Albuqerque

"In the past two months alone, eight major municipalities—including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Bexar County, Texas; Anadarko, Oklahoma; Alpena, Michigan; Lawrence, Kansas; Carrboro, North Carolina; and Olympia, Washington—have opted to pay homage to the history and culture of the country's true native people by celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October. "For the Native community here, Indigenous Peoples Day means a lot," Nick Estes, who helped coordinate the city celebration after Albuquerque city council issued a declaration on the matter, told the Associated Press. “For the Native community here, Indigenous Peoples Day means a lot. We actually have something,” said Nick Estes of Albuquerque, who is co-ordinating a celebration on Monday after the city council recently issued a proclamation. “We understand it’s just a proclamation, but at the same time, we also understand this is the beginning of something greater.”"

"On July 31, 2020, as heavy clouds gathered on the horizon, hundreds of protesters filled downtown Albuquerque, N.M. The Red Nation, an Indigenous-led socialist organization, coordinated the rally to protest the Trump administration’s decision to send 35 federal agents to support the local police. After participating in a summer of uprisings against police brutality and hearing about federal agents targeting demonstrators in Portland, Ore., the Red Nation knew that this moment required bodies in the streets—especially in the city with the second-highest rate of fatal police shootings in the country. Members of the Red Nation carried hefty red and black shields that read “Land Back” and “No Fash” to protect them from riot police and members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a civilian militia group. But just as this protest was beginning, it started to pour. Amid the torrential rain, the protesters kept going, while the cops and armed right-wingers never showed up. Members of the Red Nation suggested... that even if the police had come, their tear gas wouldn’t have worked in such weather. The rain had protected the protesters. “There is a deep spiritual element to what we do. There always has been in Indigenous movements. And so when we’re out in public, doing these types of things, those types of moments are really significant for us because it demonstrates to us that our ancestors and the earth itself is in solidarity with us,” Melanie Yazzie"

"Just weeks before they would take to the streets to protest the dispatching of federal agents to Albuquerque, members of the Red Nation drove north, to Alcalde—a town just outside of Española. As Confederate monuments fell across the East Coast, a similar movement to topple statues of conquistadors, reminiscent of the Red Nation’s early work at UNM, emerged in New Mexico. In Albuquerque, protesters tried to overturn a statue of Juan de Oñate in the city’s Old Town, and in October protesters knocked over an obelisk in Santa Fe dedicated to “the heroes” who fought “savage Indians.”"

"Youth interest in civic engagement is soaring among the generation that the global volunteering nonprofit Points of Light says was already the most active in history. “If there is something that is harming us directly, we should be the ones to take charge,’’ said Isaiah Llamas, a recent high school graduate who helped facilitate a spring youth leadership session in Albuquerque. The New Mexico meeting was one of six around the nation co-hosted and funded by America’s Promise Alliance, a national network of groups working to improve conditions for young people.."