Kevin Abourezk, Pauly Denetclaw, and Stewart Huntington
ICT
LAGUNA PUEBLO LANDS – Deb Haaland, one of the country’s first Native congresswomen and the first Native woman to serve as a cabinet secretary, became the first Native woman governor Tuesday night.
Haaland held a solid lead over her Republican opponent, Greggory Hull, with 57 percent of the vote with all precincts either partially or fully having reported their results as of late Tuesday night. That news sparked a festive mood at her campaign’s watch party at the Pueblo of Laguna’s Route 66 Casino 18 miles west of Albuquerque.
The mood was further lifted for the more than 500 people gathered in a casino conference when word came that Democrats had won control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
As her supporters cheered and waved signs, Haaland stepped up to the microphone.
“Now, I know there are young folks watching tonight who may not know what their future holds,” she said. “They may be growing up in a small rural community. They may be living on the rez. They may be watching from Española, Las Cruces, Belen, Hobbs, or Gallup.
“Some of them may be growing up in households where money is tight … where their parents work more than one job … or where they wonder what opportunities will actually be available to them when they grow up.
“I want every child watching to know that your dreams matter … and that New Mexico is a place where you can build the life you want – close to the communities that raised you.
“Here in New Mexico, we can do anything,” Haaland said.
“I remember carrying water from the community spigot and playing outside from sunrise to sunset, spending time in my grandfather’s cornfield, helping him irrigate. I remember watching my grandma bake bread and cook beans and chile.
“And just off this road, my grandmother was taken away to boarding school, and along with my grandfather, survived through a time where the federal government attempted to strip them of their languages, traditions, and identities.
“Yet … we are still here.
“And tonight, in our nation’s 250th year, I stand before you as the first Native American woman elected governor in U.S. history!” Haaland said.
After her speech, Haaland held a press conference.
“I will make sure that tribal leaders have a seat at the table and make sure that we’re giving them the opportunity to weigh in before decisions are made,” she said.
Stephanie Garcia Richard, the former public lands commissioner for New Mexico, will serve as Haaland’s lieutenant governor.
On Nov. 3, 2018, Haaland was elected as the U.S. representative for New Mexico’s 1st congressional district and joined Sharice Davids, Ho-Chunk Nation of Minnesota, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the same time, as the first two women to become members of Congress.
Haaland was elected to two terms, leaving the post in 2021 after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination by former President Joe Biden as Secretary of the Interior, where she focused on repairing morale in the multibillion-dollar agency in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s first term.
She also launched the department’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which involved her traveling across the country on a “Road to Healing” tour that gathered testimony from boarding school survivors and their families. The initiative also included the publication of two Indian boarding school investigative reports in 2022 and 2024 that included recommendations, starting with a presidential apology by Biden.
About 63 percent of votes in the 2022 race for governor in New Mexico were cast early or by absentee ballot. Entering Election Day, 456,726 New Mexico voters had already cast their ballots via early and absentee voting — more than 17,000 votes more than four years ago.
Early voting results showed 40.7 percent of registered Democrats voted as compared to 31.8 percent of registered Republicans, according to Secretary of State’s Office data.
Navajo Nation Vice President Richelle Montoya spoke before the news was announced.
“If we elect Deb Haaland as our New Mexico governor, it’ll be a historic moment that anybody should be a part of,” she told ICT. “Especially to watch this happen for our young men and women that have never seen in an Indian American Indian, become a governor of a state in the United States.”
Outside the Pueblo of Laguna Tribal Administrative Building Tuesday morning, tribal Governor Harry Antonio Jr. paused to reflect on the fact that tribal members had the opportunity to vote for one of their own to lead the state’s government.
“This is a monumental occasion,” he told ICT. “I am proud of that.”
He said he felt good that someone steeped in Indigenous values had the chance to lead New Mexico. “We don’t have all the answers in Indian Country,” he said. But the traditional values have served the ancestors for thousands of years and are a good starting point for looking forward, he said. “This is who we are.”
Pueblo of Laguna citizen Nicholas Cheromiah said he was happy to vote for Haaland but that, perhaps paradoxically, it didn’t feel novel. “It felt, in some ways, normal,” he told ICT. “I think we’re finally getting to the point where we get enough people that are activists within our community that have kind of moved the degree of participation in our communities” to a strong level. “I feel like at least we have somebody that understands our Indian Country needs.”
Fellow Laguna citizen Shayai Lucero was more direct.
“I think that the environmental connection that our Indigenous people, our Native people, have to this area is really important. I always tell folks that our Pueblo people are very lucky, because we were never forcibly removed from our area where our ancestors came from,” she told ICT, standing outside of the Laguna Burger restaurant in Laguna Pueblo.
“And so I think what being a Pueblo person and being tied to the land where your ancestors were from, gives you a unique perspective … for taking care of the rights, the water rights, the land rights, the mineral rights,” she said. “And I think (Haaland) having that kind of perspective, it’s going to give a unique twist to our state. … I’m just excited.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
