Ellison makes 2nd try at highest office

CHURCH ROCK, N.M.

Emily Ellison has always involved herself in politics – even though she was falsely arrested for it.

While the politically active Gallup High student was campaigning for a McKinley County district attorney candidate in 1999, court records state the young Ellison, from Chichiltah, New Mexico, was harassed by then McKinley County District Attorney Mary Helen Baber because she was supporting Baber’s opponent.

Then in February 2000, according to court records, when New Mexico State Police arrived at the school to arrest her for a speeding ticket, Ellison said school officials notified her, and she was able to leave.

Ultimately, she was arrested. She was taken to McKinley County Adult Detention Center where she was allegedly strip-searched.

She was handcuffed and taken before then Magistrate Judge John Carey, who ordered her released and quashed the arrest warrant.

Ellison sued Baber and her assistant and the detention center – owned by Management and Training Corporation – for alleged false arrest and imprisonment, assault, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, slander, defamation of character, and violations of her rights of process, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.

Three months after being arrested and allegedly strip-searched, she graduated from Gallup High.

First year at college

Three months after her graduation and her traumatic ordeal, Ellison applied to intern for then New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall from August 2000 to May 2002.

Ellison said the congressman’s staff arranged her internship around her schooling when she was a freshman at American University.

During her internship, Ellison was introduced to Chinese culture when she worked at Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province, China.

After her first year at college, Ellison said she was invited back to China, where she stayed until spring 2002 and enrolled at New Mexico State University. In the fall, she re-enrolled with American University in Washington, D.C.

While visiting her older sister in Thailand-Burma, her aunt passed away, cutting her trip short.

She completed the semester, returned to New Mexico, and re-enrolled at NMSU, where she majored in business administration.

While at NMSU, the Navajo government tried to convince the Navajo voters that a casino referendum, which was denied in 1994 and 1997, would benefit the Navajo Nation.

It was approved in 2004 when it was added to the general election ballot.

To Ellison, the casino referendum was a violation of the Navajo people’s fundamental rights.

“(The) casino referendum and its aftermath were a violation of the Navajo political will,” said Ellison. “Voters said, ‘No,’ the Navajo Nation government leadership disregarded the Navajo voter’s choice.”

Ellison graduated from NMSU in 2005.

Learning from China

In 2009, Ellison joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Chengdu, China, where she worked as an education volunteer.

After completing her tour in 2012, she stayed as an English instructor at Sichuan University for two more years.

“I stayed on longer, looking at their economic history and how they introduced market capitalism to their country,” she said. “They took a specific city and said, ‘OK, this is going to be a special economic zone.’

“And so,” she said, “they allowed for free enterprise there.”

While in China, Ellison learned the Chinese grew their economy by selling poker-playing cards and zippers, which generated more moneymaking opportunities that gradually spread throughout the country.

“They just kind of replicated that model all over the country,” she said.

Ellison said the opportunities for a Navajo economy to expand are there. It’s just a matter of finding which Navajo chapter is willing to say, “OK.”

“Huerfano, Pueblo Pintado, and Counselor, they all have water coming in, and they have young leadership there,” she said. “I think that’s a prime example – if they’re open to saying, ‘OK, we have X amount of acres, and these are the things that we want.’

“Let’s start, let’s plan, let’s design, and let’s get that going,” she said.

The three chapters will get water from the Cutter Reservoir at Navajo Lake and could create economic opportunities in their areas.

Ellison said chapters throughout the reservation have plans that can be developed into profitable stimulus opportunities through their Community Land-use Planning Committee.

“Let’s start working with those partners,” she said.

CLUPC was established under the Navajo Nation Local Governance Act to allow chapters to make decisions.

The hope of the act is to improve community decision-making and enable chapters to create economic opportunities for the communities they serve.

Another intent of the CLUPC was to strengthen the tribe’s sovereignty.

Entering tribal politics

In 2014, Ellison decided to enter tribal politics and entered the Council race against Seth Damon and several others.

While campaigning, she heard of candidate for Navajo president and highly decorated Marine Corps veteran Chris Deschene, who was chastised for not speaking the Diné language fluently.

Deschene’s disqualification drove a wedge between the Navajo people and the tribal government, she said.

Deschene was supposed to challenge longtime political veteran and two-time president Joe Shirley Jr. in the general election.

“In (the) 2014 election, when 9,000 people voted for Chris Deschene, their fundamental right to select a leader was violated,” she said. “So, that trust was broken.

“We need to repair that and have that discussion,” she said. “I think that election signaled to a lot of Navajo people that if you’re not fluent, then don’t participate in this, in this level of thinking. And that’s not a good direction for us to take.”

Ellison said she “owes” Deschene an appreciation because his case ultimately changed the terms of the Navajo fluency requirement.

Now a qualification for the presidency states that the president “must be able to speak and understand the Navajo and English language, and this ability shall be determined by the Navajo voter when he/she casts a ballot.”

“I owe an appreciation to Deschene for allowing proficient speakers like myself to participate in this kind of discussion,” she said. “We’re young, we’re new.”

Running for president

In 2018, Ellison entered the race for president along with 17 other men and women.

She made government reform part of a robust platform and supported abolishing the three-branch system of government. To her, the current system was never meant to become permanent.

“We’re not bound by the laws of this temporary government,” Ellison said in 2018 during a forum in Crownpoint. “Everything it’s done is fixable. We can have whatever kind of government we want.”

Ellison hit the campaign trail once again this year.

She hasn’t changed much from her 2018 campaign – establishing rehabilitation centers to combat alcohol and drug addictions and homelessness to fighting the illegal trash dumping issue.

Since taking over Battered Families Services in Gallup in 2019, Ellison faced an unpopular and controversial decision to evict two families from their homes after taking over the nonprofit organization.

Ellison said the clients ultimately were “relocated to housing within the city.”

“Foundational rights are important and need to be respected,” she said. “I’ve basically been trying to tell people at the forums I have been to this election cycle. It’s challenging to convey and sell in one-two-three minutes at a time.”

At the forum in Crownpoint on June 15, Ellison, Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch, Leslie M. Tsosie, and Kevin Cody were asked about their economic strategies.

Ellison said the extraction of natural resources was not the answer.

“We have a lot of people interested in livestock,” she said. “There’s a market for that – training horses, getting into events.

“The women, even the men, they want to look nice,” she said. “So, there’s a beauty market called industrial complex.”

To create businesses, infrastructure is needed, like industrial complexes, said Ellison.

“For example, Grants, New Mexico, has predominately a prison industrial complex and health care after the bust of the mining and milling complex,” she said. “(The) Navajo Nation can develop aspects of each of those industrial complexes. We’ve got a lot of talent among us.”

Breaking barriers

Ellison said Navajo voters should not ignore that seven women are vying for the tribe’s highest office.

“Every single one of us there, we all have a different type of life, we all have a different personality, we have different interests,” she said. “I would encourage everyone to listen to what each and every candidate has to say because they have something valuable to contribute.

“In fact, I think a lot of our thoughts are kind of in line in the same direction,” she said. “We all want good things for our people.”

And to the voters, she said the best thing they can do is inform themselves of the issues, the policies and the politicians.

“That’s where we are because we’re trying to promote our policies,” she added. “I introduced myself to the Navajo people four years ago, and I’ve been in the area the entire time.

“Not everything needs to be dominated by the government,” she said, “(and) I believe I have a lot to contribute based on my experience.”

Ellison is in position No. 6 on the ballot. The primary election will be held on Aug. 2.