Verna Williamson-Teller, the first woman to be elected governor of an American Indian pueblo, spoke about the “double-edged swords” of Isleta Pueblo’s proximity to Albuquerque and growing casino industry during a guest lecture at UNM Tuesday.
During her terms as governor of Isleta from 1986 to 1996, Williamson-Teller spearheaded the pueblo’s landmark 1986 fight against Albuquerque pollution of the Rio Grande.
She said the 3,000-member pueblo’s position as the southernmost reservation on the river has its ups and downs.
“We’re more at an advantage down here, it’s easier for us to do what we need to do in the city and then leave,” she said. “But it’s a double-edged sword, we’re down river and downwind from Albuquerque, that presents unique kinds of problems.”
She said tribal members began seeking the source of health problems at the pueblo in 1985, but ran up against a tribal government that seemed disinterested.
“The secular tribal government in most pueblos is a 500-year extension of foreign government brought by Europeans,” she said. “We had to take a government like the Spanish had that was forced on us at that time. Because we were challenging a foreign-influenced government, it was hard.”
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She said after she was elected, the pueblo began to look into environmental and health issues, such as high cancer rates.
Among the findings was the discovery that depleted uranium was drifting into the pueblo from smoke plumes caused by experiments at Sandia National Laboratories.
At the same time, Isleta was wrestling with new divisions between members caused by the then-three-month-old casino.
That year, just as the pueblo was beginning a ceremony that involved bathing in the Rio Grande, the tribe got an ominous call from the City of Albuquerque.
“They said, ‘There’s been a major sewage break — hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw effluent are coming right toward you,’” she said. “That was the clincher. We started looking at the river as a sacred source of life — so to ignore it would have been total negligence.”
In 1997, Isleta began the process of putting together standards for the Rio Grande based on the 1977 Clean Water Act, which allowed tribes to establish their own water quality standards.
Williamson-Teller said it was not an easy task.
“None of us were scientists, and we knew the City of Albuquerque would be resistant to standards,” she said.
The standards defined Isleta’s three designated uses for the river: agriculture, recreation and ceremonial purposes.
The city filed suit shortly thereafter, calling the pueblo’s standards a violation of church and state laws.
Isleta countersued, asserting that the city was violating its religious freedom.
In 1992, the Federal District Court upheld Isleta’s standards, which had been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and were again upheld by the Supreme Court in 1997.
“It was a real victory for tribes across the country,” Williamson-Teller said. “It strengthened sovereignty, and it strengthened belief in protection of the environment.”
Williamson-Teller is now a consultant and business owner. She said she feared that the pueblo is now paying more attention to its casino rather than monitoring the Albuquerque’s compliance with water standards.
“Things are going by the wayside in pursuit of the almighty dollar,” she said.
She added that despite better access to healthcare and other services because of increased revenue, casinos were causing new divisions within American Indian communities.
“There’s an unhealthy phenomenon because of gaming — we’re sorting ourselves apart,” she said. “Lot’s of us do things and have things that we never had before, but it’s making us turn on each other.”
She said she hoped the leadership of the Isleta pueblo would continue to hold Albuquerque to the more stringent and environmentally friendly water standards.
“We have to be diligent — I hope we continue to be the stewards of the environment,” she said.
