Surviving Columbus: The Story of the Pueblo People; Interview with Charlotte Bradley

I don't think we're gonna... I don't think we'll use our real life. It's real life. What are the different jobs that women have taken over? Not taken over, but are now being employed in zooming. They are not a traditional. Here in Zooming we have several police women. We also had a lady judge. We have a lot of women who are taking on the role of directors of programs. We have a nurse nursing director.

So we have a lot of women in the leadership roles. We also have... What changes have happened at Zooming that have allowed women to be more involved in these different roles? We also have women in the tribal council, which probably is a big change from the times before. Because most of the men are usually on the leadership as far as tribal council. There was never women involved in that until about eight years ago. We had our first councilwoman, her name was Rita Lorenzo, and she served two terms.

And then I got in, so I'm the second councilwoman in the Pueblo. What circumstances allowed you to be... Is it elected? Yes, it's an electric position. We have four-year term. What caused that to happen? Since eight years ago, what changes happened at tribal government that allowed women to be in leadership positions? I guess I believe... I think that the women has now beginning to see that they can be in the leadership position. I think that they can do the job just as well as a man can do. Another problem is women aren't allowed on councils. What's the difference that Zooming in particular allowed?

I guess the difference is that we have our constitution, which gives us equal rights to everybody who lives here in the reservation. What are your duties as a tribal council person? The duties are legislative. We have the legislative body, which we deal with the tribal laws, policies, codes. There's a lot of them that were already set in place from years before, but sometimes if there is a need for change, we make the amendments or work on that, but we also work with the programs. We have a whole lot of programs within the tribal organization.

We work with the Indian Health Services, with the BIA. We also work with our congressmen, getting some funding for the Pueblo, and we also work with the direct with our communities. As you've learned, you know what you've learned from the council, with something. Okay. Disney Street. Can you tell me, why you got interested in becoming part of the council? What interested me in getting into the council is that I had the love for my people.

Before I decided I wanted to be serving as a council person, I was working with my church. I got to work into the community people, and I really enjoyed it, and I felt that I could do more if I get in council position. Have you been able to do your dream? Yes, I think I have. I've been able to help a lot of people, some directly indirectly, and I've really enjoyed it, and it has been quite an experience. It gave me a broader view of seeing. How has being on the council helped to try to be a participation to you, too?

I guess I've been kind of more speaking on behalf of the women and the children. Actually, I feel that I'm sorry, I don't think I answered your question. I think I think I'll take up a little bit. I'm going to start about changes again, but I started at that point when you were a young girl.

When I was growing up, I see my parents working together. They used to do a lot of farming in Nutria. Besides taking care of us and getting the meals ready, she'd still go out and work in the field. I just grew up, we all worked together in the fields, and whatever needs to be done at the house, so just chopping wood, bringing the wood in.

We've all worked together, so I just growing up like that, I felt that equal work should be done in home, as well as into the community. And I guess that's why I didn't see anything wrong with my getting involved with the council and working with men. What changes have you seen throughout your life as far as the role of women in the community? The changes in the role of women in Zuni is that they have taken on a lot more part in the community work. They have taken on the leadership role.

We're going to try it one more time as you can get through this. How have you seen the roles of Zuni women changing throughout the years and what has brought that change on? The change is because of education and social economics. As I said, there's a lot of younger single parents that are educated and they need to work, so they've gone out into the working field. And I guess as a result of that, they've taken on the leadership roles within the programs wherever they're working, such as becoming directors, directors, and in that leadership role. So I think that is a big change from what I knew of when I was growing up.

What kind of social economic conditions are there? Okay. When they say social economics, we have more people and more families that are not the tribal council or being a director. What is it in them that they feel confident to do such work? Well, education, more people have gone through more than high school level. There's a lot of people that went out and got college education and they have education that gives confidence to work, to become leaders. Do you see that this change is more women becoming involved?

You're the second tribal council and do you see more interest by other women to be a part of the council? Yes, I think in the future, next term, I'm sure there will be more women running. This term, there were three women running. So I'm sure in the next term, I won't be surprised if we see a woman governing. How does that, how do you blend, I don't know if you can speak for the village, but what would be advantages of having a woman governor for benefits? The advantage of a woman governor, I think that as a woman, you really get to know the needs of the family, the individuals. You really see that where I feel, I may be wrong, but maybe the men don't really see that, but I think that would be an advantage.

In your opinion, in your years of being on the council, have the men to work well with them, are they receptive to you on the council? This is my second year coming out to second year, and yes, they are very receptive of my being there. They respect me for my opinions or my input, and I don't have any problems with them. We talked a lot about this, but how do you see the difference between a couple of women on the reservation, living on the reservation, and an American woman living out there? Is there a difference between the two? There is some difference, not a whole lot, but to me, going by tradition, tradition away, and trying to go along with your traditions, sometimes hinder you from not really fully doing what you want to do.

That's the way I see it. I don't know, I can't speak for everybody, but I've been outside of the reservation. I've lived in LA, and I've learned that it's totally different out there than I've learned to survive in a big city, and then coming back and trying to go back to some other ways, it seems like it's harder. There are some certain restrictions, maybe. Is there one value or one something that helps you want to be a Councilwoman? Is this special to Pablo upbringing? What is that one thing that, well for me, it's a responsibility. Yes, I think the most important thing is being a Zuni Indian, and be proud of where you came from,

and yet at the same time be proud that you can be as equal as other people, and you can do a leader, you can be whatever you want to be, you can meet your dreams. When the Constitutional Government became a part of life, Zuni Life, was that a good change? Yes, I think the Constitution made a big difference because it made it better. It gave our people a little more freedom of doing things or be more flexible, and it also gave us a chance to really be the protectors of Nansun, instead come to live here in the community and working with our community.

So there's that equal protection and equal rights there. I don't think it might have regarding that. Something that you wanted to say that I didn't ask about your role as a tribal Councilwoman. Are there any misconceptions about your own misconceptions? I don't know. We've been asking, since this is a tape that's going to hear about Columbus Day in October, we've been asking everybody that we've been interviewing, what they think of the country, the world celebrating, after some more passes. I feel that it's pretty good, I think that he should give some kind of recognition for coming out here and discovering all this new lands or the new world, what they call it.

So, in that way, do you welcome the changes that you keep brought? Yes, I'm glad that the changes came about, although there are some people kind of think back in the history and how my people was mistreated and with these. How do you see the changes so that all of this brought within the game? The changes are very good. It gave us progress in a lot of ways, although the history goes, shows that maybe some it was more like an intrusion to our Pueblo and some of the people were mistreated. But all in all, as time goes on, they introduced. Oh, God, look at this.

I don't want to put this card. Okay. I'm going to try this on the top of how you view the changes. How do you view the changes that Columbus brought to this country and to this Pueblo, as soon as out this development. The changes came about was that we had a lot of progress in here. There was an introduction in new way of life, new food, different foods that were introduced, and Pueblo accepted a lot of foods that they brought up, and we're still using them, such as Chile and what we call colander cilantro. There's a lot of things that we still, and even the names of the things

that the Pueblo adopted, we still don't have no names for them, but we used to kind of adopted those names. So you see, he's coming as a positive. Right. This is going to why, again, why you think that the Columbus is coming, or, you know, and then the promise to him why you consider it positive. But also, I would like to touch on how problems adapt to these changes, you know, but we just accept them and then go on and talk about that. The changes, I guess, Pueblo people are real friendly people. They are not prejudiced. They just accept the people that comes in, and so they had accepted a lot of new changes that they brought in. So with that, they just keep on improving, and it's education.

It comes about for a lot of people, they just keep on improving and want to improve a lot more. There are a lot of people who see it as a negative thing, you know, that you shouldn't come, you messed up everything, you know. How do you answer those people? A global perspective. Well, I think if, even if it's negative, it's done, it's in the past, and you can't change the past. You can only look forward and do what make an improvement in the future if you didn't like what you see in the past. Thank you so much for being rolling on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. .

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