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Join The Urban Rez for an exciting journey that dives into the intersections of culture, sports, and lifestyle with a fresh, global, inclusive perspective. Each 30-minute episode brings a unique blend of conversations, stories, and interviews that explore the passions and experiences that define our lives.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KU N, V studios original program.
Wesley Knight 0:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. I
Dr. B 0:58
Good morning, everyone. Dr B here with the Urban Rez radio show. I hope everyone is having a fantastic Sunday, especially now that it's week two of NFL, football Go Cardinals, is all I got to say. But I'm really excited about today's conversation, because today we will be talking to such a dynamic woman here, and I have the pleasure and honor of reading her bio and discussing the amazing things that she's doing. She's also someone I consider my sister and a personal, great friend. And so here we go. We have Lucia Ortega here today with us. She is a citizen of the Quechan Indian tribe and communication specialist, slash strategist and policy advocate focused on amplifying the voices and political power of historically underserved communities. She has over 17 years of experience leading domestic and global initiatives specializing in storytelling through multimedia and empowering community voices. Lucia holds degrees in communications, film and video production, and also indigenous peoples law. Her work includes historic campaigns such as influencing the NFL to change the Washington football team, name, supporting Deb Haaland appointment as the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, and orchestrating the largest Native vote engagement initiatives in modern history. She is also a published author, modeled for native femme brands like shy natives. Serves her third term as a tribal legislator and as a proud mother of two. Welcome Lucia. Hello some of the move
Lycia Ortega 2:50
box crystal. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really thankful to be in this conversation with you today.
Dr. B 2:57
Yes, as as am I, and geez, this week has produced a lot of thought provoking dialog and rhetoric. This has been such a heavy week for a lot of us here in in the States and around the world. And you know, I just wanted to have a dialog on on some of the discourse and the news that has been outputted this past week. So I think one of the conversations I wanted to have was, we're hearing so much about political voices and voices in general, across the board, and I just wanted to highlight voices from us and people from our community like yours. And I you represent your citizenship through your tribal nation, the quachon tribe, and I represent my citizenship as individual through the Navajo Nation. And so I just want to talk about our personal story. Yeah, yeah, that's so,
Lycia Ortega 4:11
like, that's where we have to be focused right now. You know, I think it the bottom line is that this entire year has been pretty exhausting. You know, there's been a lot of different things that have raised attention and awareness. And also, I mean, we've had essentially one crisis after another. We've had the LA wildfires and, you know, then there's like, ICE raids everywhere. And you know, a lot of folks from a lot of different communities have just been facing really exhaustive situations. So just, you know, wanting to honor the fact that this is a difficult moment for us to be in, and that, you know, people are really looking inward and trying to figure out, like, how they need to show up in this moment. So, you know, for me, I've, you know, been. In in communications and policy. Work for a really long time, and I get the opportunity to work with a lot of tribes domestically and globally. And before that, I worked in corporate so I got an opportunity to look around the world and figure out, like, what it takes to have unity, you know, and there's a good way to do it, and then there's like, a different way to do it. And one of the things that I've seen that is most successful in being able to have thriving communities is like working together, you know. So this is, like, one of those spaces right now where it's like, what's happening may not every day, affect our community directly, but how we show up individually, for other communities, and even for ourselves, and lean into our own personal values, wherever they might come from, like ours, our tribal values, you know. And then, just like the fact that we are, you know, we're fems, we're in a lot of male dominated industries, and there's a ton of intersectionality between how we have to show up every day, just the two of us here as business women, as you know, people who are entering spaces and having conversations that maybe we've only we've ever been, the only native person in the room, and we're the woman you know, and we're carrying all of these, you know, layers on our backs with us, and our communities are counting on us, you know. And you yourself. I'm so thrilled to be here, because you literally are global girlfriends like you. There isn't a space I can think of that you haven't been in, and that's honorable. And the thing I respect the most about what you have going on is that you never lose your indigenous values, no matter what space you're in, and you're always trying to carve out more space for other natives, so that it's not just you having to represent and hold all of those things on your shoulders, you know. So I'm just, I'm just, you know, I'm just thinking about sisterhood and community right now, and I feel like that's kind of through all the chaos, there's only some things that we can control, and it's like, how we reflect and like show up in these really key moments. And I do believe like right now is like a super key moment to show up in somehow.
Dr. B 7:07
No you You hit the nail on the head is, how do we show up for each other? And really, what does community look like? What does unity look like? What does ally ship look like, and I think that's the reflection of my base right now, because right now we're seeing a trend in social media and public discourse and rhetoric that everything just seems so divisive. And from someone like yourself and I that come from, you know, different tribal affiliations, how our tribes are centered on the unification of a goal. And we might not always agree on how to get there, but our indigeneity is built upon us listening to each other and finding the commonalities and working out the differences. And I think that I mean that just goes back to predate, you know, some some of how our our tribal nations are, ran pre the beginning of the United States. And even that, how our democracy. I think people tend to forget that our current US, United States, democracy, is modeled after tribal affiliation, right? Like they learned, yeah, yes, yes. Let's talk about that. I think because the Confederacy came together and in a democratic process. And I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who first observed how the Iroquois Confederation were coming together as tribal nations. And I guess processing how their democratic system worked, internally, within the tribe, within their Confederacy. I think that's one, one notion I really want to point out is the Iroquois Confederacy. I'm sure you have more knowledge about this because you work in legislation and policy, so I don't know if there's anything you want to add to
Lycia Ortega 9:21
that discourse. Yeah, I feel like I would like to kind of just go a layer deeper than that too. It's like, you know, to take a step back. You know, our governing systems as Native people have always been a little bit different, you know, because we have these components. And I'm so thankful to be having this conversation because I am a political nerd. I love to eat this for breakfast, and it's like a conversation with an elder the other day, because at the beginning of this year, the pit river tribe and the for coach on tribe and our sister tribes throughout the Coachella Valley got our tribal territory designated into national monument status right. And. So we're, you know, we're able to celebrate the protection of over a million acres of land, and now we're working on stewardship plans and things like that. And as we were going into these conversations, and even pre that, I've always been Ultra fascinated with the way that we convene and make decisions, because essentially, with this governing system that the so called us borrowed to from the Iroquois Confederacy, was a system, you know, they were like, how do we want to govern? How do we want to make rules? How do we want to decide? What do we want this to look like? And one of the things you don't see in the American system, that you see in our tribal traditional systems, and what that's making a huge comeback, is the addition of the cultural values and the traditionalists and those lenses. And for example, I'll say that, you know, as we were convening these tribes, we had, we had the tribal council, because that was our way to have these negotiations, according to federal Indian law, with the government about these lands and with the states about these lands and their governments. And you know you had your your women, you had your men, you had two spirit, you had your traditionalist, your your culture bearers, your your culture holders, your knowledge holders, your youth. And all of these groups are broken up like that, and those are all the decision makers about what happens with us, for us, within our nations, you know. And imagine doing that with, like, you know, a handful of sister tribes and all of their units as well. So essentially, like, we're going through these layers of decision makers because their perspective and how these new rules will affect them, or, you know, how what these places mean to them, and how they use them, and what, you know, things that need to take into consideration. It's a full community dialog. It's not people sitting in ivory towers waving a wand or, you know, casting a vote. And, you know, the it's either this or that kind of way, it's literally a community decision making process, and that community is made up of really key populations and groups, you know. So I think about that, and I think about how our, you know, our value systems as people of this country, right? Because Native people hold two political identities. We're inherently political because we're a political status. We are citizens of our tribal nations, which are nations within this nation, and we're also citizens of the so called us, you know? So we get to vote in all of these different elections outside of our tribal boundaries and within our tribal boundaries, right? And so, you know, to sort of like, just exist right now in this whole spectrum of like, how do we make decisions together that feel good for all of these different groups of people? You know, that's what has been some of the bigger conversations these days, is like, there are some behaviors that this, this colonized state of the so called us has established since their you know, 400 years ago, or, you know, whatever the anniversary is. And now their citizens, outside of tribes, are pushing back and saying, that's not the kind of values we want to have as Americans, you know. And then they're looking back at the original peoples of their lands, where they're at and then saying, what kind of values do you govern yourselves by and they're continuously emulating our relation system, you know? And it's such a beautiful it's so beautiful to just see the fact that we are being seen even in times where it feels heavy. We have Trailblazers that are out there that are relentlessly talking about, you know, why traditional ecological knowledge matters, why cultural value systems should be embedded in certain, you know, decision making processes. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I could talk about that all day. I'm like, a total nerd when it comes to native politics and policy and just like sovereignty at all, because I love that for us, you know, we are. We get to be the people that have this status. And there's not that many of us left. And you and I were born for our people, and we get to be in these moments right now, so that, in and of itself, just jazzes me up every day about this.
Dr. B 14:10
Yes, I mean, I love now that we're in this new era of Native American policies, but it wasn't always the case for us. I think people fail to a no like our history has not been taught. Our history has completely been erased. Our history is loosely discussed in current public school day textbooks, and the only thing that's being discussed about us is Thanksgiving. That's about it. But I think when we dive deeper, we talk about all the ripple impacts of what our ancestors endured, of of what they had to survive for us to current day, be able to thrive in these spaces that you're pinpointing towards. About sovereignty, about right to help improve and strengthen policies. But I just want to give a quick reminder, because I want our whole narrative to to be summarized, and I don't want people just to focus while you're here now, like, oh, well, you guys made it. You survived and but you're here now in kind of like this, like, like, like, we come from all a place of of equality and access to resources and opportunities that everyone else has in the United States, which unfortunately we're still trying to resonate and acquire such access still to this day, and I just kind of want to rewind back into federal Indian law and policies. I mean, starting from the 1800s about the Indian Removal Act that was signed into law by then President Andrew Jackson, and how the removal of our lands were a big way to gain access and power over our lands, and how that just resulted in different phases of federal Indian law and policy. So, so Lucia, what are some of the bigger historical policies that that you want to talk about, and I can fill in some that I want to talk about, and then how it pushed us to where we are now,
Lycia Ortega 16:35
yeah, this is, this is a very interesting conversation, because, you know, the first things first is that, like, you know, we were there as Native people, not giving up our, you know, space in this on this land, because we're stewards of it. For many reasons. We all believe we were placed in these particular areas to be stewards of those lands, and when it was in conflict with the federal government's idea of westward expansion Manifest Destiny, you know, just their theories of what, you know, building up this new world needed to look like when there was already a world here that existed, you know, is something that we're in the middle of this acknowledgement and accountability period. You know, everyone calls this the self determination policy area, era for Native people. But in reality, you know, in order to be self determined and truly practice our sovereignty, we must look backwards to figure out where these atrocities started and where the accountability and the restitution and the restoration needs to begin, and not on our part, like the federal government, they owe us back rent, you know. And these policies, like the removal, you know, I think that for me, like that period was it sort of like has this domino effect with a lot of things that we face right now, and I was literally just in a conversation with someone else about urban Native communities. And the reality is that more than 80% of native people live in urban areas. And why is that? That's because of relocation and assimilation, you know? And had we not been forcibly removed or told that, you know, it's this way or no way, or didn't work in circumstances where our communities had been threatened to the point of, you know, we had to leave to go be able to just survive as a human. You know, we have to think about how we got to the point where we're not literally on the homelands that were, that we were asked to steward and be among we're in urban areas, and having to potentially, possibly, you know, release some of our identity, or mute it, or, you know, step away from it, or challenge other people to Understand it. And we're, you know, there's, there's some, there's a lot of disconnection that happened during that period that has transcended the generations. It's generational trauma to think about the conversations about boarding schools, you know, and that looks like a lot of different things. That looks like the way that your parents engage with you because of the way their parents engaged with them. And, like I said, like those periods of forced removal, and, you know, us trying the attempted assimilation, because, you know, our cultures are a lot of cultures are alive and thriving. You know, we still have to deal with a lot of those, those different inequities, and those, those, you know, identity and story issues and, yeah, you know, there's more than 70% of Americans don't know Native Americans still exist, which, you know, with all of these, you know, sports teams that have these mascots that are dehumanizing and demoralizing to Native people, caricatures, etc. You know, the societal way was just to ignore what. What we thought about our identities, and then the other side of the coin from Native people, like some people thought, Well, I see that there, and if that's the only representation that I can see of myself, I can see that in me, then I'll support it. But we shouldn't have to be scrambling for the scraps of having society accept us, you know. And that's the raw, uncut truth, you know, and to see us where we're at right now, despite the attempted erasure of native people just in this land here where we live, you know it was a failure, and I think you and I are a testament to what our ancestors expect from us, because they did sacrifice so much, and they did endure so that we could be here today, and that's why they're whispering in our ears. You you are here for a reason, and we need you to double down. And right now is a double down moment, you know, for a lot of communities in their identity, because they they need to be able to fight for what their particular value systems are, and regardless if it's different from your neighbor, we all still, no matter what, are just trying to live and thrive, you know? So, yeah, I think that that's kind of like for me, learning about the the organized measures that this country took against Native people, and what that looks like today, and the fact that while we face all of these things, our cultures, identities, our life ways, and even our land stewardship, you know, I'm a land back baddie every day. I'm trying to get our land back. You know, it's all coming to fruition in this era that we're living in. You know
Dr. B 21:37
exactly, and I think you spoke to a lot of like speaking our truth, because, again, we have our own lived experience here in America. Our experience is not the same as mainstream Americans. Our experience is unique. It's highly un talked about, as you indicated, most Americans do not think Native Americans exist, and when we're talking about equity and equality. I just we're not all starting from the same start point. 30% of my tribe, the Navajo Nation, still has no access to running water. 30% of my tribe still has, does not have access to electricity, okay, and so it and so you know how I guess what really can seem frustrating is, you know, when we take away programs like de and I de diversity, equity and inclusion programs, you know, and we're paralleling it to why we need special, supportive, systemic opportunities, because it's because of people like our population that are American citizens, the original First Nations of this land. And yet, still we in the richest country in the world and one of the most powerful that are United States citizens, aka Native Americans, do not have basic amenities of running water and electricity. And I mean, that's just the very tip of the iceberg. This is results, and I'll settle Indian law and policies. People do not know that reservations still belong to the United States government held in trust for Native Americans, that we actually do not own our own land, that it's held in trust. And because of that, we have a lot of bureaucratic avenues to cross when we want to start businesses, when we want to build basic infrastructure, when we want to build economic infrastructure within our communities that there's a lot of red tape, and so you talked about the fact that about 70% of Native Americans moved off reservations, and partly of it is because of how our reservations the infrastructure is So disenfranchising because it's hard to build within a reservation based land without the support of the federal government, who still oversees and monitors our land. And so I just wanted to make that point, girl, and so I had to make the point about the urban and how why you and I, you know, are so passionate about about telling our story, because these, these hard truths need to be need to be told and and dialog so those our fellow citizens, as American people, have a better understanding of who we are, where we come from, and some of the challenges that we incur, and how do we work together to ensure that we're headed in the right direction, collectively and not not just some of us are getting better treatment, not just some of us are getting better opportunities, but it's a whole collective, you know, as as nation building, whether it's our own sovereign nation or whether it's. It's, it's at the United States as a whole, yeah,
Lycia Ortega 25:04
I would just say about Dei, and I know this may be a little bit controversial, and it's not intended to be. It's simply that, you know, we respect our neighbors and all of the, you know, the diverse cultures and groups and communities that are, you know, categorized under, you know, initiatives that focus on Dei, but as tribes, you know, over the past couple of years, you know, we've really started to look at what that actually means for us. And while we often are, you know, beneficiaries from Dei, IED Jedi initiatives and funding and prioritization, we do still need to maintain that we are unique political status, you know, so when you see these federal funding cuts, when you hear about, you know, all of these things that are these programs that are being dismantled that focus on Dei, okay, like that is that is a layer of things, and then for us as Native people, we have to remember that that's not the only leg we have to stand on. You know, we have to make sure to continue to push forward that our sovereignty is inherent and it transcends reservation lens. When we walk off our reservations, you and I are in urban spaces pretty often, but when we walk away from home off of our reservations, you know that our the our mindset of sovereign, being a sovereign person, doesn't leave us. We don't just leave it at the boundary. You know we have to continue to push that and advocate that when we're outside of our boundaries, because it's only going to benefit us when we're able to come home and practice our cultures and speak our language and grow strong Native youth and take care of our elders and have housing and infrastructure and contribute to our economies and our communities well being, you know. So it's like, you know, we, I just, you know, I feel like we, we are good relatives when we are participating in dei initiatives. And it's not the only thing that people need to be, you know, basically like we really need to be looked at as the political status that we are because our governments and our communities and our boundaries and our lands, you know, we, we share it, we, you know, we still have history to teach about it. And you know, our identities and cultures, regardless of where we're at, you know, urban or rural. You know, we, we still need to be able to maintain our autonomy from groups, you know, because we have a political status, but there's that part. But yes, it is, you know, it's a systemic opportunity to hold the government accountable for resources and resource allocation. And you know, we've seen a lot of attempts to attack our funding and our sovereignty and a lot of different things throughout, you know, the political eras, but you know, as long as we're continuing to educate ourselves on what our rights are as Native people, and I think we're in a really good space where there's more native lawyers, there's more native advocates, there's more educated political people out there, but there's still more work to do too. So I think that's kind of like a bottom line at
Dr. B 28:18
bottom line, we all have work to do, starting with ourselves, right? Our inner selves. I think that was one of the pitch lines I heard from some leadership today, was we have a lot of work to do, starting with ourselves and and then how do we display the better part of humanity outwardly? And you're right. We, you Lucy, are doing amazing work. You have done amazing work. I am supporting your future work because it's so needed. Your voice is so needed. You are so needed. I appreciate you having your thoughts and your insights displayed in our show. I will support you always, and I just wanted to thank you. Thank you everyone for tuning in to the urban res. We have a lot more discussion and dialog. Everyone continue your great weekend. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai