Incoming commissioner becomes the first Indigenous person to serve, according to city sources.\
Albuquerque councilors confirmed the appointment of the first Native person ever to serve on the city government’s Environmental Planning Commission, according to city sources. She’ll also be the only woman on the board.
But it was only after public pressure and a letter-writing campaign from numerous organizations in support of the candidate, who said she experienced discrimination during the vetting process.
Jana Pfeiffer (Diné) grew up in Farmington, N.M., an oil town. Her father Gilbert Kennedy Dee worked in the BHP Billiton coal mine.
As an Indigenous woman, Pfeiffer has had her fair share of older white men yelling racist slurs at her, she said in an interview. So she’s had to raise her own daughter to be mindful of that kind of discrimination…
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