Deb Haaland breaks political barriers as Native women in her home community face hurdles
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On the morning of a Laguna Pueblo village's annual Feast Day, Ashley Sarracino knelt in her family home holding clothespins between her teeth. She straightened her ...
PARAJE, N.M. (AP) — On the morning of a Laguna Pueblo village’s annual Feast Day, Ashley Sarracino knelt in her family home holding clothespins between her teeth. She straightened her niece’s black cotton manta, a traditional one-shouldered dress, and tied a sash around her waist.
On these days, Sarracino is a caretaker, dressing relatives for the harvest dance and helping feed up to 150 guests. And as a former member of the pueblo council, she knows how to balance those traditional responsibilities with official duties.
Yet even as another Laguna Pueblo woman, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, is set to become the first Native American woman state governor, women with leadership aspirations such as Sarracino say they are swimming upstream in their Pueblo communities. Sarracino said she was forced off the council after alleging she was paid less because she was a woman, a claim pueblo officials deny.
In some of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico, including Laguna, tribal law and customs do not allow women to hold top government positions.
Haaland told The Associated she was once nominated to serve on her pueblo council but did not make it past a primary. She quipped it was “easier to raise $1 million and run for Congress” than succeed in Pueblo politics.
“It’s still a man’s world in a lot of Pueblo communities, and certainly in mine,” she said.
A pay disparity became a fight over 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 as chair of her county’s Democratic Party.
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