Blame it on the Indians?

It began as a whispered ripple on a boring day in the covid-empty hallways of the roundhouse during the special gerrymandering session.  Regis Pecos, an elegant, articulate man, perhaps New Mexico's most experienced Pueblo tribesman in the NM legislative process, could be seen in the galleries and in hallways.  Senator Shannon Pinto, grandaughter of the late Code Talker from the Navajo world, was also prominent.  Georgene Louis, an Acoma native, UNM-educated attorney recently elected to a Latino House district in Albuquerque, was co-sponsoring a redistricting bill with Joseph Cervantes from Las Cruces.  Someone whispered to me in the gallery, "the Indians are working together here" as I glanced that moment at Regis Pecos talking to someone a few rows away from me.  The Albuquerque Journal asserted that Native Americans had stuck together to maximize their votes.  Good! Indians have been collateral damage or worse in previous redistricting sessions. Good for the tribes this time around.

But when the votes were in and people started looking at maps, the sins of the session became clear, and they were not the product of Indian power.  The East Side was split up for the first time since NM had qualified for 2 congressional seats, way back in the 1970s. One of the most coherent "communities of interest" in New Mexico would be split up at the federal level. That is a legal no-no, and will almost certainly be challenged in court.  There was more.  Two Republican Hispanics had been pitted against each other in the same seat.  Barelas was split off from the South Valley of Albuquerque, breaking up another significant community of interests at the federal level.  And rumor had it, later confirmed, Georgene Louis, who ran for Congress not long ago, lives in that part of the gerrymandering geography that suddenly placed her and the South Valley of Albuquerque, in CD2, leading to speculation she might be planning to run for Congress in CD2, long a bastion of federal strength for Southern New Mexico.  Senator Candelaria had a melt-down on the floor as he looked at the mischief done behind his back to his district.  He had announced well in advance (a tactical mistake, but ethically correct) he would not seek re-election, so there was a scramble to split up his constituents, against redistricting guidelines that protect communities of interest from being split up.

As legislators who voted for these bills began explaining their unfair actions, there was a whispered undertone:  the Indians controlled redistricting this time around.  Come again? Progressive legislators, at last in charge but perhaps too clever for their own good, seem to be using the perfectly legitimate lobbying by Indians as a mask to cover up their messes, relying on the sympathy many New Mexicans have for the interests of natives to justify the damage done to other, larger, communities of interest.  But Regis Pecos didn't cast a single vote, nor did the Apaches or Navajo.  And for a legislator to imply that Indians controlled things is to confess you didn't vote for what you believed in.  The vote was yours.  Less than 3% of the population on the East side is native, concentrated in Lincoln and Otero counties, so there was no benefit to natives to eviscerate the South.  And progressives had many paths to protect natives without damaging those of us who live in the South.