Heath Haussamen
Just three years ago, officials lauded Santa Ana and Nambé pueblos for opening Tesla dealerships.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich was among those who attended an announcement in 2023 that Santa Ana Pueblo was partnering with Tesla. Because the dealership would be on tribal land, the move got the car company around an antiquated state law that prohibits direct car sales to consumers, which is how Tesla operates.
Heinrich, who at the time owned a Tesla, said such partnerships “really create opportunities in places like Santa Ana and Nambé,” Source New Mexico reported in 2023.
How times have changed. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has betrayed democracy and is recklessly scorching our federal government with President Donald Trump’s blessing. Musk has, understandably, become a pariah among the very communities that once lauded him, like folks who care about transitioning humanity away from fossil fuels.
As I’ve written, people are protesting in New Mexico and beyond. Some have gone further. In February, Teslas at the Santa Ana dealership were vandalized. That’s happening across the nation.
‘That’s not OK on tribal lands’
State Rep. Derrick Lente, a Democrat from Sandia Pueblo whose district includes the Santa Ana Tesla dealership, had sharp words for people who don’t respect Native-owned businesses and land during a speech on the floor of the House last Thursday.
Lente noted the positive reception the pueblos’ deals with Tesla received two years ago. He also acknowledged that Musk “today is a polarizing figure in the world.” Then, in his Thursday speech, he shared that there was a planned protest by progressives at the Santa Ana dealership later that day.
“While I’m a member of the Democratic Party, there are things as a Democrat I don’t stand for,” Lente said. “And that is one, when people feel like they have the autonomy and authority to stand on indigenous land — aboriginal, indigenous land — to protest an indigenous business that is doing well and thriving for their community.”
He pointed to the vandalism, saying some people “have become more violent, more defacing in regards to their attempts to burn cars, deface buildings, and that’s not OK on tribal lands. That’s not OK.”
Lente started his speech by mentioning that day’s wind. “Where I come from the people say that when the wind comes like that it’s good because it blows the bad things away from your community, from your family, from yourself,” he said.
He ended with this message: “I hope the wind blows today hard enough so all those people go back home.”
‘We respect Native sovereignty’
Later that day, dozens of people protested outside the Santa Ana Tesla dealership, the Sandoval Signpost reported. They stayed off tribal land, standing instead on the state-owned median on the highway in front of the dealership.
The protest was organized by the Democratic Party of Sandoval County and Sandoval County Indivisible.
“We respect Native sovereignty. We respect their land. We do not want to intrude,” county party chair Alexandria Piland was quoted by the Signpost as saying. “We are exercising our constitutional rights to assemble and to speak freely, and so we’re doing that in the United States on public property.”
The groups said they plan to protest in that spot twice a week. “We’re going to keep going until we get the results we want,” Indivisible member Terry Eisenbart was quoted as saying.
‘We take care of ourselves’
Political dynamics and relationships are often more complicated in New Mexico than other places. That’s in large part because we have so many different sovereign nations in our state.
Their history runs deeper here than that of the rest of us. Their people have survived empires that predate the United States. Our indigenous siblings not only reflect New Mexico’s resilience; they are its source.
“As tribal people we take care of ourselves,” Lente said in his floor speech. “We take care of our lands. We take care of our families. We don’t need a Democratic Party to take care of us. We don’t need a Republican Party to take care of us.”
Lente has a really solid point about respecting tribal businesses and land.
The protesters have a valid desire to oppose Musk’s destruction.
Being in community with each other
This situation illustrates a critical point about growing the movement to resist our nation’s embrace of authoritarianism. It is community that will save us. We must build understanding and trust. We have to lean on each other.
As state Sen. Harold Pope said in his own floor speech last week, “Now is the time to show up for one another like never before. Now is the time to build networks of safety, of resistance, of hope.”
We must be in relationship and act with respect for each other if we’re going to survive the United States’ descent into authoritarianism.
I’m not saying the protesters didn’t do that. Lente expressed strong feelings, but then later in the day the protesters stayed off tribal land. Is that sufficient? Or does the protest still threaten the business owned by the tribe? What is the tribe’s perspective on this?
And how do we as New Mexicans balance our need to oppose Musk, potentially by harming his company’s bottom line, with the need to respect our sovereign nations and their efforts to better the lives of their people?
This situation begs for thoughtful, humble consultation and collaboration. Going forward, protests should be partnerships. If indigenous and non-indigenous folks can find common ground, that’s excellent.
If they can’t agree, I would suggest demonstrators find another way to protest Musk’s actions.
The billionaires want us to divide and fight each other. It keeps us from rising up in large enough numbers to take back our country. We shouldn’t give them what they want.