A Generational Shift: Exploring Citizenship and Identity with Dr. Porter Swentzell

Encounter Culture

Voter participation often begins with a simple question: Why should I bother? For Indigenous people, the answers come tangled in hundreds of years of broken treaties, systemic racism, and voter access restrictions like those that Miguel Trujillo fought to overturn. And yet, Dr. Porter Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo) challenges the notion that engaging with the colonizer’s process can’t work in tribes’ favor.

Judge June Lorenzo (Laguna Pueblo and Navajo/Diné) agrees. Judge Lorenzo works tirelessly to connect with Indigenous voters and ease their way once at the polls.

Welcome to the fourth episode in Encounter Culture’s collaboration with the New Mexico History Museum exploring Indigenous voting rights before and after Trujillo v. Garley. If you’ve never heard of the case or the inspiring story of Miguel Trujillo, we encourage you to check out the last three episodes. Then join us here to learn about the complicated realities surrounding Indigenous suffrage with Dr. Porter Swentzell), executive director at Kha’p’o Community School, tribal leader, and invaluable consultant on this project, and June Lorenzo, chief judge of Pueblo of Zia.

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Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Stephanie Padilla (Isleta, Laguna, Cochiti) & Charlotte Jusinski, Editor at El Palacio Magazine

Technical Director & Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

Recording Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann

Consulting Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)

Associate Producer & Editor: Alex Riegler

Show Notes: Lisa Widder

Social Media Design: Caitlin Sunderland

Theme Music: D’Santi Nava

Instagram: @newmexicanculture

For more, visit podcast.nmculture.org.

Special thank you to Clark Tenakhongva, along with Gary Stroutsos and Matthew Nelson, for the incredible Hopi music featured throughout all 6 episodes of this season. Their new album Hon Muru is set to release in August 2023 and will be available for purchase along with their other recordings on Bandcamp and at ongtupqa.com.

This season was made possible due to the generosity of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the family of Miguel and Ruchanda Trujillo.