Indigenous Rights

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Legislative District 11 proudly encompasses the Town of Guadalupe, home to a vibrant Pascua Yaqui Indian community. 

Our district and our state is enriched by our partnerships with Native governments and indigenous peoples. But for hundreds of years, the Arizona and US governments have treated tribes with cruelty— routinely failing to honor government-to-government treaties, stealing Native land, failing to uphold the rights of Native people, especially women, and allowing corporations to exploit sacred lands and waterways for profit.  

This history of injustice means that today, Natives in Arizona are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to struggle with food insecurity, and more likely to be denied their right to vote. They are also less likely to have access to quality healthcare, education, and economic opportunity.

Indeed, with nearly 1 in 2 people living with diabetes, the Gila River Indian Community has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

As the head of public policy at the Arizona Food Bank Network, I witnessed food insecurity among Native communities firsthand. And I worked to ensure Native people in Arizona had the basic right to food. 

In office, I will partner with Native leaders to ensure Arizona’s relationship with tribes is one of dignity, diplomacy, and deference—not paternalism and exploitation. I will fight to respect tribal sovereignty, ensure justice for Native women, reduce poverty, and improve access to healthcare. 

My blueprint includes: 

• Tuition-free community college and public university for Native students: For every 100 Native kindergartners, only seven will earn a bachelor's degree, compared to 34 of every 100 white kindergartners. While ensuring educational equity requires a multifaceted approach, one important component is eliminating financial barriers that prevent Indigenous students from attending and graduating from college. In office, I would advance legislation providing free tuition, room, and board for members of a tribe in the Arizona area, as well as any Arizona resident who is a member of any federally recognized tribe.
• $5M annual appropriation for combating food insecurity and diabetes: In Arizona, one out of every four Indigenous people experience food insecurity and nearly 1 in 2 members of the Gila River Indian Community is living with diabetes. I would push for legislation appropriating several millions of dollars to Native Nations and the Department of Economic Security’s Coordinated Hunger Relief Program to combat food insecurity and ensure healthy, fresh food is available and accessible to Indigenous people.
• Native American history as a requirement for high school graduation: Arizona students should graduate from our schools with a firm understanding of our state’s history. And that begins with learning about the Native people that inhabited our state tens of thousands of years ago, as well as the Native people who live in our state today. That’s why I would push for legislation requiring high schools to teach a full course dedicated to factually-accurate Native American history, covering topics such as historic and contemporary Native scientific accomplishments, Native cultures, and the colonization and cruel treatment of Native peoples. The contents of the course should be developed jointly by education specialists and Native leaders. My legislation would also include appropriate funding to provide for teacher training and necessary instructional materials. 
• Replacing “Columbus Day” with “Indigenous Peoples Day:” Christopher Columbus was responsible for enslaving tens of thousands of Indigenous people, stealing their lands, and committing brutal acts of violence. Columbus cut off the hands of Indigenous people who didn’t collect enough gold for him and routinely beheaded Indigenous children for entertainment. Arizona must not sanction or celebrate this kind of violence. Which is why I would push for legislation replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day—to celebrate the past, present, and future of Native peoples in Arizona. 
• Justice for Native women: Four in five Native women in the US report they have been the victim of violence and 34 percent of Native women are raped in their lifetimes. The vast majority of these crimes—96 percent—are committed by non-Native offenders. But a legal loophole prevents the offenders from ever being prosecuted. For decades, tribal nations have lacked the legal authority to prosecute people who are not members of a tribe.That means if a non-Native commits an act of violence against a Native person on tribal lands, it’s up to federal prosecutors to decide whether to pursue the case. But shockingly, one study finds that federal attorneys decline to prosecute more than half of such cases. In office, I would push for a resolution urging Congress to pass legislation empowering tribal courts to prosecute people who commit violence on tribal lands, regardless of whether the aggressor is a member of the tribe.
• Ensuring the voting rights of Tribal voters: Tribal lands tend to be large and less dense than urban areas, meaning polling places are often far and can be hard to access for many people. That is why I would push for legislation requiring the Arizona Secretary of State to designate at least one polling place in every precinct on Tribal lands. I would also work to ensure that all IDs issued by a Tribal government are accepted forms of voter identification and to allow tribal members without a residential address or without stable mail delivery service to register, pick up and drop off their ballots at designated tribal buildings. The legislation would also establish an Indigenous Voting Rights Task Force, consisting of Tribal leaders and charged with recommending solutions to barriers to voting on Tribal land, such as lack of broadband access and the lack of mailing addresses. Finally, this legislation would prohibit states and counties from reducing, removing or consolidating voting access on Tribal land without first obtaining the consent of the  Indigenous Voting Rights Task Force. Finally, a 2016 GOP law made it a felony for anyone but immediate family, caregivers and household members from collecting and turning in ballots for anyone else. But many Native voters have have looser definitions of “family” than the law's current definition, putting Native people at risk of prosecution simply for helping their family members vote. I would work to repeal that law.