Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.

>> Nash: This week on New Mexico in Focus.

Democratic Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández stops by our studio to talk legislating in Washington as the minority party.

>> Fernández: I have a particular role that I can play, and that role is raising issues in Congress.

And I need to tell you public outrage works.

>>Nash: And we hit the road for a community meeting on the Mescalero Apache Reservation to check in on the state's latest attempt to make education equitable for all students.

New Mexico in Focus starts now.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Nash Jones.

With Congress in recess, New Mexico Representative Teresa Leger Fernández is back in town and comes in for a conversation about what's been an eventful few months in Washington.

In a little less than 15 minutes, we sit down for the first of a two part interview on issues from immigration, to what options exist for Democrats to pass laws and push back when it's the GOP that controls both Congress and the White House.

Much of the rest of our show will be focused on efforts to achieve equity.

And now that may be a buzzword to some or even a dirty word to others.

But for many people, communities and cultures in our state, it's more than aspirational.

It's essential.

In the latest installment of our collaborative series Indigenously Positive, we hear from the founders of a Navajo led organization working to inspire, educate and support native entrepreneurs.

Later, the author of a new book shares her family's story of fighting to keep their land and indigenous culture alive on the island of Maui.

But we begin in Mescalero Apache tribal land for a community feedback meeting put on by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

PED is holding about a dozen in-person and virtual meetings across the state this month to get input on its most recent plan to finally get into compliance with court orders under the Yazzie Martinez lawsuit.

A judge ruled in 2018 that the state was violating the constitution by failing to provide a sufficient education to kids in already at risk groups.

Those include students with disabilities, those living in poverty, English language learners, and Native Americans.

Just earlier this year, the court found the state is still falling short in order PED to create a plan to make required progress.

The meetings are meant to inform that remediation plan due out in November.

I attended one of the meetings last week in Mescalero in southeastern New Mexico.

Throughout the three hour event, a few needs came up repeatedly.

Incorporate indigenous cultural traditions into the school day, provide safe and reliable transportation in rural districts, and offer an education in native languages and history.

This is the Inn of the Mountain Gods, a resort and casino on the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

And behind me happening right now is one of those community feedback meetings to get the state back on track with the Yazzie Martinez case.

This is particularly important that it's happening on tribal land, because native students are one of the key groups that the state was found to be failing.

The event is kind of cafe style.

You'll see people are coming and going.

A few people are enjoying dinner right now, and they're giving the state feedback at round tables hosted and facilitated by the LANL Foundation, a partner of the Public Education Department, in this work.

The event was noisy as about 50 attendees spoke passionately at the various tables.

There were groups discussing funding and accountability, cultural and language education, and student supports and teaching.

We overheard former student and Mescalero Apache tribal member Ariel Aguilar at one of the tables, then asked her to step out into the hall to hear more about why she was there.

She echoed several of the needs that emerged, just particularly salient for the Mescalero Apache community.

>> Aguilar: And I've had ideas of making a mescalero Apache history class at my tribe's, school at Mescalero Apache High School, because we learn in every state, you learn the state's history.

For example, in New Mexico history, you learn U.S. history.

And I thought to myself, “Why don't we have Mescalero Apache history?” So but of course, making sure that the development of that curriculum, it would be developed by a tribal member.

>> Nash: She'd also like to see lessons on tribal government.

Aguilar had attended both public and tribally controlled schools in New Mexico.

She says many Mescalero Apache students go to public schools in the surrounding communities.

And the classroom lessons are very different.

>> Aguilar: I would just say the culture is more reinforced in tribal schools.

You're allowed to do things like pray, pray before school starts.

You can engage in community service that involves being a part of traditional ceremonies.

So if you go help cook at a feast, or if you go help, cut wood, maybe the boys help cut wood and make an arbor.

You're allowed to do that in tribal schools on the reservation.

Whereas at public schools, they really don't have the same sort of policies that allow students to engage in cultural activities.

>> Nash: Aguilar said she's also concerned that without intervention in K-12 schools, the Apache language could disappear over the next few decades.

A sentiment many in attendance shared.

Ideas about what that language education should look like though, varied.

President of the Mescalero Apache tribe Thora Padilla says it should be experiential and culturally rooted.

>> Padilla: I really think we need to do more as far as not just putting a word up on a wall and saying it over and over, you know, but taking them out to do traditional activities.

You know, we are named Mescalero.

The people who eat mescal, the agave plant, the century plant.

You know, taking them out and go collecting, instructing them in Apache.

You got the action going with it, digging out the mescal, you know.

>> Nash: High school principal at Mescalero Apache schools, Rosalinda Baeza, says PED should provide the school more support to build out its language curriculum.

>> Baeza: Just giving the money is just the first step.

There's, you know, there you hear a lot of them talk about language and the cultural teachers, they need help with, curriculum writers.

There's a lot of people that speak the language, the elders, but they're not necessarily certified teachers.

And then there's some of the people that are fluent.

They don't know how to put a curriculum together.

So like, one of the challenges at our school right now is we have a K-12 school, but the curriculum doesn't build upon itself.

>> Nash: She also voiced common concerns over transportation in one of the roundtable discussions.

>> Baeza: I've got a lot of money coming to our school for career technology education.

But the transportation has to be provided for some of these things that we put together.

And so I know that as a principal, I've got to look at ways to try to help my students get to those events.

>> Nash: She told me she's grateful that the Yazzie Martinez lawsuit has led to increased funding.

Remembering early on in her career when the school had far fewer resources, which was apparent in the curriculum that lacked electives, and in the physical learning space itself.

>>Baeza: Our students were going to these portables that were, there was no heat in them.

I bought myself a little heater, and I'd go and plug it in and hope that it was warm.

I remember teaching and I could see the breath coming out and we were freezing and shivering.

And those were, we were in those portables for two years.

It was so bad the rats were coming in.

>> Nash: The tribe has since built a school, and for the last three years it's received state funding through PED's Innovation Zones initiative, something it has to apply for each year.

>> Baeza: We have money all of a sudden for woods, welding, culinary, our film and video production class, our agriculture class.

We have a brand new, greenhouse.

And so my concern is, right now we're getting all of this money because of Yazzie Martinez.

But is there going to come a time again where that funding stops and we're back to square one?

We finally have made some gains with funding for our students.

And I don't want to see that go away.

So it's a concern of mine.

>> Nash: Baeza says despite the influx of resources, her school is no poster child for the public education department complying with Yazzie Martinez, which a court found in April that it's not.

>> Baeza: So I just want to make sure that I'm on the right side, and that I'm highlighting what the funding is doing and how it's improving my school, and not that I'm proof that the state is doing what they're saying they're doing.

>> Nash: Because you feel like the state has a long way to go?

>> Baeza: Yes, a long way to go.

>> Nash: Principal Baez said, PED coming to the tribe to talk about what's needed gives her some hope, but she wants to see the action plan that comes out of it.

The department must submit a draft plan to the court by October 1st, and a final remediation plan by November 3rd.

>> Baeza: I see a lot of us getting together.

Educators, leaders, you've got tribal council in their school board members.

You have parents in there, and we all talk about these things, but there's no action that happens.

And so we talked about accountability in there.

>> Nash: Throughout the meeting I heard from tribal council members and others that while pleased that PED is engaging them on what more is needed, concern persists about whether real systemic change will result.

I sat down with New Mexico education Secretary Mariana Padilla as the event concluded in the ballroom cleared out.

She'd heard that feedback, too.

>> Padilla: I really take that seriously because I know that the work that we're doing every day is very focused on those things.

And we know we've increased funding and we know that we've initiated new programs.

We know that we are addressing our teacher shortages.

We know that we're really addressing, teacher quality.

But if they're not seeing that in their community and in their school, then there's a problem.

>> Nash: While Mescalero Apache schools are tribally controlled, in some other native students across the state attend Federal Bureau of Indian Education Schools, Secretary Padilla says that her agency's plan will support each of those jurisdictions in providing an equitable education.

>> Padilla: They're all our kids and if we're not serving them together, we're not doing our jobs.

And so, at the public education department, it's it's our job to make sure that we're supporting that, that we're teaching people about what that looks like.

That we're engaging with them.

And, and also, you know, holding them accountable when it's not happening.

>> Nash: And can Yazzie Martinez compliance impact those inequities?

>> Padilla: That's the intent really of lawsuit is to address all of those things we want to really look at.

And we talked about it tonight.

We want to talk about what what funding is needed.

And obviously we've increased funding by, you know, several billion dollars in this administration for K-12 education.

But whether or not we're really tracking to see where that money is being spent, is important.

>> Nash: It's been seven years since the Yazzie Martinez ruling came down.

And despite funding increases in past plans, the state remains out of compliance.

So why should New Mexicans believe the Education Department's latest effort will be any different?

>> Padilla: I think what we've done up till now has prepared us for this moment, and I think that the approach that we're taking and that we're doing these community convenings, the way that they're organized, the way we're deeply engaged, the way we're bringing in outside experts to help us do this work as well.

It is a different process.

>> Nash: Plaintiffs in the case had asked the court to put the legislative education Study Committee in charge of the plan, but State District Judge Matthew Wilson denied the motion.

Since the LESC isn't party to the case, instead, its director, John Sena, says the committee is partnering with PED on the plan.

>> Sena: The committee, which is made up of members and its staff, study education on a year round basis.

So in regard to Martinez Yazzie, we've been trying to help the committee understand its responsibility in helping the state to address the findings in the case more broadly.

>> Nash: Sena says the committee will also help compile the community feedback and the plan itself.

He says the committee's stake in the work is, in part, the massive investments the legislature has made in education over the last few years.

>> Sena: And sometimes there's a feeling that maybe that money isn't making as big a difference as folks would like.

And so I think that accountability is what we're hearing here, to make sure that the money that is going out is being used appropriately and effectively for kids.

>> Nash: Education Secretary Padilla says while court ordered she's excited to be going through the process and supports what she called its fast timeline, especially because the agency will have the plan in time for January's legislative session when it'll request a budget to carry it out.

And if, after this latest plan is finalized, PED yet again, fails to meet the demands under Yazzie Martinez.

Padilla says the fingers shouldn't be pointed solely at her department.

>> Padilla: You know, we always talk about shared accountability.

The Public Education Department is accountable for a whole host of things, but so is the legislature.

So are our schools.

So are our school leaders.

So are our higher ed institutions.

As I mentioned, when it comes to educator prep, we all have a role to play in really making changes for our school system and for our students.

So I take that very seriously.

I don't think accountability is a bad word.

>> Nash: In the meantime, attendees who got the chance to bend the state's hear about educational inequities for native students and their ideas for improvements told me they appreciated the education department taking interest in their perspectives this time around, and coming to their community to hear them out.

>> Aguilar: I really want to help.

If I can say anything, do anything, and share my experience in a way that will help us save our language and a big part of our culture.

I'm glad to do it, so I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak to those that are higher up in terms of education and give them my experience, and hopefully it really tells people that we really need more assistance.

So I really appreciate it.

>> Nash: Thanks Ariel and appreciate your perspective.

>> Aguilar: Thank you.

>> Nash: A huge thank you to photojournalist Joey Dunn and RJ Torres for contributing to that report.

In addition to the LESC, the Public Education Department is partnering with the LANL Foundation and national education nonprofit West Ed to gather and synthesize the community feedback and complete that action plan.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the state is paying the organizations about $200,000 each for their work.

There's only one more in-person community meeting on PED's schedule that's in Albuquerque on the 20th.

There's also two more virtual meetings.

You can see that list on the department's website.

>> Stago: We created a, campaign called I Am the Navajo Economy, and we went to the fair with it and, started taking photos there.

And people wanted to take photos at their business with a sign that says, I am the Navajo economy.

And that just took off because people started sharing that.

And that's when there was like a pride in what people were doing.

>> Nash: The latest in our collaborative series, Indigenously Positive, is coming up in about 20 minutes.

But first, I sit down with U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernàndez of New Mexico's Northern third congressional district.

Congress is in recess for the month of August, and the congresswoman is back in the district, updating her constituents on all that's gone down in Washington as of late, and how she's been navigating it on their behalf.

I ask her take on the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement, what New Mexicans can expect from the related provisions in the Republican's big bill, and whether her hands are tied as a Democrat in a GOP controlled House.

Congresswoman Leger Fernàndez, thank you so much for taking the time.

>> Fernàndez: Thank you so much Nash for having me.

I love speaking with the viewers of PBS.

>> Nash: Well, good.

We're glad you're here.

Let's begin with immigration.

Obviously a massive issue for the country, but also for us as a border state.

Do you believe there was a problem with immigration, with border security before President Trump took office in January?

>> Fernàndez: Absolutely.

Our immigration system has been broken for decades, and we had bipartisan solutions to the immigration problem.

I have myself co-sponsored and helped lead.

You know, Farmworker Modernization Act, the Dream and Promise Act, where we need to fix the system so people have a legal way, a path to citizenship and to visas.

It's broken.

We need to do stuff at the border.

But we had bills to do that.

And ironically, it was President Trump who killed them.

It was Republicans who killed them in the Senate every time we sent them over from the House.

And instead, what they chose to do is focus solely on the border and enforcement.

And that enforcement goes beyond what anybody wanted.

You talk to people and Trump is underwater.

People do not approve of the idea that we have masked men and women abducting people on the streets.

>> Nash: You're talking about about Immigration Customs Enforcement officers.

What is your response to the federal government saying, ICE agents are protecting their safety, their anonymity?

What's your response to the justifications for the masks?

>> Fernàndez: We have police officers in New Mexico.

We have sheriffs in New Mexico.

They are willing to go out and do their job without masks on, and they live in those communities.

I think that law enforcement needs to be able to say, this is who we are.

So they're also people know that when they are approached, they are not being approached by somebody who is going to attack them or, you know, pseudo agents.

And we've seen instances where, people are dressing up and pretending to be ICE agents and covering themselves up.

And how do you find that out?

So I don't think that that's a justification.

It's not how America has ever worked, right.

If you are, not proud of the work you are doing, what is that to say about the work that they have sent you to do?

And remember, it's not the ICE agent's fault.

This is coming from on top.

And people do not like what's going on.

And they recognize that if it can happen to the number of people, they will see whether they're immigrants, whether they're green card holders.

Native Americans have been stopped.

You know, we had somebody, reach out to my office because that gentleman who was a veteran was arrested, a citizen veteran arrested for two days following the raid on the cannabis, farm in California.

Right.

Two days he spent in jail.

A citizen.

So it can happen to anybody now.

And it is terrifying.

These are pictures that we see in a dystopian world, not in America.

>> Nash: What are you and your colleagues doing about this issue of ICE impersonators and potential assaults at their hands?

>> Fernàndez: So we do have legislation that we have introduced to require, identification, for ICE agents.

And one of the big things we need to remember is that right now, Democrats are in the minority in the House and in the Senate.

But we hope in 2026 to win back the House.

And once we start doing it, we will be able to hold this administration accountable because we will be doing the oversight that Republicans should be doing, because Republicans are failing to respond to their own constituents about these concerns.

It's not just Democrats that don't like what's happening across the country independents, Republicans and Democrats, or opposed to the manner in which Trump is conducting these raids in the manner in which, people are terrified.

And look, if you can have a senator thrown to the floor and handcuffed for asking a question, what's going to happen to regular people?

>> Nash: Senator from California?

Under former President Biden, former President Obama, more deportations were happening under their administrations.

So if it's not the numbers of deportations that are taking place is it the approach that you take issue with?

>> Fernàndez: I take issue with both the approach and, the rationale they are using right.

They are stating that they are going after criminals.

And what we know is that's is not the case.

They're about 70% of the people in detention facilities right now have never been accused of any crime.

And the 30% that have, they're not really violent criminals, and most of them are, you know, traffic offenses, maybe DUIs, which are a problem in New Mexico.

So it's the rationale.

And then the other thing is this administration, the corruption is rampant and the number of private facilities that will be built and the profit that will be made from those detention facilities, arresting people who are picking your groceries, who are cleaning the chickens that we then bring on to our table to eat.

We need to remember that immigrants are playing an important role in our economy, which is why we have to go back to fixing the immigration system.

>> Nash: Let's talk about money for a moment.

There's $170 billion in additional funding for immigration and border enforcement in the big bill.

And because this was passed through reconciliation and not the the usual appropriations process, there wasn't any clear directives about how really that money should be spent.

Are you concerned at all about congressional oversight when it comes to these funds?

>> Fernàndez: The biggest issue with regards to congressional oversight is that Republicans refuse to do any congressional oversight of, President Trump.

They bend the knee to anything he asks them to do, whether it's good for their constituents or not.

I would love to see some of my Republican colleagues stand up for both the Constitution and their constituents, which we are not seeing right now.

>> Nash: Have you seen any?

>> Fernàndez: No, no, I mean the tariffs.

Let's talk about the tariffs.

These tariffs are really they're creating a crisis of affordability.

They are raising costs on a range of goods.

And it's Congress that has the authority to issue tariffs.

So this is their responsibility to deal with tariffs.

And they have said we won't do it.

And everything Trump asked them to do.

They say no, and public radio and public TV strong public support for it.

Trump wanted to cut the funding because he didn't like some of the reporting.

And here we go.

The funding was cut.

So over and over again, the Medicaid cuts incredibly unpopular, 2 to 1 unpopular.

And yet they did that anyway.

Not standing up for their constituents.

>> Nash: And yet you do say that you brought bipartisan bills.

So is coalition building happening amongst the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress, or is it just not a possibility in this administration?

>> Fernàndez: So I think that there are areas in which we have bipartisanship.

And, there are a lot there is a lot of legislation actually passed each week that is done on a bipartisan basis, but on these big issues, no.

So on any issues that Trump directs, we don't see bipartisanship.

We had hoped to get all we needed was four Republicans to say no to the Medicaid cuts in the Senate and in the House, in the Senate, we got two and in the House we got two.

And they were not, only one of them was based on the Medicaid cuts.

The other one was Thomas Massie.

And I need to admire Thomas Massie because he is against, debt.

And it, you know, raises the debt for about $4 trillion.

And so he said, no, he actually voted his principles.

He and I are sort of, extreme ends of the ideological, perspective.

And I admire him because he stood up for his own convictions.

>> Nash: There's also almost $47 billion in the bill for border wall construction and another billion for military operations at the border.

How will that kind of funding show up in New Mexico?

What can New Mexicans expect the impact of that to be?

>> Fernàndez: Well, I think that this is an area of concern that we've had about what happens at the border.

It's a fragile ecosystem at our border.

And there is, and they're showing that they're not respecting private property rights.

They're going to be pulling private property rights, building a wall.

And what we need and what I do support is putting the kind of, technology that we know stops fentanyl, like, we know fentanyl is not being smuggled across the border by people in terms of, like, asylum seekers.

It is being smuggled across, actually, by citizens, through the ports of entry.

So we need to build the technology, install the technology at Santa Teresa at all of our ports of entry to actually identify and confiscate those drugs.

That's where we should be putting funding.

>> Nash: Military operations along the border, being spent in that way or utilizing that technology.

>> Fernàndez: What we're seeing Trump use the military for is a show of force.

He, you know, he threw a birthday party for himself, with a military parade.

Right?

And it's for autocrats do it's what dictators do, right?

They want to say that I control the military.

Our military has always been intended to protect us from foreign invasion and to allow us to fight in foreign wars.

And we utilize our own domestic force for our protection within our borders.

And he's doing the opposite of that.

He is, you know, utilizing them in cities from LA, to now DC and at the border.

>> Nash: We have the National Guard deployed in DC now, what is your, reaction to that move?

>> Fernàndez: I think that that's another example of him deploying the National Guard, because when they get deployed, that is now then part of the military, he is using the military, as a show of force to intimidate, because right now DC is, I think, smartly, she's saying, we'll welcome you.

We'll have you come in and supplement our forces.

But in DC, the mayor and but the mayor is also pointing out and there was a wonderful fact check, crime has been going down in DC.

It's a problem.

We still need to address the crime.

In LA, there wasn't anything that the local enforcement couldn't handle, but he wanted to show.

You know, it's this sort of beating of the chest that we're seeing, and it's a waste of public money if we're talking about waste, fraud and abuse.

This president has wasted so much money that instead could be put into things that are important, like health care, like education, like science and research.

So if we need to increase our local law enforcement to deal with crime, let's do that.

But let's do it at a local level.

Let's send them more money.

>> Nash: I mean, that obviously makes me think about Albuquerque Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham deployed the National Guard to Albuquerque to support the Albuquerque Police Department's efforts.

Do you see that as problematic in a similar way, or is that different?

>> Fernàndez: Fairly different, because remember that the Senate, Governor Lujan Grisham, she is making decisions locally, whereas what President Trump is doing is overriding local decisions.

And we're seeing this by Republicans over and over again.

You know, I sit on the rules committee.

And so all of the bills that are at all, controversial or monumental, come to my committee.

And so a once a week, I'm fighting with Republicans.

We're engaged in great debate.

If anybody wants to watch C-Span on a Monday or Tuesday, tune in!

PBS NewsHour, probably.

>> Nash: PBS NewsHour, probably.

>> Fernàndez: Yeah, it's it's great.

It's, because that's one of the few places where we actually are debating these issues, and we are seeing that over and over again, Republicans are deciding to dictate from DC what happened.

And that's what we're seeing with this president.

He is dictating from the White House what should be happening in different cities.

And he's targeting Democratic cities now they're not Democratic cities.

They're cities that may or may not have elected, a mayor usually in nonpartisan elections that happens to be a Democrat, right.

But some of the largest cities in the country that have major crime problems are actually in Republican states, not in Democrat states.

We need to get more resources to places like New Mexico, but we need to let the local officials make those decisions because they know best what to do on the ground.

>> Nash: Okay.

One more question about, where this immigration funding is coming from.

In the reconciliation bill, $45 billion is going towards construction of new immigrant prisons.

We here in New Mexico have three such prisons.

Is there any sense of whether this funding would go towards, constructing more in New Mexico, expanding the three that we already have?

>> Fernàndez: So once again, none of these facilities are in my district, but we we do know that in the ones like in Torrence County, the conditions are not good.

They've been cited for, lots of problems.

So I think that, constructing them in New Mexico is going to require, that they comply with local zoning.

There's going to be a lot of, compliance issues that they might not want to deal with in New Mexico.

Whereas if you can go and construct something like Alligator Alcatraz, in a state that is going to be welcoming these even though those facilities are just inhumane.

My colleagues have gone to visit them, and the stories they have come back with are horrifying.

It's not what the United States is supposed to be.

We talk about other countries having jails and, prisons there are substandard and where torture goes on and all these horrible things that go on.

We are now having that at a level that we had never expected in the United States.

I have written as chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, we have, a lot of mistreatment of women in the facilities.

We have women who are pregnant who aren't getting the care they need.

They are miscarrying.

We're losing babies.

Women are being raped.

So we have led, a letter, regarding this and we are trying to raise issues about this so that we can get the kind of public outcry that does sometimes lead to results.

>> Nash: That's kind of what I wanted to ask you about you know, with letters and, trying to drum up public outrage.

Is that really the extent to which Democrats like yourself, like our other congressional delegation, here in New Mexico, can do to push back on the Trump administration?

What do you say to New Mexicans who want you and your colleagues on the Democratic side to push back against Trump in ways beyond a letter, beyond holding a sign?

>> Fernàndez: So we all need to be involved in this process.

If you believe what he is doing and what the Republicans are doing, it now does not reflect your values.

It does not reflect who you believe America is.

And I believe America is a place of possibility, and it is a place of like we do when we, hold our hold our hand out and salute the flag of New Mexico, because we recognize the importance of diverse cultures and friendship among diverse cultures.

If you believe that what he is doing is not consistent with your values, then we must all be involved.

I have a particular role that I can play, and that role is raising issues in Congress.

And I need to tell you, public outrage works.

The public lands, provisions of the big ugly bill were stricken because of the fact that there was such public outrage.

And so that was New Mexicans.

That was people who love public lands across this country rising up and saying, absolutely not.

I had a meme moment.

I had about 4 million views on where I pointed out that they were giving a tax break for tanning beds at the same time that they were, you know, destroying the ability of rural health clinics to have health beds, right.

They were taking away health beds and giving tax breaks to tanning beds.

To me, that showed their priorities, right.

They don't care about health, the cared about vanity.

And, you know, President Trump loves his tanning beds, their outrage about that.

They took that out of the bill like they were places in which we can have impact.

>> Nash: Congresswoman thank you.

>> Fernàndez: Thank you.

>>Nash: Less than an hour after our interview with the congresswoman, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency in Espanola and its surrounding area, citing a surge in crime there.

The executive order authorizes another deployment of National Guard troops, this time in northern New Mexico.

We will bring you the second part of my interview with Representative Leger Fernandez next week, when we'll dig into cuts to Medicaid and Snap.

>>Sara: My family's story in the history of land was really a story of colonization that I feel like most Americans don't know, and I think we're really familiar here in New Mexico with the story of Native Americans and their difficult and sad story, really, of land loss and dispossession and removal.

And there's a very similar story in Hawaii that a lot of people don't know about.

And actually, it's the most recent part of our American history.

>>Nash: Russell Contreras's is interview with author and journalist Sara Kehaulani Goo is coming up in just about ten minutes.

Every year, the Navajo Nation loses millions of dollars in potential tax revenue to border towns like Farmington and Gallup.

That's at least in part because the regulatory framework on the 27,000 square mile reservation makes it difficult for local folks with entrepreneurial dreams to set up shop at home.

For the latest edition of Indigenously Positive, our collaboration with nonprofit news org New Mexico In Depth correspondent Bella Davis introduces us to the co-founders of Change Labs, a nonprofit that connects and supports those looking to start businesses on tribal lands.

We also met Roddell Denetso a Change Labs alum who's done exactly that.

Here's Bella.

>>Rodell: I feel like native people and native land like we should-- We should have that access to want to start a business on our land, because all you hear about is the red tape.

How it's difficult to start a business.

Don't let red tape stop you.

Like you look around here, there's the farm, it's just This is like rez USA, you know?

And and like, you could have a business, you know, not just have a business but have it flourish.

>>Bella: Every year, the Navajo Nation loses millions of dollars in potential sales tax revenue because instead of spending their money in their own communities, folks often have no choice but to go off the reservation for a whole range of products and services.

So when Roddell Denetso started his sports apparel business, he made a point to stay in Shiprock.

>>Rodell: Black Streak Apparel I got the name, from my clan's-- “Tsi'naajinii” which means Black Streak with people.

I wanted to honor my grandmother, you know, and because that's the clan I get from her.

There's a lot of companies that do the same thing, but I don't want to have just a set templates and say, okay, this is your choices.

And then just kind of switch it for every team.

I think I like to do each team original.

Say, for instance, like Navajo.

We use a lot of the step design.

We use a lot of the the diamonds.

And the step designs can be, like, in a shape of a square.

Could be like along the border.

Like the wedding basket design.

But then I've learned, like Salt River, the tribe, the tribes in Phoenix, they have, like, a water design that they use a lot.

Law means eagle in their language.

So you have their seal in the background.

And then this was that water.

The water design I was talking about.

>>Bella: Roddell started his company in 2021, and just a few years later, he designed uniforms for Rez Ball, a movie that follows a Navajo high school basketball team.

>Roddell: It really didn't hit me until I saw the trailer and I was just like, wow.

I was like-- because I saw the behind the scenes stuff I saw when they were shooting it, you know, I saw all that.

But that was the first time I saw it, like, you know, on TV.

And so that was so like I kept I kept watching it over and over and I think, you know, just seeing how proud of my kids were, that's that was like the proudest moment.

You know, growing up on the rez, I think this is with a lot of kids too.

Like there's not much to do.

So one of my uncles had got us a basketball goal and put it outside, and then we just I just started going outside and just, I guess, just fell in love with the game.

We had a little team called Ganado Bulls and Buccaneers.

And back then is when we had the all white t shirts and we used a marker to put our numbers and our team name on there and, and just travel, travel local areas.

I was always, you know, I was into art.

But as I got older, you know, you would always hear, like this starving artist stuff.

And you can't make any money in art, you know?

So I guess that kind of deterred me a little bit going into college.

But after a few years in college, I just always went back to that.

>>Bella: He used his graphic design degree and lots of different jobs over the next couple of decades, including at the Navajo Times newspaper and, and in a print shop at a local school.

During the pandemic, he took a chance on a business idea he'd had for years.

>>Rodell: I was at a basketball tournament in Phoenix, and, it was a Hispanic tournament, but they had all these crazy, like, all over designs on their shorts.

And I was like, man, I remember telling a friend of mine, I was like, man, that would be awesome to to do the same thing, but have like native print on it.

And that that's when that's when really the idea came about.

It was a lot of fear, anxiety.

And I think the fear is just the fear of failing.

It was second guessing yourself.

I'm leaving a perfectly fine full time job.

It was tough.

But I will say, like with my background of playing ball and being able to travel all over the United States to play, that's where I got a lot of my initial customers.

So I kind of just sent a mass text like, hey, I'm starting a business is what I do now, blah, blah, blah.

And and then orders started coming in.

This one was a real fun one.

Instance like this is the team, out of Tuba City.

So they're they're like Navajo and Hopi.

So the side design was off, some pottery, and then all these figures mean something.

They have their flower design that they use on pottery.

Seeing the teams when they get their uniforms, you know, and they're so proud.

They're proud.

And I think it's just all about identity and and just those kids being seen.

And and I do believe, like, if you look good, you play good.

>>Bella: Some of what Rodell learned about how to run a business when he was first getting started came from a program by Change Labs.

They're a nonprofit founded by two indigenous women.

That's all about supporting entrepreneurs and tribal communities.

>>Rodell: Change Labs really helped me with, like, being more organized, strategizing, you know, looking at your numbers from month to month, financials and stuff like that.

More of the business planning side.

I guess what I love most, too, like, there were always like just a phone call or text away.

And even now, being an alumni, you know that we still get all the emails, we still get the invite.

It's it's it's kind of it's like a family.

>>Heather: You know, what stood out for me early on or I feel like has been an ongoing theme in my career is just social injustice and inequity.

And I didn't know what those words meant when I was little.

But you could feel it just being on the reservation with relatives and then being off the reservation for school or for college or just life.

That discrepancy is even as a kid, I could see it, but I didn't know why it existed or what it meant.

There are lots of challenges for anyone wanting to start a business on the reservation, because of decades of neglect by the federal government many homes don't have running water, let alone Wi-Fi, and there aren't a lot of places to go to network and get advice, unlike in cities like Albuquerque.

Plus, there are some negative perceptions about what it means to be a business owner.

>>Jessica: I think that was one of the first learnings we had Was that the idea of business, or even that label was, not the same on the reservation.

People thought of businesses as car dealerships, banks, these sort of organizations and institutions that were pretty extractive and, and, and we didn't always have the right, you know, equitable relationship with them.

So then we at some point decided to change our, our language a little bit.

And we created a, a campaign called I Am the Navajo Economy.

And we went to the fair with it.

And, started taking photos there, and people wanted to take photos of their business with a sign that says, I am of Navajo Economy and I-- And that just took off because people started sharing that.

And that's when there was like a pride in what people were doing.

>>Bella: We met the team at their new space in Shiprock, where folks can use Wi-Fi host meetings or community events and meet other entrepreneurs.

Change labs also offers one on one coaching and a loan program that can provide up to $1.5 million.

>>Heather: So over those five years, when we were collecting the data, we had mountains of sticky notes.

When we had our events, we would ask people to write down like, what are your biggest challenges?

And we could map them according to those six categories.

And the biggest one was always the regulatory environment, the most complaints, the most needs in that area that remains a challenge is that we can provide people money.

We can provide them with entrepreneurship hubs, knowledge, tools.

But eventually, if the policy environment doesn't change on the reservation, we're still going to lose people to border towns or to urban areas.

So we're also just trying to advocate through mostly through events at this point in research and publishing data on the importance of entrepreneurs and what they contribute to our economy and what economic leakage does.

I think that's a critical component going forward, too.

>>Bella: In most cases, if business owners want to have a physical space on the reservation, they have to apply to lease a site.

Some of Change Labs recommendations center around making the process of leasing sites more efficient.

>>Racquel: And it's really exciting to see the different connections that have have come together.

So it's really exciting to see the different light bulbs that come up as far like, oh my gosh, the potential of what I can do with this specific idea or the potential of what I can do with collaborations and working with other organizations and entities or other business owners, and just making life better on the reservation for ourselves.

Because we do deserve nice things.

We deserve all the opportunities of anyone else living anywhere else in the country.

>>Rodell: My background, you know, my parents not being there being raised by my grandma and my auntie, alcoholism, running in the family.

It's just it's a similar story with a lot of our, our youth, on the reservation.

But it's important for me because they get to see that, you know, with the with all those barriers, you're still you're still able to to do something.

And I think one of the most humbling things is just getting random emails, you know, saying like, hey, I just wanna let you know that my son is really getting into art now.

He saw your story.

And, you know you're inspiring kids.

And, you don't even know it.

>>Nash: Thank you to Bella Davis producer Benjamin Yazza, and photojournalist Joey Dunn.

For more on Indigenously Positive, head to our Series Partners website at nmindepth.com In 1848, 90 some acres of land along the coastline of eastern Maui was given to the ancestors of journalist and media executive Sara Kehaulani Goo more than 170 years since King Kamehameha the Third gifted that land to her family, Goo got word that their property was in jeopardy.

She's in town for this week's Indigenous Journalists Association conference, and she sat down in our studio with correspondent Russell Contreras.

She talks about her family's dilemma detailed in her new book: Kuleana A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i.

It's both a memoir and a reported document, and Goo tells Russell that the loss of indigenous land in Hawaii mirrors struggles for Native Americans here in New Mexico.

>>Russel: Sarah Kehaulani Goo, thank you for joining us here on New Mexico in Focus.

>>Sara: Thank you so much, It's so delightful to be here Russ.

>>Russel: Your new book, Kuleana A Story of Family, Land and Legacy in Hawaii, is this exploration of Hawaii history.

But it's also about your family's past.

What prompted you to go on this journey?

>>Sara: Well, actually, it was a bit of a family crisis because the story begins with an unexplained family property, property tax that hit our family ancestral land and the island of Maui.

Suddenly in 2019, our property taxes went up more than 500% in one year and a property tax bill that just arrived unexplained.

And so our family had a really difficult decision to make.

Should we, you know, try to save these lands which have been in our family more than 175 years, or should we fight it and try to hold on to these lands?

And how would we do that with this huge price tag, year after year?

And so that was the decision that we faced, not just for my father and his siblings, who owned this property jointly But, you know, we had to think about the future as a multigenerational family, about what that would look like and to, you know, an uncertain future and the cost associated with that.

>>Russell: Now, this book isn't just about this 500% tax increase as you described.

What did you uncover as you dove into this story?

>>Sara: Well, as a journalist, I really dove deeply into not just the issue of property taxes, but the history of land and what I wanted to tell, really was I realized the story of my family's story and the history of land was really a story of colonization that I feel like most Americans don't know.

And I think we're really familiar here in New Mexico with the story of Native Americans and their difficult and sad story, really, of land loss and dispossession and removal.

And there's a very similar story in Hawaii that a lot of people don't know about.

And actually, it's the most recent part of our American history, because, you know, Hawaii, of course, used to be its own independent kingdom that was illegally overthrown.

So the story of my family is actually about also that land loss.

My family's ten acres of land, as I learned in my reporting, was once 990 acres of land, if you can believe it.

So through telling the story of what happened to that 990 acres and how it became ten and how now we were about to lose that ten that last ten acres was really telling the story of the native Hawaiian people.

>>Russell: Why is land loss so sacred and so important to Native Hawaiians?

What do we lose when that happens?

>>Sara: Well, it's very similar to other, you know, you know, relationships between other indigenous people and their land and the Hawaiian language, the word land, “aina” actually means from which we eat.

It is what sustains us.

And so separating the people from the land is separating them from their food, whether that food comes from the land or even from the water, the ocean.

So that really fundamental separation is critical to their relationship, to their culture, to everything that connects them together.

And Hawaii, when it was its own independent kingdom, was the self-sustaining, you know, set of islands.

Now, if you look at how far away and distant we've become from that, Hawaii imports 90% of its food.

You know, obviously has 9 million people coming to visit and fly in to the islands every year.

So and it's supporting that, that, you know, level of, of visitors is, is huge and to feed them.

So I think that it's time that we're looking that at these hard questions of how we got here.

I wanted to really write at the end of the day, a real narrative about Hawaii that I don't think has been told, taken from a Native Hawaiian perspective.

>>Russell: Now, this isn't just a memoir, You also had to put your reporters hat on to show us contemporary Hawaii.

What did you find about Hawaii's economy today and how it displaces native Hawaiians?

>>Sara: Well, Russell, this has been a story, really that you can look at it from two perspectives.

One is real estate.

We just talked about Aina, but the other side, of course, is our Western understanding of land, which is real estate.

Today, you could look at each island in Hawaii, whether that's Oahu or Maui or a Kaua'i, and there's a billionaire to go with it that owns and is gobbling up hundreds of acres of that land.

So Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Ellison and Lanai own like, so much land, and really they're competing and gobbling up that land against everyday people who are struggling to just make ends meet.

And that drives up the cost of real estate for everyone else.

And of course, on an island there's only finite amount of real estate.

So we're looking at a situation now in Hawaii, which I want to raise awareness of where the average home is over $1 million, where three out of four people, the average household in Hawaii, can't afford a single family home.

So it's not only where the American dream, if you will, is broken, it's untenable.

It's really out of reach.

So, that's just a story that's happening in Hawaii.

But we see that this story is happening in many other parts of our country.

So how do we address that?

I'm not writing a book about policy, of course, but I am writing about the impact of what happens on everyday families and everyday lives.

>>Russell: Now, you were with You were at Axios with me in 2023 when Maui was experiencing the wildfires.

Take me back to that moment for you, What were you going through in your mind when you saw the land of your ancestors going up in flames, and how we were reacting to it?

>>Sara: Oh gosh, that was so devastating.

I mean, I think that the whole world was watching, and I think never before did we think that was possible, that a wildfire could destroy an entire town and wipe it off the map.

And the horror of of people trying to escape the sad story is that two years later, we just had the two year mark of that, horrible incident on August 8th.

And I wish I could tell you that the whole town has been rebuilt, but really it's been a very slow recovery for a lot of reasons.

And it's highlighted this economic displacement that, has been happening and the fact that just it's been very slow and hard to build, hard to rebuild.

And I think it comes back to the high cost of developing new homes that comes to the cost of building and construction and the fact that on Maui at least 20% of the existing housing stock is really for visitors, not for locals.

So Hawaii has a lot of difficult, questions and issues to deal with, which is how much of its existence and, and priorities are for visitors versus local people.

And I know everybody loves to visit Hawaii, and I do too.

I live in Washington DC, but I think as a visitor, just awareness of these issues is really important.

>>Russell: Today, suicide and overdose deaths have skyrocketed like 97% on Maui, according to a study published by the Journal of American Medical Association.

Many of these have been blamed because of this displacement What you were talking about what are we failing to understand about this tragedy and the effects going on in Maui?

>>Sara: Unfortunately, the drug use and addiction and homelessness, some of those things are all interconnected is a huge problem still in Hawaii, just as it is, across the United States.

And I think it affects native population, native Hawaiian populations even more.

And it's it's horrible, affecting people in my own, my own family.

And unfortunately, like you see in other communities, the native populations, it seems to, affect, you know, it's exacerbated the problem, where they get into the, a chronic cycle without access to land and without access to resources.

And I think that they're all interconnected and, and I think there's also a history to why that is, what I wanted to do is really raise the issues of awareness of how do we see the through line, through history, of how we got to this place.

And how can we make sure that our infrastructure and policies today are really addressing some of the root causes?

>>Russell: On the other side are people in Hawaiis all across almost the other side of the world.

Are they engaged with what goes on inside the beltway of Washington?

We seem to be obsessed with what President Trump says every day policies.

But Hawaii seems to be on the other side of the world.

Do they engage with that or are they in their own world?

When you when you go there?

>>Sara: I mean, yes and no.

I think in some ways Hawaii benefits from being in its own remote.

You know, 2000 miles away from the continent.

And so there's benefits to that.

But it is very dependent on the federal government, a lot of military, employees, federal government employees.

And so it does get a lot of federal dollars.

So it does pay attention and is feeling the impact of federal cuts, whether that's from the university system or the federal government cuts.

So those are starting to take effect now.

And it is starting to feel the pain of that.

But I also think that it exists in its own, in its own world to a certain extent, where it also has a bit of a buffer >>Russell: That's very similar to New Mexico, that we're distant here.

You were here in New Mexico for the indigenous journalism associate at the Journalists Association convention.

What are you, as you go down to Isleta Pueblo, this week, what are you hoping to engage when you talk to indigenous journalists and your experience and why?

What do you hope to get out of that?

>>Sara: Yeah.

Good question.

I'm really looking forward to this gathering of journalists, because I think that as storytellers, it's important that we raise awareness around the issues that the communities that we cover and the issues that we that we uniquely know and we uniquely are familiar with that need to be told.

So whether we're working for, news organizations, for our communities or for mainstream news organizations, it's important that we're always representing and it's always important that we're also hearing from them and listening and making sure that we're telling the correct narratives.

And that's one of the reasons I wrote this book.

But we're also as journalists every day that I feel like that's our responsibility.

Just to borrow a word from my book, responsibility means kuleana.

I think that's part of our kuleana as indigenous journalists as well.

>>Russell: The book is Kuleana a Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i.

Sara Kehaulani Goo, thank you for joining us here on New Mexico in Focus.

>>Sara: Thank you Russell.

It's been a pleasure.

>>Nash: Thank you to correspondent Russell Contreras and everyone else who contributed to the show.

Next week, we will dive into federal cuts to Medicaid and hear from a former state senator and one of the top authorities on the state's finances about what you can expect here in New Mexico.

For New Mexico PBS, I'm Nash Jones.

Until then, stay focused.

Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.