PARAJE, N.M. (AP) — On the morning of a Laguna Pueblo village’s annual festival, Ashley Sarracino knelt in her family home, holding clothespins between her teeth. She straightened her niece’s black cotton manta, a traditional one-shoulder dress, and tied a sash around her waist.
On these days, Sarracino is a caretaker, dressing his loved ones for the harvest dance and helping feed up to 150 guests. And as a former pueblo council member, she knows how to balance traditional responsibilities and official duties.
“To me, these things are not contradictory at all,” she said.
Yet even as another Laguna Pueblo woman, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, stands poised to become the first Native American female state governorWomen with leadership aspirations like Sarracino say they are swimming against the tide in their Pueblo communities. Sarracino said she was forced to leave the council after claiming she was paid less because she was a woman, a claim pueblo officials deny.
In some of New Mexico’s 19 pueblos, including Laguna, tribal laws and customs do not allow women to hold important government positions.
Haaland told The Associated that she had already been nominated to serve on her pueblo’s council, but had not made it past the primary. She joked that it was “easier to raise $1 million and run for Congress” than to succeed in Pueblo politics.
“It’s still a man’s world in many Pueblo communities, and certainly in mine,” she said.
A pay disparity has become a fight for women’s place in tribal leadership
Sarracino was offered a road map familiar to ambitious young Native people: leave the reservation to get an education, then return home to serve your community.
She built a career in nonprofit work and political organizing, including serving as chair of her county’s Democratic Party.
In 2022, Sarracino was nominated by a pueblo elder to run for council secretary. She finished second, but was appointed to the position after a resignation.
“I finally had the opportunity to use my skills to help my own community,” she said.
Upon reviewing budget documents, Sarracino discovered that she received $14,000 less than her male predecessor. She demanded an explanation from the pueblo governor, sparking a bitter argument that would end her tenure on the council.
The board says Sarracino was paid less because she lacked experience and abandoned her position.
But Sarracino insists she was ousted and that the pay gap reflects sexist attitudes rooted in tribal law. Since 1996, the pueblo’s election code has allowed women to run for council treasurer and secretary, but it does not explicitly allow them to serve as governor or lieutenant governor.
Its constitution, last amended in 2012, refers to the governor as “he” and “him.”
Sarracino’s litigation ended up in tribal court but was dismissed this year on sovereign immunity grounds and she exhausted her appeals. The affair took a toll on his mental health. She said it was bittersweet to see Haaland make political history.
“We all know she will never have the same opportunity here,” she said.
Still, Haaland’s rise could help change attitudes in his country. Emily Hunt, who became Laguna Pueblo’s first elected woman in the late 1990s with Haaland’s legal help, believes the pueblo will one day appoint a woman governor.
“I don’t know if I’ll see it in my lifetime,” Hunt said.
Pueblo governance is varied and complex
Some pueblos retain traditional theocracies, with government roles appointed by ceremonial elders and reserved for men.
Charlotte Little, a citizen of San Felipe Pueblo, said women in these communities occupy their own esteemed roles. A New Mexico state representative, Little never aspired to lead his country.
“It’s about respecting the culture where I come from,” she said.
Other pueblos, under federal pressure in the 1930s, adopted secular constitutions and elections. This includes Isleta Pueblo, where, in 1986, Verna Teller overcame a contentious legal battle to become the first and only female governor.
Council incumbents unsuccessfully attempted to remove Teller’s name from the ballot, arguing that a woman could not hold office under Isleta law. She won in a landslide.
Now 70, Teller blames colonization for the patriarchy that she says persists in traditionally matrilineal Pueblo communities.
“When the Spanish and the Catholics came here, they didn’t want to deal with the clan mothers. They threw the women in the back seat,” Teller said. “It has turned into a paternalistic attitude that men must lead. »
This is not the case in all pueblos. In Pojoaque Pueblo, where council positions are open to all and candidates do not need to be nominated, women have held all four leadership positions since 2021.
Plan with the next generation in mind
Haaland is the most prominent among a wave of Pueblo women who have succeeded in mainstream politics, from school boards to state government and US Congress. She encouraged Pueblo women to seek opportunities beyond their home community.
“We need more indigenous women everywhere,” she told the AP.
Sarracino has not ruled out a future run for the pueblo council and, after attending Haaland’s election night celebration, now sees a potential path into state politics.
On the day of the holiday, as her family home came alive with visitors, Sarracino greeted her friends and loved ones with hugs, refilled their iced teas and then made sure they went home to baked bread and fruit pie.
She watched with pride as her nieces laughed over plates of enchiladas, their hands white with the ceremonial clay of morning dances. She plans her next move with these girls in mind.
“That’s why I couldn’t let it go,” she said. “Because I know they’re coming behind me.”
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This story is published via the Global Indigenous Reporting Network to the Associated Press.
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