John, At last Saturday’s Women’s March here in Flagstaff, we heard some deep truths from several amazing women. I want to share one message in particular with you. We all must understand, what is happening here in the land of the First People is an indictment of our current system. Carmenlita Chieff, of the Indigeonous Circle of Flagstaff, explained what it’s like to be made unwelcome and invisible in her home, the land of her ancestors. Think about that for a moment. It is nothing short of a crime. Ms. Chieff put a name to what is happening: colonialism. Right now indigenous women represent 5% of the population of Flagstaff, but make up 10% of the incarcerated population of Coconino County. Indigenous men make up 35-40% of the incarcerated population, and are only 5% of the total population of Flagstaff. Imagine what this does to indigenous households; women and children in particular shoulder the brunt of poverty that is baked into the system for them; a cycle they have little hope of escaping. The cycle of criminalizing indigenous people must be broken, and the only way to do that is through deep structural change; the kind of restructuring that acknowledges we are benefitting from stolen land, and that everyone who lives here in AZ-01 deserves to be treated with the same dignity and humanity. If you’d like to hear Carmenlita's powerful speech from the Flagstaff Women's March, please click on the link below. Help me raise the voices of all women, including women whose people have been here on this land since time immemorial.
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