Native American leaders decry changes to Senate map

Lawmakers pulled the plug Sunday on what promised to be a vigorous floor debate on a new redistricting map for the New Mexico Senate following stiff opposition from Native American leaders who said it undermined their wishes.

The decision to delay action on a substitute of Senate Bill 2 is aimed at allowing time to continue discussions with tribal officials; hours earlier, tribal leaders and others had walked out of a committee room in silent protest when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the new map.

“The committee’s vote unfortunately reflects a flagrant disrespect to the process [lawmakers] created and the [tribal] consensus plan that resulted from that process,” Regis Pecos, a former governor of Cochiti Pueblo and co-founder of the Leadership Institute at Santa Fe Indian School, said after the committee’s 7-2 vote.