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Verna Williamson

Spirituality and the Native Earth

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1999 Fall
Verna Williamson, Isleta Pueblo tribe's former and first woman Governor, speaks about how a small New Mexico tribe flabbergasted the Environmental Protection Agency by demanding freedom of religion through water-quality standards high enough for its religious ceremonies.

I'm from Isleta Pueblo, which is located about thirteen miles south of Albuquerque. Our reservation abuts the City of Albuquerque south. We've been there for a long, long time. I imagine there are anthropologists out there that can give us some dates, which we don't agree with, but we've been here for a very long time. Back in the 1500's we started seeing changes coming our way and those have continued, many times in a bad way for us. The population of my community is about 12,000. We have about 4,000 tribal members and then we have probably about 6,000 to 8,000 people who live on the reservation. Our reservation is about 250,000 square acres and that land is comprised of a river valley which is where the Rio Grande runs.


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