Southwest Cultural Preservation Laurie Weahkee

The Native American Voters Alliance (NAVA) is a project of the SAGE Council that was developed in 2002 as part of our organizing strategy to stop the Unser Middle Project from going through a Native American sacred site.

NAVA?s primary goals are to amplify the voice of the Native population directly at those elected to represent us, and to provide avenues for cultivating emerging Native leaders into positions of power.

To achieve these goals, NAVA organizes within our community to build a base of engaged and informed voters, one family at a time. NAVA employs traditional grassroots organizing methods, emphasizing Native identity, power and self-determination. NAVA allows us to strengthen political literacy and civic participation among urban Indian people within the context of local, state and federal policy.

Feedback from last year?s visioning retreat and early discussions of the strategic planning team indicate that the Native American Voters Alliance (NAVA) has the potential to build a base of urban Natives significant enough to positively impact decisions made at every level of government, while providing valuable input on issues important to our community.

NAVA organizers conduct personal visits (PVs) and event/location tabling, building a network of informed and engaged voters one person at a time. Surveys taken during PVs allow us to build a framework for developing a common vision that seeks to empower and inform urban Native Americans about issues affecting our community. Over the summer of 2006 we will engage NAVA membership at several Native Voter caucuses to formulate our issues into a NAVA agenda. We will format the NAVA agenda into an accountability questionnaire to be given to candidates and elected officials during the 2006 mid-term elections and the 2007 municipal elections.

For 2006 - 2007, SAGE plans to enhance NAVA?s reach into the Albuquerque Native community by focusing on the following:
? Expand NAVA general membership to 6,000, or 15% of the estimated urban Native population in the Albuquerque metropolitan region.
? Complete a list enhancement project through a collaborative effort of the New Mexico Conservation Voters. A complete profile of NAVA members will allow SAGE to analyze voting performance, message penetration and demographic patterns. We will then adjust our organizing techniques and messaging to focus our resources most effectively.
? Institute program measurables to evaluate project strengths and weaknesses.
? Conduct a voter engagement campaign through NAVA for the June Primary and November General election.
? Participate in an ACLU lawsuit against a recently passed municipal Photo Voter Identification law that disproportionately impacts our community.