Native

PARAJE, N.M. — On the morning of a Laguna Pueblo village’s annual Feast Day, Ashley Sarracino knelt in her family home holding clothespins between her teeth. She straightened her niece’s black cotton manta, a traditional one-shouldered dress, and tied a sash around her waist.

On these days, Sarracino is a caretaker, dressing relatives for the harvest dance and helping feed up to 150 guests. And as a former member of the pueblo council, she knows how to balance those traditional responsibilities with official duties.

“To me, those things aren’t in conflict at all,” she said.

Yet even as another Laguna Pueblo woman, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, is set to become the first Native American woman state governor, women with leadership aspirations such as Sarracino say they are swimming upstream in their pueblo communities. Sarracino said she was forced off the council after alleging she was paid less because she was a woman, a claim pueblo officials deny.

In some of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico, including Laguna, tribal law and customs do not allow women to hold top government positions.

Haaland told the Associated Press she was once nominated to serve on her pueblo council but did not make it past a primary. She quipped that it was “easier to raise $1 million and run for Congress” than succeed in pueblo politics.

“It’s still a man’s world in a lot of pueblo communities, and certainly in mine,” she said.

Pay disparity became a fight over women’s roles

Sarracino was offered a road map familiar to ambitious young Native people: Leave the reservation to get an education, then return home to serve your community.

She built a career in nonprofit work and political organizing, including as chair of her county’s Democratic Party.

In 2022, Sarracino was nominated by a pueblo elder to run for council secretary. She finished second, but was appointed to the post after a resignation.

“Finally I had an opportunity to use my skills to help my own community,” she said.

While reviewing budget documents, Sarracino discovered she was being paid $14,000 less than her male predecessor. She asked the pueblo governor for an explanation, sparking a bitter dispute that would end her tenure on council.

The council says that Sarracino was paid less because she lacked experience and that she abandoned her post.

But Sarracino contends that she was ousted and that the pay discrepancy reflects sexist attitudes embedded in tribal law. Since 1996, the pueblo’s election code has allowed women to run for council treasurer and secretary, but it does not explicitly allow them to serve as governor or lieutenant governor.

Its constitution, last amended in 2012, refers to the governor as “he” and “him.”

Sarracino’s dispute landed in tribal court but was dismissed this year on sovereign immunity grounds and she’s exhausted her appeals. The case took a toll on her mental health. She said it’s been bittersweet to watch Haaland make political history.

“We all know she would never have the same opportunity here,” she said.

Yet Haaland’s ascent could help change attitudes at home. Emily Hunt, who became Laguna Pueblo’s first female elected official in the late ’90s with legal help from Haaland, believes the pueblo will someday nominate a female governor.

“Whether I’ll see it in my lifetime, I don’t know,” Hunt said.

Pueblo governance is varied and complex

Some pueblos retain traditional theocracies, with government roles appointed by ceremonial elders and reserved for men.

Charlotte Little, a citizen of San Felipe Pueblo, said women in those communities hold esteemed roles of their own. A New Mexico state representative, Little never aspired to lead at home.

“It’s about respecting the culture that I come from,” she said.

Other pueblos, under federal pressure in the 1930s, adopted secular constitutions and elections. That includes Isleta Pueblo, where in 1986 Verna Teller overcame a contentious legal battle to become its first and only woman governor.

Council incumbents attempted unsuccessfully to strike Teller’s name from the ballot, arguing a woman could not hold office under Isleta law. She won in a landslide.

Now in her 70s, Teller blames colonization for the patriarchy that she says persists in traditionally matrilineal pueblo communities.

“When the Spaniards and the Catholics came here, they didn’t want to deal with the clan mothers. They threw women in the back seat,” Teller said. “That has turned into this paternalistic attitude that men have to be in charge.”

That’s not the case at every pueblo. At Pojoaque Pueblo, where council positions are open to all and candidates don’t need to be nominated, women have held all four executive positions since 2021.

Planning with the next generation in mind

Haaland is the most prominent among a wave of pueblo women who have found success in mainstream politics, from school boards to state government and U.S. Congress. She encouraged pueblo women to look beyond their home communities for opportunities.

“We need more Native women everywhere,” she told the AP.

Sarracino has not ruled out a future pueblo council run and, after attending Haaland’s election night celebration, now sees a potential path in state politics.

On Feast Day, as her family home sprang to life with visitors, Sarracino greeted friends and relatives with hugs, refilled their iced teas and later made sure they went home with oven bread and fruit pie.

She watched with pride as her nieces giggled over plates of enchiladas, their hands white with ceremonial clay from the morning’s dances. She is planning her next move with those girls in mind.

“That’s the reason I couldn’t just let it go,” she said. “Because I know they’re coming up behind me.”

Peters writes for the Associated Press.

COLDPLAY’S Guy Berryman has returned to his native Scotland to tie the knot at a five-star hotel.

The bass player, 48, married partner Johanna Winona Ekmark at the Fife Arms in Braemar.

The Aberdeenshire venue is a favourite with the rich and famous.

Guy, now living in the Netherlands, was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and for-med Coldplay with Chris Martin after meeting at university in London.

His wife, 32, is a Swedish singer who uses the stage name Winona Oak.

A statement issued on his behalf said: “Scotland has always remained a huge part of who he is.

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“For Guy it was about sharing one of the most important moments of his life in the country he loves and beginning their married life somewhere that holds such deep ­personal meaning.”

He has three children with previous partners.

Chris Martin is known for singing about time through his band’s hit 2002 song, Clocks.

But the Coldplay frontman’s family has a long historical connection to timepieces.

The singer is actually the great-great-grandson of William Willett.

Willett was the British builder who first campaigned for changing the clocks, and what would become known as British Summer Time.

Oct. 25, 2026 10:03 AM PT

ANCHORAGE — A little more than one week before the midterm elections, the leading candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race are trying to rally support from Alaska Native voters, a key constituency.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola both spoke at last week’s Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage.

The organization previously endorsed Peltola, who is Yup’ik, during her House races in 2022 and 2024, but it did not issue endorsements this year.

Both candidates have highlighted support from Native organizations and leaders ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Sealaska Corp., a regional Native corporation in southeast Alaska, has endorsed both of them, calling it a way to “honor their contributions and commitment to our communities, and to honor the diverse positions of our shareholders.”

The race is among the most closely watched nationally, with control of the Senate at stake. On Friday, President Trump — who held a rally in support of Sullivan earlier this month — said he told the Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the race if the incumbent loses. The lawsuit cites potential confusion with another candidate who is listed on the ranked-choice ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.

Sen. Sullivan is listed as a Republican and the incumbent, while Sullivan Jr. is listed without a party designation. U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche wrote on social media that the lawsuit is necessary to make sure officials “have the information necessary to make a determination as to whether Alaskan voters were confused or [misled].”

Many voting rights advocates and Democrats have pointed the lawsuit as an improper political use of the Justice Department and an example of Trump’s interference in the upcoming election, following up on his threats to assert federal control over the vote.

Alaskan Natives represent about one-fifth of the state’s population, but they can face challenges to voting in remote communities. Advocates have raised concerns in recent years with polling locations in some villages opening late or ballots not arriving on time to be fully counted due to mail delays.

There’s also cynicism about whether participating in elections will make a difference.

“There’s legitimate hesitations about whether whoever they vote for is actually going to impact them,” said actor and activist Dallas Goldtooth, who is Bdewakantunwan Dakota and Dine and came to Alaska to encourage conference attendees to vote. “And our job is to say, hey, whether that matters or not, there’s an opportunity for you to make sure that your voice is counted. And I want to encourage people just to take the opportunity as much as possible.”

Sheri Buretta, who chairs the board of Chugach Alaska Corp., an Alaska Native corporation, introduced Sullivan to the conference Thursday as “one of our strongest champions.”

Sullivan, speaking as part of a congressional delegation update, said he’s learned important lessons from Native leaders. He cited work he’s done on issues such as pushing to ensure that Alaska Native Vietnam War-era veterans have access to land allotments.

Peltola, during a candidate forum Friday, became emotional speaking about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people and said additional law enforcement resources are needed. She also expressed support for fisheries. Subsistence fishing is critical in many Native communities.

“I will always fight to restore our fisheries. I feel like working on fish issues is my life’s work,” she said.

Energy is also a crucial issue in Alaska, including within Native communities.

Peltola recently said Alaskan Native people were being “absolutely crushed” by high costs from the ongoing war with Iran, which Sullivan has supported. Many rural communities rely on diesel for electricity and to heat their homes.

Sullivan has argued the war against Iran is temporary and that the “forever war is the Democrats’ war against Alaskan energy.”

Many Native leaders on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope see oil drilling as crucial to their region’s economy, and they believed their voices weren’t heard while President Biden was in office. His administration sought to restrict drilling in places like the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but Trump and the Republican-led Congress have rolled those efforts back.

Peltola has said she supports expanded oil and gas drilling and would work with Trump to accomplish that. But Sullivan and his allies have tried to align her with what they refer to as “Lower 48 liberals” who oppose more drilling.

Bohrer and Daley write for the Associated Press. Bohrer reported from Juneau.