The power shift US politics needs | Anathea Chino

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. One thing we don't want to lose, no matter what political climate we're in, is the value of different voices and diverse perspectives in our democracy. In a 2024 conversation between Anathia Chino, who is the co-founder of Advanced Native Political Leadership, and comedian Nageen Farsad, the two women discussed the value of Native voices in our local, state, and federal systems and what it means to both honor our identities and lead our communities at the same time.

0:47So you founded this organization. Tell us how you got here. Sure. Gwazi Helpa. I'm Anathia. My pronouns are she, her. I am from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. There are 19 pueblos in New Mexico. Ours is one. We are known as the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. There are about 5 ,000 enrolled tribal members at my community, and we've inhabited our lands for over 2 ,000 years. I grew up between my indigenous homelands and College Station, Texas, where my mom was getting her PhD. And I spent hours staring at the stars from the back of our hatchback, a little yellow Toyota Tercel named Banana.

1:31It was a different time, not wearing a seatbelt, in the back of the hatchback, staring at the stars, going between New Mexico and Texas while my mom drove us home to ensure that I was deeply connected to our cultural traditions. And early on, I learned that my indigenous identity was threatening to a lot of people. Our existence is an act of resistance. And just a reminder that we are not a nation of immigrants, is that we have thriving indigenous cultures all across the United States. And people are reminded when they meet me the history of the United States and when engaging with indigenous people.

2:12It is empowering now, but when I was a kid, it was othering, and it was a reminder that our education systems treat us as historical relics, and we often don't get education about indigenous communities or peoples after the 1800s. But I discovered my purpose in 2004 during a presidential campaign, mentioning that it's not all presidential campaigns, and what I recognized was that there wasn't the infrastructure in New Mexico. And I organized the 10 Southern Pueblos in the state. But what struck me was, even in a state where we make up over 10 % of the population, that very little people knew about our communities, engaged with our communities, asked us what mattered to our communities.

2:57And nationally, we make up about 3 % of the population. And in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, we are a very powerful voice. So with an organization like ours, we're creating space for Native leaders to thrive in systems that were not created for us. And to be clear, the Native leaders are not representing only Native communities. We are representing all communities. And one aspect of that is voting for sure, but we're building space for Native visionary leaders to be able to step into our power. And there are few things more incredible than watching somebody come into one of our leadership training programs really timid and shy about how they got there.

3:44They had been nominated. They self-selected. But once they are leaving our programs, they are saying, I am going to be the next governor of my state. And watching that transformation is something that is just so incredible that I have the deep honor and our team has a deep honor of being able to help shepherd. But engaging in systems of democracy is acceptable, accessible to everyone. And we're building pathways. It's not perfect by any means, but it's progress. And my encouragement to everybody here is to be what you're fighting for. I am fighting for our existence of indigenous peoples to continue.

4:20I'm also fighting for queer people. I am proudly queer. I am fighting for women. I am fighting for joy. And I am fighting for our ability to be able to dream. So that's a little bit about my story. It's really incredible to be here. Yes, I love that. And I love the purpose of this organization. And I wonder, let's say you have to kind of make the case for why, I mean, it makes sense that anyone who's native would buy in to the purpose of this organization. But can you make the case for why, let's say, your average white guy would care about this organization? Yeah, you know, I mean, I feel like research shows us that people want a more reflective democracy.

5:12An average white guy has a vested interest in understanding the demographic shift of the country and being able to be a part of that shift and recognizing what it means to be able to have more voices and the value of having different voices, different perspectives in our democracy benefits all consistently over time, over decades, over generations. And so we have many white allies in our community and a part of our organization that are working side by side with Native leaders, with leaders of color, with women, queer people, trans people, beautiful, smart, qualified, capable, viable leaders. And we are witnessing that shift of being able to see what systems power shift looks like.

5:59And it is important that they recognize and that they are starting to recognize the value and being participatory in that. Yeah. I mean, as an Iranian American, I've been fed basically like white stories my whole life. I feel like I totally get it. And I could be a great leader to just white families all over the place. If I had to. Run for office. If I was asked. I mean, I could really hold it down. Okay. And so here's, and just to, I noticed something about the current race. And whatever side you're on, Kamala does not really address her own race in the election. She kind of famously deflects questions about it.

6:46What do you think about that when you're talking to people who you're training to run for office? It's a really good question. When I started, actually in 2013, I left. I was an investment advisor for an organization where my portfolio was a little over$14 million. dollars and I had access to national organizations and leaders and understanding the highest political net wealth funders in the country. And when I left that organization, I went to cosmetology school and I started my own political styling business to help women of color run for office. And the reason I did it, the world was different then, this is about 2013, but the reason I did it is because the message that we were getting and that what was attempted to be fed to us was that we needed to assimilate in order to run.

7:37And so what I wanted was to be able to remove aesthetics as a barrier to running. I'm so glad that the world is different now. And we proudly see people wearing traditional regalia in the halls of Congress, in the halls of like government systems all across the country. So my answer to that is that like we are in also a shift and like taking back of our identities. It is like we are in the middle of what that looks like for indigenous women running for office, we are in part of our training program is helping them to identify what that story looks like, to be able to like go to the doors of white neighbors and non-native neighbors and find a connection and to be able to tell them how you are going to work to make the communities better and different and how you are going to fight for them and to be able to hold that indigenous identity in that process.

8:26That has been a long track of us being able to get there and identify what it means to be able to hold white supremacy in this model of like this shift of like how we are moving outside of that and how we are able to be representative and how we are moving forward. How that relates to Kamala's journey, I have no clue, but how that what that looks like for Native leaders and Native women in particular is something that we are very proudly and very visibly shifting every single day. Thank you so much for sharing your civic story, Ladies and gentlemen, Anathia Chino. Thank you. Thank you so much.

9:02Thank you.

9:07That was Anathia Chino and Nagin Farsad at TED Next 2024. This conversation was made in partnership with Pivotal Ventures. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmanivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faze-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.

9:47Thanks for listening.