Robert Medina
The ancient and the modern are always engaged in a complicated dance at Zia Pueblo. The pueblo itself is at least 600 years old. The famous sun symbol, appropriated for the New Mexico state flag, is even older. But new tribal leaders are actively guiding the Zia people on the path into the 21st century.
Robert Medina, Zia Pueblo’s first-ever tribal judge trained as a lawyer, is one of those leaders. He is completely transforming the judicial code on the pueblo: “We were given a tribal law and order code by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1970s,” he says, “and it was not based on tribal values. UNM School of Law opened my eyes to how much tribal sovereignty has been lost and also helped me realize that people at the pueblo had never heard about the Indian Civil Rights Act and what it meant for the tribe.”
Medina wasn’t born on the pueblo, but he visited often as a child. At age 18, he realized there was much he wanted to learn about the pueblo’s tribal customs and traditions, so he moved to the pueblo and lived with his grandfather. Medina was eventually appointed a tribal official, with traditional law enforcement duties. And he soon realized that there were big disparities in how the law was enforced and interpreted on the pueblo. Medina decided to take a long and difficult step: law school.
It took the better part of a decade and long days of working at various jobs and studying, but he never wavered through two associate degrees at CNM, a criminology degree at UNM, then on to UNM School of Law. He was asked to apply as a tribal judge even before he graduated and has had amazing results in bringing accountability, tribal values and caring to the system. And it’s working: in his first year he saw 500 criminal cases, and this year it has dropped to 65.
“The School gave me a great foundation,” Medina says, “which has helped us create a new tribal code based on our values and build an effective judicial system. UNM welcomed me, taught me and gave me lifelong connections to people with whom I can share ideas and ask questions. I’m so happy the dream I had became reality and I can help the pueblo move forward.”
How many worlds, small and large, will UNM School of Law alumni transform, and will yours be one of them? With your vital support, the answers are “many” and “yes.”