15(ish) Minutes with Angel Charley
By Ari Tenorio for TFIIW Storytelling
Although TFIIW has closely followed her campaign, we weren’t ready for the presence and aura that Senator-Elect Angel Charley has in person. Stepping into the newly opened Resilience Hub in downtown Albuquerque, Angel Charley’s poised look of a public servant was offset with the soft openness of someone comfortable in and around community - particularly Native community. As she patiently waited for us to take care of our equipment malfunctions, we exchanged light conversation - “Your earrings are beautiful!” “How was the drive in?” “How’s the family? I haven’t seen so and so recently.”. We realize it’s the small, unique customs of Indigenous women that make our Storytelling work so enjoyable.
Please feel free to introduce yourself.
My name is Angel Charley and I am a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna. I'm also Navajo and Zuni Pueblo and I am the senator elect for New Mexico Senate District 30.
Have you always been interested in running for office?
I have not always been interested in a political career! And actually my background aligns more with organizing and advocacy work but I believe that we have to be in both of these places outside of the system calling for accountability, protesting, marching in the streets but in order for us to move and disrupt these systems, the systems of oppression; we have to have people on the inside as well and so my journey into politics is really one of of moving from outside to inside the system to affect change.
What inspired you to run for office?
Not a specific event but rather a series of moments that felt like they've been calling me to where I am right now. The first was several years ago when I was the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. We worked with a couple of other organizations in the state of New Mexico to codify the Indian Child Welfare Act when it was under attack at the Supreme Court. Through that experience, I really began to understand that if we have policy that actually meets the needs of the community, we can really shift these systems and make them work for our communities. The second was I served on the Trilateral Working Group for Violence Against Indigenous Women through the White House Gender Policy Council. I met with Indigenous women from Canada, the United States and Mexico about not only violence in our communities but Indigenous women's leadership in places where we needed to affect change. And so I felt like I had begun speaking this language of calling for more representation of Indigenous women where decisions were being made. The last kind of push into politics was a couple of years ago there was an appointment of an individual to a position who was going to oversee a lot of violence against Native women initiatives, primarily around murdered and missing Indigenous women, but this person didn't have the background for that. What I mean by background for that was they had caused harm and I didn't want them representing this issue because I didn't feel like they had been fully accountable to the harm that they had caused. So when it came time to have a senate confirmation hearing for this position, the Senate wouldn't call for a hearing and like a lot of Indigenous women I know, I sat up straighter and was like "What do I have to do, run for senate?", It was kind of a joke that I think ended up leading me to actually run for Senate.
What lessons have shaped your career?
I feel like the deepest learnings for me have come through motherhood. I have a 17-year-old who's my sweet little baby and when they were little we lived in Hawaii and they thought that they were Hawaiian. I was like, “I need to get you back home to our community”, and started to reach out to some of our cultural leadership so that she could start taking part in our community ceremonies. I wasn't raised in the community like that but I wanted it for her and along the way of bringing her in and going in to take part, I had this realization that we can't expect things for others that we don't expect for ourselves. I feel like it's that lesson that has carried me through any obstacle that I found myself encountering: “we can't expect things for others that we don't expect for ourselves.” I think a lot of time as Indigenous women, we find ourselves advocating for issues or speaking up on behalf of causes and I wonder how often we see ourselves deserving of the things that we're asking for ourselves. So often I do it for my daughter and I know so many other Indigenous women who are doing it for their children and future generations but it's this remembering of "I deserve this too" that's carried me through.
What is your perspective on the most recent election?
I've been gifted two pieces of advice or meditations from people who are well respected and carry a lot of wisdom. The first was a quote from Mark Trahant and it was during the first Trump Administration: that our communities, our forms of government have always been here regardless of the administration and we will always be here and so that piece has brought me a lot of comfort. The second is a meditation from Judith LeBlanc, the executive director of Native Organizers Alliance and it is is that elections are just a snapshot of the conditions that we find ourselves organizing in and we've been here before. I find myself really curious about what do we already know given what we've been through collectively, not just in the previous administration but throughout time. What wisdom should we be looking to our ancestors to impart on us right now?
What issues are your constituents most worried about?
When I was out campaigning and meeting with folks in community, issues that were important were: access to healthxare, specifically abortion access. The person that I was running against did not support access to abortion care and for a rural and predominantly Tribal district, I think folks were interested in having that conversation and knowing that they wanted somebody in a position to protect that right. We think about in New Mexico access to abortion care is protected but it's only as protected so far as we have people willing to be in these seats to continue to make sure that we have access to that. The other issues that are really important to the people in Senate District 30 are [the] economy. Actual cost of living and inflation has outpaced what we make and are able to bring home. [Particularly] working and meeting with Tribal leadership throughout the district, environmental protections and climate justice. These are the issues that continue to come up in conversations and that people wanted to make sure we had a strong voice and a champion for.
Do you have any interest or plans to run for congressional office?
I am interested in being a state senator right now. I've never done this before it's the first time I ever ran for office and it's the first time the district I'm representing will have a Native person or a woman and so I'm going to take it all in and I'm not too worried about what's far off in the future but what's here in front of me right now.
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
The people who inspired me are the people who are closest to me. They're the people that give me my strength and that I can ground myself with. The first is my daughter Olivia. I'm thinking about when I testified in Congress a couple of years ago about the mistreatment of Indigenous people by the media and law enforcement when we disappear or are murdered and the other people who I testified on the panel with, they brought their attorney or their area experts but it was important for me to have my daughter in that chair right behind me as I offer testimony to Congress because that is literally where I get my strength from and why I do what I do. It's always wanting a better future for them and my nieces and my sisters. Before I'm anything else in the world, I'm an Indigenous woman and my role in community is super important to me.
What advice do you have for Indigenous women interested in running for congress?
Just do it! I think we all have that little voice in our head that's like, "what if what if what if,” - ask that voice to quiet down. Our elders tell us, if you have a thought in your mind or a feeling in your heart it was placed there - listen to it! Thankfully we're in a time and a place right now where there's an abundance of support for those of us who want to run for office and all you have to do is ask for help. So ask for that, we want to see you rise. And you can do it!
Can you describe your first campaigning experience?
It's so important for me to remember that although I'm the first Native woman to do this for Senate District 30 that there are so many others who came before me. I'm not the first Native woman to run for this office for my community, I'm not even the second woman to do this. They've been clearing this path for generations for so many of us to walk down and it's so important to remember that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and it's a responsibility that I don't take lightly. I know that this was prayed for and people had intentions for this. When redistricting happened after the 2020 census, our Tribal leadership came together and were very intentional about what the political landscape was going to look like. I merely had the opportunity to step in to that intention and because it was so intentionally thought about, planned, prayed for - there was no shortage of community who came through to support in all of the different ways. It's not cheap to run a political campaign and some of my contributions that meant the most were people from my own community who were giving $5. It's all we have and for them to offer that and support, it meant the world to me. And our cultural leaders who've come forward and have prayed for me and with me in all of these moments [that] has required so much strength and fortitude and even courage because when you run for office essentially you're just making a decision to expose yourself and your family to public opinion. I think particularly as Pueblo people, we're really private and so to open my world up has only been met with love and support and that's what's made it possible for me to carry on. There were just moments during the campaign where I was so exhausted and didn't want to get up and do the other thing and then there would always be a moment that day that just gave me the strength that I needed. There was a little girl in Zuni who was probably 7 years old and we were handing out stew and campaign information and she ran up to the table and was so excited because she was like, "Is that you on the picture?" and I was like, "Yeah, that's me on the picture!" - her mom was with her and she said, "She thinks you're famous.” It was this reminder that I carried with me throughout the duration of the campaign: that there are little girls, little Indian girls watching us and it means so much for us to step into these moments.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.