03-03-2025
Pushing for their say: Tribes supporting bill to create Indigenous-language compact schools
JEMEZ PUEBLO — From the 1800s to the 1960s, generations of Native American students suffered abuses in boarding schools run by the U.S. government that were designed to stamp out their cultural and tribal ties.
Students often were punished for speaking Native languages and forced to convert to Christianity.
Now, some tribal leaders in New Mexico are championing legislation they maintain will help preserve Indigenous languages as a part of the Native self-determination movement, allowing tribes and pueblos to bolster funding for schools on tribal land that emphasize the teaching of Native languages and culturally relevant material.
"There has been a concerted effort by the federal government to do away with us, basically," said state Sen. Benny Shendo Jr., D-Jemez Pueblo, a sponsor of Senate Bill 13. "Indian boarding schools, the purpose is to move kids away from home, a way to assimilate us into American culture and so forth.
"All along, we've resisted," Shendo said. "We still resist today."
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Ricardo Gachupin and a group of students from the Walatowa Early Childhood Learning Center participate in a group dance on the playground Thursday. Indigenous language immersion programs — like the one at Walatowa — not only want to instruct students in tribal languages but also want to prioritize integrating cultural education with the language.
The legislation would amend state code to create state-tribal education compact schools, authorizing the New Mexico Public Education Department to enter into compacts with Indian nations, tribes and pueblos to create language and culture-based institutions.
Tribes and pueblos would be in full control of what is taught in terms of curriculum. However, the bill also would make proposed state-tribal compact schools eligible for state funding through the state equalization guarantee, the state's public school funding formula.
Jemez Pueblo, in particular, has sought to be a model in this regard. This week, the door of a classroom on the pueblo held a sign reading "No English." The young students inside will not start taking any lessons in English until around the fifth grade.
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A sign reading 'No English' posted on the door of one of the classrooms at the Hemish Pilot Immersion School on Thursday last week. "In the world we live in today, we are inundated with English," said Kevin Shendo, the education director at the pueblo. He said the goal of the immersion program is to ground children in the language of Jemez before introducing English instruction later in order to strengthen cultural and community ties.
Kevin Shendo, the education director at the pueblo, said the idea is to ground children in the language of Jemez — the Native language specific to the pueblo — before introducing English instruction later in order to strengthen cultural and community ties, while making the students well rounded and confident. He pointed to studies indicating students who are strong in two languages can excel academically.
"In the world we live in today, we are inundated with English," Shendo said, meaning those students are picking up plenty of English outside the classroom anyway.
He added he believes introducing English-based instruction around the fifth grade is in the service of bolstering educational opportunities for students. Jemez is an oral language and is not written.
"You're looking at more of the specialized academic content areas [after the fifth grade]. And our goal really isn't to make Jemez an academic language," Shendo said.
The pueblo, a sovereign community at the foot of Redondo Peak about 50 miles west of Santa Fe, has a pilot language immersion program, known as the Hemish Language Immersion Pilot School, serving about 17 students from kindergarten through the eighth grade.
But the goal, which the legislation would help aid, is to increase the number of students in those programs and shore up funding. Currently, the immersion program at Jemez Pueblo is supported primarily through private grants.
There's plenty of competition for students. That comes as the educational options for Indigenous young people in Jemez Pueblo remain ample, with state-run charter schools, public schools and schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education located within an hour of the pueblo.
As it stands, 148 Jemez young people are enrolled in the Jemez Valley Public School District in Sandoval County, 93 are enrolled in Albuquerque Public Schools and 74 are enrolled in Rio Rancho Public Schools. At Jemez Pueblo, which has a population of around 2,000 people, the aim is to get more of those students into the immersion program, which has Native teachers grounded in the Jemez language and culture.
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Chandler Two Eagle holds up a tiny carrot seedling last week while working with educational assistant Derek Yepa, not pictured, on transplanting the carrots into larger containers at the Hemish Pilot Immersion School on Jemez Pueblo. The K-8 school operates with Walatowa Headstart for kids as old as 7 on the pueblo, with both being funded by public and private grants.
Other tribal leaders in New Mexico are also on board with the bill. At least eight Indigenous languages are spoken in New Mexico, some of which are viewed as endangered.
"We at Santa Ana are looking to begin a program such as what is proposed here in this bill. Our languages, including in Santa Ana, are endangered, so we are trying to not lose it for the future generations," said Jay Garcia of Santa Ana Pueblo, speaking in support of the bill at a Feb. 18 Senate Finance Committee meeting.
A boost for tribal autonomy?
The bill has received support so far in the 2025 New Mexico legislative session, winning a 38-0 vote on the Senate floor this week. Before the powerful Senate Finance Committee, it had the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
The bill would allow administrators at Jemez Pueblo to strengthen funding streams for the work they are doing. Officials maintain the bill supports tribal autonomy and allows for the development of curriculum that reflects their values and priorities, including the preservation of Native languages.
There is a range of educational models that can be found on tribal property in the state. In addition to New Mexico's public schools, there are charter schools on tribal land, and then there are schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, such as the Santa Fe Indian School. — i'm cutting this because it's redunant with the graf above
Under the bill, the governing body for an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo could submit a resolution to the New Mexico Public Education Department to create a compact school serving any grades between prekindergarten and 12th grade.
Here's how it would work: Once an application is submitted to create a potential compact school, the education department would convene a government-to-government meeting for negotiating the terms of the compact.
The agreements would have a term of five years and would include provisions related to compliance, notices of violation, dispute resolution, recordkeeping and auditing, delineation of responsibilities, compact renewability and compact termination, according to a Legislative Finance Committee analysis of the bill.
There is some concern the bill could create conflict in the competition for students and perhaps lower enrollment at public schools in the state. That could create fiscal impacts for school districts and charter schools if enrollment in proposed state-tribal compact schools shifts enrollment away from current school districts and charter schools, a Legislative Education Study Committee bill analysis has found.
Historically, educational outcomes for Native American students have been consistently below those of their non-Native peers in the state, according to a bill analysis from the state's Legislative Education Study Committee. The analysis found 25% of Native American students scored proficient in reading in the 2023-24 school year, and 13% of Native American students scored proficient in math over that same period.
"The tribes I represent believe it's time. The two tribes I represent are also tired of our children failing in schools, the public schools. They are tired of low graduation rates," said Conroy Chino, who spoke on behalf of Taos Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo at the committee meeting.
"I just think it's fantastic. You guys do know what's best for your kids," said state Sen. Steve Lanier, R-Aztec, also during the Senate Finance Committee meeting.
Similar legislation was introduced in 2023. Also sponsored by Shendo Jr., it passed the Senate but not the House, where action was postponed at the House Education Committee level. That is where this session's legislation currently resides following the Senate floor vote Feb. 25.
A complicated past and present
Jemez is also the only language one hears in the Walatowa Early Childhood Learning Center at Jemez Pueblo, which includes its early childhood and Head Start Language Immersion programs.
When Jemez Pueblo started Jemez immersion at its Head Start program, Shendo said that it became obvious children would lose much of those early gains with the language once they reached kindergarten and began attending a Bureau of Indian Education school, a public school or charter school, where the medium of instruction is English.
"That's when we realized that we need an option, K-6 initially, then we expanded it to K-8, for an immersion pathway where the kids can continue to develop the Jemez fluency," Shendo said.
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Lena Toya draws at a table during an exercise working with shapes, and horizontal and parallel lines in a classroom at Hemish Pilot Immersion School last week. A packet detailing learning objectives of the Jemez language immersion programs moves from social and emotional development for young learners to development of familial and traditional ideas to culturally integrated learning of concepts like cardinal direction and time.
Jemez Pueblo has a complicated past, and present, when it comes to the educational landscape.
Jemez Day School, a federal elementary school operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, has an enrollment of 133 students from kindergarten through the sixth grade. Two charter schools on the pueblo, San Diego Riverside Charter (K-8) and Walatowa High Charter School (9-12), each have about 50 students.
Lana Garcia, the early childhood program manager for Jemez Pueblo's Head Start program, believes the pueblo's language starts from the womb. She feels strongly pedagogy should be rooted in cultures and traditions.
"We always believe that it's every child's right to learn their language and their culture," Garcia said, looking out at the mesas of red rocks that flank the pueblo.
