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CN2Go Host: This is Cronkite News 2 Go. I’m your host, Kiersten Edgett.
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CN2Go Host: On today’s show, we talk about Governor Katie Hobbs signing a petition to put abortion rights on the 2024 ballot, how New Mexico residents are taking action to raise gun violence awareness, and more about a new project launched by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
Governor adds her name – literally – to push for abortion-rights question on Arizona ballot
EDGETT: Gov. Katie Hobbs added her name to a petition on Tuesday to put abortion rights on the 2024 ballot in an effort to make it a constitutional right in Arizona. Abortion regulation was returned to the states on June 24, 2022, after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
EDGETT: Hobbs said at a news conference that Arizonans “need to understand exactly what’s at stake when pregnant women can’t get the health care they need.”
<<Katie Hobbs 00:00: Our ability to access abortion care, miscarriage care, pregnancy care and even contraception is under indictment … In Arizona, we are just one bad court decision away from an 1864 abortion ban that carries prison time for doctors and provides no exceptions for rape or incest. >>
EDGETT: Hobbs was referring to a case in which the Arizona Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on Dec. 12. The case could determine if Arizona’s 1864 law regarding abortion should be reinstated. The law would bar doctors from performing abortions in all cases, except for when a patient’s life is in danger. Arizona currently bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
<<Katie Hobbs 00:00: We have a coalition of folks that you might not expect to see together: Republicans, independents and Democrats. But we all agree that the decision to have an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor, not the government and politicians.>>
EDGETT: Hobbs voiced frustrations that her daughter QUOTE has fewer rights than I did at her age some 30 years ago END QUOTE. Hobbs’ daughter, Hannah Goodman is 21 years old, and attended the news conference to sign the petition.
<<Hannah Goodman 00:00: This felt like it was something that could actually led to real change and that was really powerful.>>
EDGETT: The petition requires nearly 384,000 signatures in order for it to get on the ballot in 2024. In Phoenix, Kiersten Edgett, Cronkite News.
In New Mexico, using art to help raise awareness about gun violence
CN2Go Host: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico, Arizona’s neighbor to the east, has the third highest rate of gun violence in the United States. Deanna Pistono has more on how New Mexicans are taking action to raise awareness and prevent violence.
<<AMBI – sound of people just being in the parking lot>>
Deanna Pistono: On November 4th, 2023, in the parking lot near San Pedro (san Pay-dro) Library in Albuquerque, a nonprofit called New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence unveiled their most recent mural, painted on a stone wall. The mural, which uses a hot pink, deep blue, turquoise and white color palette, is made up of a few different parts. One part depicts four large half-faced portraits next to each other, all with distinct features, their eyes looking straight toward the viewer.
<<Warren Montoya: On these faces directly behind me, what it actually turns to is black.>>
Deanna Pistono: This is Warren Montoya, the artist behind this new mural, describing the mural’s Augmented Reality component.
<<Warren Montoya: All the faces become shadow. And then a scrolling list of people that we’ve lost in this city in New Mexico starts scrolling. So it’s a list of 200 and almost 300 names by now that have been taken in the last two years.>>
Deanna Pistono: The second part of the mural features a silhouette of a person near a skyline, with the words “Burque Cares” emblazoned near three hummingbirds in flight. The next section has an image of a long-haired woman pressing her index finger gently against her lips, as if hushing the viewer, the words “Teach Peace” written on a pink banner behind her. Montoya says the woman is Jessica Helen Lopez, Albuquerque Poet Laureate Emeritus. In the last section of the mural, there’s a red rose on a white background, with the words “This mural is dedicated to” draped on a pink banner behind it.
<<Warren Montoya: You’ll see pictures of Albuquerque in the letters of Burque. The hummingbird becomes 3D. There’s various other animated elements.>>
DEANNA PISTONO: To reveal the work’s augmented reality, you view the mural using the Instagram app on your phone. The half-faces fade into a list of people taken by gun violence. When you look at the image of Lopez, the Poet Laureate, with your camera phone, flowers bloom behind her as she comes to life, lowering her finger from her lips. As her mouth moves, you hear a recording of Lopez reading a poem against gun violence start to play. During the mural’s unveiling, Lopez’s poem was played aloud for the audience.
<<NATS: poetry reading>>
Deanna Pistono: Sally Sanchez, co-founder of New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, an organization that supports those who have lost family members to homicide, carries a Build-a-Bear stuffed animal. In the bear is the last voicemail her son sent her before his death in 2020.
<<Sally Sanchez: When I need to hear his voice, I have it here. When I need a hug, I hold him. He goes with me everywhere – to work, to the laundromat, to the grocery store. Wherever he is, he’s with me. >>
<<AMBI of the voicemail>>
Deanna Pistono: On the last section of the mural, people write the names of those they have lost to gun violence onto the white background using sky blue markers. For Miranda Viscoli (Vis-cole-e), co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, the names on the wall are indicative of the crisis taking place in New Mexico.
<<Miranda Viscoli: The leading cause of death for children in this country and in this state is gun violence. … We have to look at it as a public health crisis. If we don’t look at it as a public health crisis, we’re only looking at it from a perspective that only is about incarceration.>>
Deanna Pistono: Janae Martinez (Mar-tee-nez), a student advocate, also spoke at the mural’s unveiling.
<<Janae Martinez: We must recognize that short term bandages are not the solution to healing our communities. Instead, we should invest in education and opportunities for our youth, address systemic inequalities, and foster a culture of empathy and understanding and support.>>
DEANNA PISTONO: In September, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a public health executive order that would have banned the open and concealed carrying of guns in public in Bernalillo (Bern-a-Leo) county and other areas with high rates of gun violence. A federal judge blocked this order, but an amended version, which only bans carrying guns near playgrounds and public parks, went into effect on September 15th. This version is currently set to continue until December 1st. But not all New Mexicans have approved of the Governor’s executive order. Miranda Viscoli says that …
<<Miranda Viscoli: Her heart was in the right place. But what happened was it created a lot of … divisiveness … but, you know, good for her for trying. It started a conversation on gun violence prevention and we’ll, you know, continue to work on it. >>
PISTONO: For Sally Sanchez, co-founder of New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, the order goes too far.
<<Sally Sanchez: Taking people’s guns is not the answer to me. It’s not. It’s holding them accountable.>>
DEANNA PISTONO: Even if reception to the public health order has been mixed, the drive to solve the issue of gun violence is still strong in New Mexico. Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, believes that it’s the responsibility of adults in New Mexico to pave a better path forward for New Mexico’s youth.
<<Miranda Viscoli: That is the world we have created for our young people. And shame on us, right? So how do we as adults in this community figure out how to fix this mess?>>
DEANNA PISTONO: For Warren Montoya, the artist behind the mural, this work of art has personal significance.
<<Warren Montoya: I have lost people to gun violence in my life – cousins, actual family members, friends. And honestly, I see this problem … continuing to sever families and just cause irreparable harm in our communities and it’s unnecessary.>>
DEANNA PISTONO: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five hundred and seventy-eight people in New Mexico were killed as a result of gun violence in 2021. For CN2Go, I’m Deanna Pistono.
Healing through talking: Oral history project looks at Native American boarding schools
CN2Go Host: For nearly a hundred years, starting in 1869, Native American children were removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools. Now, an oral history project by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has been launched to raise awareness about a program that affected tens of thousands of Native Americans. Reporter Kenny Rasmussen has more on the story.
RASMUSSEN: The upcoming NABS exhibit focuses on educating the public about the plight of Native Americans in the boarding schools designed to “kill the Indian” in them. The project’s launch is part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative introduced by Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland. Haaland uses her platform to raise awareness of the Native American boarding schools and their impact, having appeared on programs such as PBS NewsHour and the History Channel. She often uses her grandparents as an example of people who were forcibly assimilated.
Around 0:15 “When my maternal grandparents were only eight years old they were stolen from their parents’ culture and communities, and forced to live in boarding schools until the age of 13. Many children like them never made it back to their homes.”
RASMUSSEN: Haaland believes the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative will raise awareness and have a transformational impact on future generations. NABS Oral History Project Senior Director Melissa Powless notes that the organization was selected to head the program due to its track record of interviewing survivors of boarding schools in order to create and preserve historical records.
Around 1:45 “The amazing thing is that NABS is an organization that does this work already and approaches the interviewing and a healing centered approach to really care for our relatives and the survivors of Indian boarding schools.”
Powless says that oral history has had an importance in indigenous communities as it is a way storytellers and listeners can connect. Studies have shown the importance of sharing experiences and stories, especially in familial settings.
RASMUSSEN: Powless says the impact of boarding schools was an intergenerational trauma that can be linked to a lot of the modern-day social, health, and economic disparities native people deal with. Boarding school intergenerational trauma can manifest in various ways. Elena Selestewa, a historian who gathers knowledge regarding the Phoenix Indian School and its students, noted that her grandmother was affected by such trauma. During her childhood, her grandmother washed out her mouth with a bar of soap when she said a bad word. She later discovered this was a way her grandmother was disciplined at the boarding school when she had difficulty speaking words in English. The process of interviewing survivors is complicated for a variety of reasons linked to the trauma and in some cases the age of the survivors. Powless notes that a lot of survivors want to share their experiences but have found themselves unable to for various reasons.
Around 10:55 “One of the main ones that I often think about is that a lot of our survivors do share that they don’t want their families to hear about what happened to them because they don’t want to re-traumatize or hurt them.”
RASMUSSEN: There is also mental health assistance and medicine available to aid in the healing-based approach NABS intends to have with their interviews. Powless says the staff is always prepared to have the support close by so it can be there if needed. Powless mentions that while the final blueprint of the project is yet to be determined, the recorded interviews will be a milestone that will ensure the oral history project’s success. Although the oral history project in its current form may be unclear, it is worth noting that the initiative may simultaneously influence additions to various other projects seeking to document Native American boarding schools. The Heard Museum’s Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories is one such example. Patty Talahongva, one of the advisors for the exhibit and an attendee of the Phoenix Indian School, noted that the exhibit has been modified in the past as more information comes out over time.
Around 11:20 “So I wouldn’t say it’s the end-all exhibit. I think like anything it continues to evolve and tell more story as more information becomes available.”
RASMUSSEN: Kenneth Rasmussen, Cronkite News
CN2Go Host: And this was your CN2Go. This show was produced by Kiersten Edgett. Special thanks to Deanna Pistono and Kenny Rasmussen for their stories in this episode. I’m your host, Kiersten Edgett. Until next time!