Our History

History

The Native American Voters Alliance Education Project was born out of the work to protect a Native American sacred site, the Petroglyph National Monument located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As we sought to protect this site, we became deeply involved in the ‘smart growth’ debates, which led us to learn an immense amount about taxes, bonds, infrastructure growth and development and its impact on natural resources. As with many cities around the country, we witnessed the stranglehold that developers had on the political leadership. We recruited hundreds of our members and allies to attend city council, legislative and public involvement meetings testify for or against key policies. After several wins and losses, we eventually lost the battle to stop the development of two major freeways through the Petroglyphs. And although we lost this battle, it gave rise to our work as the Native American Voters Alliance Education Project.  We are proud of the fact that our experience has been built through our civic engagement work in Navajo, Pueblo and urban Indian communities in New Mexico.