

So, in essence I acknowledge my ancestors and the beginning of Navajo time.

>>I can go over to Spider Rock and look at it and then reflect on how that's where all the stories come from, and then that's where Spider Woman lives on top of the rock.

And, she's the one that taught Navajos to weave.

I started to think about stories I've heard and stories that my grandmother would talk about.

It was their way of life.

It's still my way of life.

>>In our origins stories, the female was as important as the male in terms of energy, so you have for example like the Father Son and the Mother Earth, and without Mother Earth, without all the plants, and without all the animals, those were created by two forces and not just one.

Without man there could not havebeen woman, without woman there could not have been man.

It's an idea of equality, and not separation.

>>THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO IS HOME TO 22 INDIGENOUS TRIBES.

LIKE A STRING OF BEADS FROM NORTH TO SOUTH LIE THE RIO GRANDE PUEBLOS.

TO THE WEST ARE ZUNI PUEBLO AND NAVAJO NATION.

AND TO THE NORTH ARE THE JICARILLA APACHE, AND TO THE SOUTH THE MESCALERO APACHE.

EACH TRIBE IS A SOVEREIGN NATION WITH ITS OWN GOVERNMENT, LANGUAGE, TRADITIONS AND CULTURE.

>>Traditionally women were at the core of community values, and at the core community functions.

And, it was in every manifestation, whether it was helping with planting and cooking, as well as hunting, we had women hunters and women societies that went out and hunted as well, and there was always that sense of balance that both had to work together for the survival of communities.

We start a lot of our prayers and ceremonies with this notion Kweeyo Vi ay Sedo Vi ay, which means to be a man, to be a woman, and to give strength and honor to both sides.

>>MOST TRIBES WERE MATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES WHICH CENTER ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY RATHER THAN POWER OR PRIVILEGE.

WOMEN DEFINED THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL, SPIRITUAL, AND ECONOMIC NORMS OF THE TRIBE.

>>Women were given rights and responsibilities and the role of women in the community was to build the home, to take care of the seeds, to feed people, and to council governing and to be the, to be the intelligence behind the actions.

We didn't go to war until the women said we go to war, because those are their babies that are sending out there, so the women would make those massive decisions.

For centuries and centuries it was fostered to honor that balance of, I would call intuition and intellect.

>>Traditionally women held these high roles, and in most Pueblos, if not all, at some point, lands and everything passed through the woman.

You always know who the mother is.

You always know the maternal side, and in many of the Pueblos the lands still pass through the women.

When the Spanish came in and instituted their form of government, that's when things changed.

>>When we saw the imposition of the Spanish in the 1500s leading up to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 then followed by the imposition of the Mexican we saw a major violation to our way of life by societies foreign to our communities, ignorant of thepreciousness and the profoundness of the female in our societies.

As a result of that we begin to see the fractionalization of a way of life, because that very core that holds the Pueblo Communities together, the mother, the female, have been cracked.

>>When the Spanish first came here to Ohkay Owingeh they settled in Yungeh, in 1598 by a whole entourage led by Juan de Onate, and he was here to build a family, to build a home and this discovery for new empires and New People's driven by the Bible it was a way to think about spreading the word of God and a lot of the text and reference at that time was very male-centered and male-focused culture and thinking about men as religious leaders.

Men as priests.

Women as leaders at that time were really not considered.

>>And when the Europeans came in, they had this idea that the women were not supposed to be the headof family, so I think that that created a lot of conflict in Indian societies, because all of a sudden the women were told by their conquerors that they were demoted so whenever they had a treaty Council or they were negotiating terms, they only invited the men and the women were left out of the governance of the tribe.

It wasn't until the 1840s with the building of the Santa Fe Trail coming into New Mexico, into Santa Fe and the trail up from Chihuaha, from Mexico, as the population increases then the loss of hunting grounds, the increase in trade, the bringing of diseases, all those things affected the women in all the tribal societies.

The United States government decided that it was the men that should be the chiefs and the chairmansand the presidents and on the council.

>>IN 1848 NEW MEXICO BECAME A TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

TO CONTAIN AND SUBDUE THE NATIVE POPULATION THE US INTRODUCED THE RESERVATION SYSTEM.

DURING THE INDIAN WARS OF THE 1860S THE PUEBLOS REMAINED ON THEIR LANDS, WHILE THE NAVAJO AND MESCALERO APACHE WERE FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM THEIR HOMES AND IMPRISONED AT THE BOSQUE REDONDO IN EASTERN NEW MEXICO.

BY THEIR RELEASE IN 1868, NEARLY A THIRD HAD DIED FROM DISEASE AND STARVATION.

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY INDIAN CHILDREN WERE FORCED TO ATTEND GOVERNMENT OR CHURCH-RUN SCHOOLS CONCEIVED TO ERADICATE TRADITIONAL WAYS OF LIFE AND ASSIMILATE INDIANS INTO AMERICAN CULTURE.

WITH A MANDATE TO KILL THE INDIAN, SAVE THE MAN, RULES WERE STRICT, DISCIPLINE WAS HARSH, AND OFTEN ABUSIVE.

FORBIDDEN TO SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGES AND TAUGHT THEIR CULTURES WERE INFERIOR, STUDENTS SUFFERED LOW SELF-ESTEEM AND DESPAIR.

HISTORICAL TRAUMA LINKED TO THE BOARDING SCHOOL EXPERIENCE AFFECTED MULTIPLE GENERATIONS CAUSING ALCOHOLISM, VIOLENCE, SUICIDE AND A LOSS OF HOPE.

six or seven years old and put into this institution known as a boarding school.

You might as well put these kids in prison.

The trauma that it created.

The tragedies in just raising kids without their parents, I don't think there's any crueler event.

values, in Western sensibilities.

So, she grew up a, a large part of her life away from, from home and would only come back during holidays are or parts of the summer.

>>And today I couldn't begin to think of the idea of having my kids separated from me when they were like six or seven years old and put into this institution known as a boarding school.

think there's any crueler event.

(flute music plays) My culture was so demeaned we were seen in history books as pagans.

We were the Apache savages.

All of those things is what we were taught.

It's what I objected to because right here in Hillcrest, we learned all those core values of being a good person.

>>DESPITE THE ATTEMPTS BY WHITE SOCIETY TO UNDERMINE DEGRADE AND ASSIMILATE THEM MANY NATIVE WOMEN RETAIN THE STRENGTH, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND RESPECT INHERENT IN THEIR TRADITIONAL BELIEFS.

>>I was going to the University of New Mexico in the late 1960s right about that time we were at theheight of the civil rights movement as well as the women's movement.

I could not identify with the women's movement because I could never see myself in second place to man, because iny society that's not how I was raised.

I was happy that I really had that sense of empowerment.

As a result of that when I went to college I decided I wanted to write my tribal history and that seemed to have become my life's mission.

>>I was one of two Native Americans in this whole school.

It was my sister and I, and they didn't understand what being Native American was.

They thought being Native American was like Hollywood depiction.

"As sun rises Wenatoo will curse the day he was born.

He shall burn on stake long time."

Or aspolitical depiction very stoic because Native Americans weren't writing what the, the script was.

So the people that are stoic are the writers in the anthropolitical view, they're the stoics.

In the second grade, when my teacher had told me to read some history the word savage was in the book, on my paragraph.

And, it hurt me so bad socially, intellectually, emotionally, To this day it still hurts.

I, I can still feel that pain.

At that point I also then had to think about how am I gonna correct history.

Since first contact with Europeans Indian women have been misrepresent by historians, artists, and writers whose Eurocentric mentality could not comprehend their true role in society.

(music plays) There's also stereotypes, I think, that women are below men.

"First I prayed to you.

But you didn't come."

"But, I've come now."

"These are my people.

Hyunt Maya.

Go!"

"I really need it back.

It is mine."

"But you can't give something and then take it back.

I mean what are you, a..." "You mean like an Indian giver."

Stereotypes were created out of Native American women like if we were anybody we were either Indian princesses or we were some kind of a queen or...

I remember hearing ofPocahontas but only, only briefly only that she had saved John Smith and you know that she was a good woman you know and, of course I believe that, but other than Pocahontas and maybe Sakagawea, there were no native women in the stories.

You got the first Indianswho had Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and after that they kinda disappeared out and history.

The next time they appeared was when they were making war but the war seemed to be with the men so the women were not even in that role.

Throughout history we've been non-existent.

I mean not only were we pagans and savages, but we were we were not even in the books.

And then, the next appearance of native women were that Pueblo women sitting near the train selling their wares.

So all of those never fit my image of what native women were.

>>For the Pueblo of Laguna, we get our clans, we get our society being, if you will, from the female, our authorizations from the mother.

The nourishment that a female can give is one that is not onlythe physical meal that you sit down to eat that they're prepared, but you're also taking that spiritual, in that profound nourishment of their good thoughts.

Only they can give that.

The mother, the female it's the strength and the reason why we continue to exist today.

(flute music) >>HISTORIANS DATE NAVAJO WEAVING TO THE EARLY SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD THE RESULT OF ANCIENT LOOM TECHNIQUES ADAPTED FROM THE PUEBLOS, THE INTRODUCTION OF SPANISH SHEEP AND NAVAJO INGENUITY.

BY THE LATE 1700S NAVAJO WEAVINGS WERE SO HIGHLY PRIZED BY THE SPANISH THE WEAVERS THEMSELVES BECAME A VALUABLE COMMODITY CAPTURED AND SOLDAS SLAVES INTO SPANISH HOUSEHOLDS.

LIKE SPIDER WOMAN TRADITIONAL NAVAJO WEAVERS GAVE BIRTH TO THEIR CREATIONS THROUGH THOUGHT, WEAVING THEIR INTRICATE DESIGNS DIRECTLY ONTO THE LOOM FROM THEIR MINDS.

>>That's what she, my mom says, you just (Dine) And then,(Dine), means that you go by that string.

You count it, and that's how you, you start the design.

>>They say that you're loom is your best friend that a lot of weavers sleep with their looms in their bedroom.

It is the first thing that I think about when I get up in the morning.

It's like ooh, I get to weavebefore I go to work.

>>Women were the ones that owned everything.

They're the ones that owned the flocks.

They're the ones that owned the home and so, the reflection of how they cared for their flocks and the sheep and the quality of the wool, thequality of how they processed their wool and put in into their weaving, it all exudes from that.

>>My mom has some sheep, and my aunt some sheep.

We used to take care of them year-round herding the sheep together, you know, we play out there and all these animals, the goats It was so funny you know.

Sometimes I laugh about it myself when I'm weaving these days, you know.

I go over there 'cuz Iknow them so, I trade over there.

Working here at Toadlena, being around the rugs and everything like that it really motivates me.

The classic designs, talking with the weavers and then being around the wool, I think about how did they come up with this design.

Where did this design come from?

>>This one is a spider right there spider.

And this one is a cloud.

We call this the cloud.

>>My Mom would tell me you need to put this line in which is the weavers pathway, or the spirit trail going out of you're whole design.

It's like everything that you're thinking of when you did that rug.

>>Her round rug pictorial to Mother Earth, and all the night sky she thinks the Galaxy, or the gods might have looked like back then and that's how she incorporated them into her rugs.

(Dine Spoken) And now she's looking to me.

(laughter) (Dine Spoken) >>FOR DINE WOMEN TEXTILES ARE BOTH A FORM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND A SOURCE OF INCOME.

>>Because a rug pays for food.

It pays for the bills.

It pays for so much stuff.

A place like Toadlena really it's beneficial to the community here.

>>I believe it's going to continue.

I do have people say who can teach me?

I have my grandmother tools.

You know they were given to me.

I know there are young weaver's that have so many different ideas of where to take weaving now.

(music plays) >>NATIVE MOTHERS, AUNTS AND SISTERS TEACH CHILDREN ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY LIFE, CULTURAL TRADITIONS AND CEREMONIES.

>>I like to dance for the feast and dance for my people and bring health.

>>WHILE THE GRANDMOTHERS SHARE IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE THROUGH LANGUAGE, STORIES, SONGS, AND LESSONS THAT INSTILL TRADITIONAL VALUES.

>>I am from Nambe Pueblo.

I grew up with a large family.

Our families always farmed.

We had orchards.

So there was always something for us to do.

I remember my grandmother's staying home to really take care of all of her grandkids and my gram was this little bitty lady and you knew she had such strength.

She taught us a lot.

We would help her with her garden.

We'd allbe assigned a row that we were responsible for weeding, but my grandfather's sisters, they were theones who would tell us our stories, traditions, family.

They were the leaders more so than the men as I grew up.

They were the strength of our family.

And you know even now, all the ceremonies, all the food, all the clothing, all those things that go into it they're done by the women.

We're taught that the, the mother is your first teacher.

In my case I'm half Laguna and half African-American.

Growing up half African-American, I got callednames.

I got made fun of.

And, in many of those instances my grandmother was with me, and she heardthe names.

She saw the treatment that I got.

But not at any one moment did I ever see her treat others negative.

Now that I look back she was giving me a lesson.

And it was a lesson of compassion.

And a lesson of strength.

Those are the lessons that only a mother can give because with those lessons come hugs, sometimes tears, but sometimes it's only the mother that can absorb those tears for you.

That's why it's so critical that we acknowledge how beautiful the spirit of a woman is.

>>My husband is the Governor of the Pueblo of Laguna and he is serving his second term.

As the wife of a governor my role is not only mother to my household but I serve as the mother to our community.

I don't know if any women can be fully prepared to be in this role as a spouse It's just something that you go along with, sometimes day to day.

I am also very appreciative of the women in the community that offer me strength.

I think back of the words of encouragement they gave me Kuumeh, you know, be strong and that's what feeds my spirit, that's what keeps me strong.

We draw on that strength from one another.

>>My grandfather always told us you have to get educated, he said, not so that you can be a white person but so you can be an educated Apache, so that you can better preserve who you are, so you can protect your resources, your culture, because it's gonna take that kind of knowledge.

>>There are traditional occasions going on at Acoma pretty much year round and I remember trying to live in separate worlds where education was very important and tradition was very important, so there are numerous occasions growing up where I was at Acoma doing my homework under the propane lanternwaiting for certain traditional and religious activities to happen.

I didn't quite realize how different I was than some of the non-native kids I went to school with.

Learning more and more about where I come from and how things work in the outside really compelled meto want to be a voice for our people.

I had my daughter when I was a sophomore in high school so I had her when I was very young, and I was single teen parent and my parents still encouraged me to pursue education and accomplish my career goals and come back and help, so that's what I did.

I figured that law was the best way to do that, to become an advocate for the Tribe and some of these rights and issues we're dealing with on a day to day basis.

I decided to run for a seat at the state legislature.

Part of the challenge was being assertive and being aggressive when sometimes we're taught to find a common ground, especially when it comes to issues dealing with tribal sovereignty.

That's the time where it's not only okay to be aggressive but even necessary.

It's sometimes a huge responsibility to be a Native American woman.

>>STARTING WITH THE SPANISH COLONIZERS MADE EVERY EFFORT TO UNDERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF INDIAN WOMEN AND REMOVE THEM FROM POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE 1970S THAT OMEN BEGAN TO REASSUME PROMINENT LEADERSHIP ROLES IN TRIBAL GOVERNANCE.

>>When I became teenager we had our first lieutenant governor that was a woman and at Nambe we elect officials.

And then, Isleta elected Verna Teller, and Verna Teller was very outspoken.

And I remember seeing her in the media and watching in other things that she handled as the governor at Isleta, and so, for me, she was a real role model You know, I saw her as a Pueblo person, being outspoken and really taking on a leadership role.

>>IN 1996 LELA KASKALLA, THE FIRST WOMAN GOVERNOR OF THE PUEBLO OF NAMBE.

WAGED A DIFFICULT BATTLE FOR HER TRIBE IN THE NEW MEXICO STATE LEGISLATURE.

>>The fuel issue was an issue of taxation, and who has the authority to tax.

And, our own state senator when against the tribes, and was favoring the marketers.

It was such an intense session.

The Governors, before we went in you know we had a prayer, and they had said, you know, you take the strength of all your ancestors with you in there and so we were in there and I got up to speak, and as the tribe started to stand up, in support of what we were doing, all 22tribes were there.

And there was such a strength in all of the tribes being together to do the right thing.

And in the end we prevailed in the legislature.

(music plays) >>I believe that the Head Start trauma that our Mescalero Apache people endured that, that's the reason why I want to be a leader for my tribe, that this will never happen to our tribal members.

My roots are from the Cochise and Naiche family.

My great grandfather was Naiche.

And my great-great-grandfather was Cochise.

They were the band with Geronimo.

I believe that's whereI get my blood line from to be a strong leader to lead this tribe.

>>I support her just by being around her, trying to comfort her, because I know from my heart that I know she loves her people and she wants to take them forward.

I'm a silversmith.

I try to make her look nice by making her jewelry and she's an important lady in my life and I'm proud of her for what she's doing for her people.

>>The Mescalero Apache tribe is unusual because there has been three women presidents and I am myself, the third women president for the Mescalero Apache tribe.

Mister Wendell Chino hired me as the tribal council secretary and I worked for him for eight years.

What I saw in Mister Chino, he'd done his business in Apache and at the time all that tribal council members knew how to speak Apache and when you speak Apache it's real easy to get business done across the table.

And it's very important that we don't lose our language.

(music plays) >>Part of the larger structure and culture of boarding schools was to be punished for speaking theirlanguages.

My grandmother, like others of her generation, stopped speaking the language, at least in public and it wasn't until later on in life where she came to a place were it mattered who she was.

It mattered that she was able to speak and still hold on to her language, despite the atrocities of being raised in a boarding school.

And it wasn't until she was approached by another linguist and asked whether she was interested in writing and documenting the Tewa language and it was completely unheard of at that time because everything was orally conveyed.

A lot of the kids in the 70s at that time could not pronounce their names or didn't remember their Tewa names.

So, she was always writing this down for them and she talks about this story is, what are new tools that we can think about to teach the younger generation how to speak and how to read and really reconnect to our traditional values?

And so writing the language down in dictionary form was one step to achieving those goals.

(Tewa) This is how we start our story and it means a long time ago.

There lived a lived a little rabbit along the banks of the Rio Grande.

>>BORN IN 1912 AND RAISED IN OHKAY OWINGEH, ESTHER MARTINEZ DEDICATED HER LIFE TO PRESERVING THE CULTURE STORIES AND TEWA LANGUAGE OF HER PEOPLE.

(Tewa spoken) >>A lot of her sories she learned from her grandfather.

She really embarked on this idea of what it meant to convey history.

>>He's going sniffing at all the little footprints because each little footprint smells like delicious rabbit.

>>So why he's holding up the rock at the edge of the cliff the rabbit is able to take off and be free.

>>A HIGHLY RESPECTED STORYTELLER, EDUCATOR, AND LINGUIST SHE WAS AWARDED A NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOWSHIP BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS IN 2006.

LATER THAT YEAR CONGRESS HONORED HER LEGACY BY PASSING THE ESTHER MARTINEZ NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE ACT WHICH AUTHORIZED FUNDING FOR TRIBAL PROGRAMS TO PREVENT THE LOSS OF HERITAGE LANGUAGES AND CULTURE.

>>And this was really to honor all people living and teaching and wanting to pass on these languages.

Native languages hold unique knowledge, culture, and world views that cannot be translated into English.

>>OF THE MORE THAN 400 ORIGINAL LANGUAGES IN NORTH AMERICA ONLY 175 ARE STILL SPOKEN, MOSTLY BY ELDERS, AND ARE, ARE ENDANGERED.

IN NEW MEXICO THERE ARE 8 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES.

FOR SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL REASONS SEVERAL TRIBES DO NOT ALLOW THEIR LANGUAGES TO BE WRITTEN OR SPOKEN OUTSIDE THEIR COMMUNITIES.

>>As a child I grew up at Santo Domingo Pueblo and my mother reminded me that my dad only spoke Keres.

I remember him singing to me in Keres, and then my Grandma and my uncle's, my aunties that's all they spoke.

As I started to growup, I just wanted to learn it more because having your own language is awesome.

A former teacher from school emailed my mother saying there was a casting call for Coca-Cola, that they're gonna be doing it in Santa Fe.

My mother, I've been beggingher and begging her about wanting to be model or an actress or singer, It was a chance and I took it and I'm glad I did.

(Music Plays) >>It was after we shot the commercial and then they asked me if I wanted to be a part of the singingin the background.

They told me what I was going to sing and they asked me if I can see in my native language.

(Keres Singing) >>Right away a million thoughts started through my head.

I just stayed in my room thinking if singing "America the Beautiful" in Keres would be a good thing for my Pueblo, or if it would be a negative thing for my pueblo.

I was raised traditionally, saying keep everything within the Pueblo, because this is the way we do things, this is ourway, this is how we're strong.

Well my Mom went to the Governor to ask for approval if, because I was having doubt, saying no I shouldn't, so having approval from the governor really helped me with it, with my decision-making too.

I hoped that it brought joy to their heart hearing our language being out there.

>>In Navajo, there's a saying that says the sacred begins at the tip of my tongue.

So everything a person says is very, traditionally, is very carefully considered, because once you say something you can't take it back.

In fact, there's not a way to say that in Navajo, to say that you're sorry.

(flute music) >>As I grew up down here, I met a man.

He was from Georgia.

And, we hit it off okay, you know.

And then I got pregnant when I was 19.

My mother always instituted to me you better not be pregnant and not married.

You have to be married.

So I was really, really scared to be honest with you, I was really scared to tell her I was pregnant.

And then when I finally did I was five months along and we got married.

I shoulda never got married because it was a very abusive marriage.

He was into drugs, he was into drinking.

He took practicallyit all out on me.

So that's where my advocacy for domestic violence came from.

I'll tell the women you know, I'm like the light at the end of the tunnel.

It can be done, but a lotof hard work.

>>She has that understanding that she grew up with, in her background of our people, but she has that inner strength as well.

She can go to DC and lobby just as effectively as any man could, because she's not one to back down from a challenge if she know she's right she's gonna fight for it.

>>NATIVE WOMEN ARE THE VICTIMS OF BATTERY, SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE MORE THAN TWICE THAT OF ANY OTHERGROUP.

BECAUSE TRIBAL COURTS DO NOT HAVE JURISDICTION OVER NON-INDIANS MANY OF THESE CRIMES ARE NOTPROSECUTED.

TAKING EFFECT IN 2015 THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN REAUTHORIZATION ACT GIVES TRIBES THE POWER TO PROSECUTE NON-INDIANS ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN INDIAN COUNTRY.

>>The Violence Against Women Act is something that I think is a good start and a good, a good tool that tribes can now stand up and begin to use in protection of their communities.

And so we need to figure out how is it that we find good role models and good examples of healthy, vibrant relationships that support (music plays) >>MANY NEW MEXICO TRIBES HOLD COMING OF AGE CEREMONIES TO HONOR THE TRANSITION OF GIRLS TO WOMANHOOD.

AMONG THE NAVAJO IT IS THE KINAALDA.

THE MESCALERO APACHE HOLD THE SUNRISE DANCE.

THE BUTTERFLY DANCE AT POJOAQUE PUEBLO IS A COURTSHIP RITUAL IN WHICH A GIRL RECEIVES THE STRENGTH OF HER COMMUNITY AS SHE ENTERS ADULTHOOD.

>>Only Apache people lived in this area.

During their cast out, my grandmother and my mother and my aunts, and all the women in the tribe, they taught us many new lessons because we were becoming a woman.

It's a four-day ceremony that celebrates Mother Earth, Eagle sun, and all the feminine deities.People celebrated, they had the round dances and it was just really a wonderful, wonderful time.

>>As a woman leader and talking with other women leaders, I believe that we do see things differently.

I believe that we see more of a whole picture about how what I might do is going to impact somebody else in community.

>>Tewa Women United really believes in creating beloved families.

>>As I've worked professionally and with other women leaders across the country women will stick it through and get it done.

As a woman I know I've got to do a good job because it opens doors for other women and they desperately want those doors open.

>>Pueblo culture has fostered very strong women and the role of women in a community is very honored.

The community is not balanced if the male and female are not equal.

One of the most interesting things about my relationship to Santa Clara is that the religion, or thespirituality is based in place.

It's not something that you can practice elsewhere.

Even though I might carry with me my belief systems, I can't practice those things without my entire community.

I come from a very, very strong family of women.

They're actually notorious, actually.

You must be a Naranjo woman.

Nora Noranjo-Morse, who is my grandmother's younger sister, she is an amazing artist.

I mean breaking the boundaries of what a Pueblo woman is and what that means in her conceptual approach to things.

My grandmother Rina Swentzell is an amazing, basically philosopher.

She's an intelligent, intelligent woman who has shown me the depth of conversation we can have about spirituality, and about culture and about our relationship to place, history, future.

My mother, Roxanne Swentzell, who is just one of the hardest-working people I've ever met she built her house out of adobe bricks.

To see a woman with that kind of empowerment, to change what you believe is possiblefor women to do, you know, she's under the car fixing it, she's wielding a chainsaw you know what Imean, she's out there cutting down trees and meanwhile making a living from her artwork and and being brave enough to do the thing that people hadn't done before.

And it's really propelled me in a whole new way of creating, including my new interest in fashion, and fashion comes from performance art.

And my interest in cars even, so it's not about the product but how you go through the world, and those things that we use are utilitarian objects is an aesthetic experience so I come from Espanola, Lowrider capitol of the world, or course I love cars, and you know that's an aesthetic.

That's an art experience.

I love that aesthetic.

I love bolts and gears, and casts and things in metal and to is day it feels like a more honest approach to me if I bring in that part of myself.

Arts culture is very much a community.

It really is.

It has its own language, it has its ownvalues and morals, and it's very different than traditional Pueblo culture.

And being, straddling that line between those and trying to understand how I can pull those together because I love both of them, and to find that common ground that I exist in.

That I walk.

So that's, that's been my challenge, and my journey and my adventure.

My culture informed my intention to build relationship.

The contemporary art world gave me a language and the skill set in order to communicate with people from all over the world and from many walks of life.

Innately that's related to being a Pueblo woman you know, to being from Santa Clara Pueblo.

>>My first fashion shows I imagined as a child were, I was like all the sudden climbing up the slideout on the playground and this was second-grade.

I completely remember.

Like clothing that was so beautiful and flowing going off of the slide and, and being in a beautiful silk, flowing dress because I knew of my culture to be so alive and vibrant.

I grew up on Canyon Road and at Taos Pueblo.

My mother and father had opened up a gallery downtown Santa Fe so my mother was the first Native American gallery owner in Santa Fe.

So, I was not only raised around, you know, culture at the Pueblo and dances and ceremonies, I was raised around these vibrant, upcoming artisans that were gonna change the paths of Native American art.

The creativity was bursting.

(music plays) With all this diversity at a very young age I knew that the world had so many options there is so much possibility for me to be able to experiment with whatever I wanted to do and there was no way I was going to limit myself at all.

And so it was really important for meto make a vehicle, make a garment, make something that people could use and wear that gave them self-empowerment.

I want that female energy that's respected in our culture.

Even before the show I said a prayer with all the models.

They said never has any designer ever saida prayer with us before we go out on the runway, but that prayer was to tell them to take care of themselves and to continue to be beautiful and that I was thankful that they had brought beauty to myshow.

When I did Project Runway one of my favorite pieces in the collection is I did this aspen tree bark the traditional part is the appreciation for nature.

I, I love going out in nature.

The way the palate and textures constantly change and it ground you, and it makes you humble.

(Reggae music) >>I grew up listening to Yellowman and my favorite ng was girl you can't do what the boys do and still be a lady.

(Reggae music) Yes I can!

(laughter) So, I'm the CEO, majority owner of Avanyu General Contracting.

>>"How's the ground today Rudy?"

>>"Pretty Good.

This is the fifth one."

>>"It's looking good!

Yeah, I came to bring you a million dollar Check" (laughter).

>>Avanyu general contracting is a Native American woman-owned construction company.

We specialize inresidential building, light commercial, and sustainable building and weatherization.

We do a lot ofrehabilitation, modernization projects and are skilled in historic preservation work.

We've spent the last three years in Ohkay Owingeh doing that type of work in the plaza there where everything happens, where the people come together for dances and that's where our life is and being able to bringthat sense of community back is an honor.

(Music plays) Today is my, my daughter Sage's 10-year birthday party.

It's wonderful to be celebrating asy daughter is now in the double digits.

This is just one part of what we get together for.

Today it's celebrating and honoring a birthday.

In a few months it'll be getting together to celebrate feast.

Havingthem around the Kiva.

Having them around when we're baking, having them be there and participate inthose things is hopefully going to empower them in themselves that, oh, I have this alternative because I do have this belief system.

It's just participating because it's in your heart.

(music plays) (Dine) >>I am one of your thousands of children who always honor your dark blue silhouette that is surrounded by the flat land, the shallow San Juan River.

>>"Did that come across OK?"

>> When I began to teach, it didn't occur to me to separate the way that I taught from the way that I live my life or the way that I think.

>>"thank you" >>When I start teaching my classes I introduce myself in Navajo and I tell my students stories aboutwhat the spoken word means, what language means to us in Navajo, and then what it means to me as a professor when they write.

I was raised in a fairly traditional Navajo household.

I would be at ceremonies and rituals where you sit up all night and the medicine man prays and they sing.

And I began to think about how rhythmic their prayers were and how beautiful they were and then I would look at western literature, particularly you'd like works of John Donne and Yates, and I saw the same kind of beauty.

I realized that my tradition is still alive.

The round roof Hogan is like a woman's tiered skirt.

It is said that the mother, (Dine Spoken) is the heart of the home.

It is said that there is beauty within when a home is as it should be.

Beauty extends from the Hogan.

Beauty extends from the woman.

Beauty extends from the woman.

Beauty extends from the woman.

Beauty extends from the woman.

>>I write to capture a moment in time and to sort of preserve certain kinds of memories maybe it's like making bread outside over an open fire or going to a ceremony and watching people dance and listening to people sing or listening to people tell stories and I think poetry is the perfect way to preserve moments such as that.

When they told me that I had been selected as the first Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation mostly itwas a validation of my parents' teachings, all the attention, all the care they put in to teach me to be a good person to be a good Navajo woman.

>>Deciding upon a poet laureate for the Navajo Nation is asserting Navajo sovereignty in saying we too have a nation and we have a strong literary tradition.

>>Women are the keepers of the culture and with their courage and with their knowledge the culture will survive.

>e always talk about in Tewa, this notion of Seegi Kondi, which is this notion of love, care, and respect and those are really the tools that my parents, and my grandmother instilled in me.

She talked about this compassion.

She talked about having this passion for love, and if you had that inherent in you everything manifests from there.

(Thunder sounds) >>Just to know that that inner strength that we have is very powerful.

That along with prayer is very powerful our determination is very powerful.

My advice to Native American women is that it's possible and if this girl from the Rez can be a lawyer and a legislator than they can do whatever they want to do.

>>I got lucky.

I got lucky to be a Pueblo woman, and to grow up that way, because it offered me thatalready.

My neuro pathways were already created to say you can.

>>All my relatives, my family they're all there with me in spirit.

The words I teach with are the words that they taught me with.

A thousand voices, then is reflected in one voice.