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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Lujan, B.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/06

HB 529

SHORT TITLE

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

SB

ANALYST Weber

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Indian Affairs Department (IAD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

House Bill 529 appropriates $150 thousand from the general fund to the Indian Affairs

Department to contract for the continued provision of a summer leadership and public policy

academy that provides college preparation and leadership training for Native American high

school students and involves a partnership between the Santa Fe Indian School and Harvard and

Princeton universities.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $150 thousand contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY07 shall revert to

the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Indian Affairs Department reports that its special project, the Santa Fe Indian School

Leadership Program, offers youth opportunities for discourse on public policy issues and tribal

community issues. The project has been serving youth for four years. Because this project is

housed at the Santa Fe Indian School, a boarding and day school, the program’s initiatives reach

House Bill 529 – Page 2

youth from all 22 New Mexico tribes and pueblos and as well as tribes across the nation.

Further, the program has access to effectively and efficiently reach adult community members,

elders and leaders, through the school’s extensive family networks. The program involves the

school community staff in its programming; 75 percent of the total staff population of 200 is

Native American.

The core of the Leadership Program is to provide a heightened awareness and appreciation of the

uniqueness of Native culture, traditions, art forms, governance, health and sovereignty within the

context of a changing society. Creating a conscious understanding of these issues and of the way

that external forces continue to impact the internal community institutions that define humanity

and values is the Leadership Program’s ultimate goal.

The discourse opportunity created by the Leadership Program functions primarily through three

components, the High School Symposia, Community Convocations, and Summer Enrichment

Programs. These programs have many inter related purposes, are each structured with strong

processes and are supported by collaborative partnerships. These gatherings are cross-tribal and

cross-generational. They bring together men and women, elders and youth, and professionals

and students together, to have frank, honest and open discussions about provocative and sensitive

topics, topics that shape the experiences of tribal community people.

The Leadership Program has established a process for all three components that symbolically

relate to the planting of seeds for dialogue for all ages. The process serves as a catalyst for

participant contribution through perpetuation of traditional storytelling of shared experiences as a

necessary part of understanding what our contributions will be to each person and communities

cultural survival.

The Leadership Institute of the Santa Fe Indian School Youth Leadership program had utilized

the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ to

facilitate discussion about issues confronting Indian communities, which is part of the

“Community Convocations” component of the youth leadership program. According to Carnell

Chosa, the Director for the Leadership Institute at Santa Fe Indian School, 40 to 60 Indian

students will participate in first week activities utilizing curriculum developed with the assistance

of Harvard and Princeton Universities. During the second week of the summer policy academy,

the youth will be involved in the leadership program at either Harvard or Princeton, alternating

sites every year. Harvard and Princeton Universities help the program with location, space and

curriculum development.”

MW/mt:yr