Benny Shendo Jr. didn’t know he was supposed to fail.
The odds were stacked against him — the result of generations of systemic barriers facing Native Americans after the U.S. government stole or forced the sale of their lands, banned their languages and religious practices, and attempted to strip their identities from them. The friends around him in Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico weren’t succeeding. They weren’t graduating from college, and in many cases even enrolling, in large part because they didn’t feel welcomed.
“I just kept going and doing what I needed to do it and made it — despite all the obstacles and things that I could have easily walked away from,” Shendo, 59, recalls.
That determination is what drives him now as he focuses on future generations of students. In October, he began working at the University of Colorado Boulder, returning to his alma mater as its first-ever associate vice chancellor for Native American Affairs. In the role, Shendo, a New Mexico state senator for more than a decade, will work to strengthen CU’s relationships with tribal communities and build programs that draw more Native students to the university.
“To me, it’s even a surprise that we are still here today,” he said in a recent interview, reflecting on the challenges Native Americans have faced. “And to me now, how do we (emphasize) education and create the renaissance in the Indian community? That’s what compels me to do this work. How do we … maintain our language and our way of life, and how do we build on that for success in this world today?”
Shendo, who also has experience in higher education, has been called “one of the most powerful Indigenous lawmakers in the New Mexico Legislature” by New Mexico In Depth, a media outlet. He now is working at CU part time but plans to resign his Senate seat by early next year so he can move to full-time work in Boulder in March.
His position is new for CU Boulder and is not one that every university has, though CU is following in the footsteps of others, including Colorado State University.
Native American enrollment has been recovering at CU Boulder in recent years from a decline that set in after it reached a recent high of 548 in 2019, according to university data. More students enrolled following the passage of a state law in 2021 that granted in-state tuition to Native students with ties to Colorado. The number of students who identify as Native American or Pacific Islander was 517 in 2022, and it reached 541 this year.
Shendo hopes to increase that number even more.
Earlier in his career, he was the assistant dean of students for Native American programs at Stanford University and later as the manager of Native American programs at the University of New Mexico. He also served as the cabinet secretary for New Mexico’s Indian Affairs Department and worked as a tribal administrator and lieutenant governor for the Pueblo of Jemez.
He’s worked on infrastructure projects, water issues and support programs for tribal members and students.
Shendo views Boulder and metro Denver, which sit on ancestral tribal lands, as a crossroads for modern-day Native Americans. He wants to build upon the work that was done when he was an undergraduate student by organizations that helped Native students.
His new role will include forging stronger ties with tribal governments and communities throughout the state and region. He also plans to work with state and federal agencies involved in tribal affairs and higher education. His job will include developing new programs, but early on, he said, he will spend much of his time talking to tribes, Native communities, and CU faculty, staff and students to gauge what’s needed.
Those types of relationships are important for the tribes and the state, Shendo said, especially because “universities are repositories of a lot of things” — including human remains and artifacts found on ancestral sites that need to be returned. Colorado is considered home to 48 contemporary tribes.
Andrew Cowell, the faculty director of CU’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, served on the search committee that hired Shendo. The role is meant to be outward-facing, Cowell said, so Shendo’s position is part of the university’s Office of Government Relations.
It was created following the discussions and passage of CU Boulder’s Land Acknowledgement statement in 2020.
“His job is to interface with (Native communities) and really get a sense of what are the areas the students really want to study, where should CU be trying to develop scholarship money, or where do we need to develop better academic programs,” Cowell said. The hope is that his work will result in more appealing programs as well as better mentoring and support.
Cowell, who represents faculty members conducting research on Native issues, expects to work closely with Shendo.
James Rattling Leaf Sr., who was hired in September as the first part-time tribal adviser for CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, said he was excited about Shendo’s appointment by Chancellor Phil DiStefano.
Rattling Leaf, a member of the South Dakota Rosebud Sioux Tribe, works with scientists and researchers to build relationships with tribes through a variety of projects. Much of his focus is on what’s known as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, which refers to the knowledge developed by Indigenous people over time through their contact with the environment.
He also underlines the need for reciprocity, with both the tribes and the institutions benefiting from one another. As an example, he cited a grant his tribe received from the federal government to build the first climate center on a reservation. The tribe plans to draw on the university’s research expertise but also wants to ensure the center brings benefits for the tribe and the larger region.
Once Shendo has been in his new position for some time, Rattling Leaf said, the region likely will see more projects launched in that vein.
CU Boulder has taken the first steps toward elevating its commitment to Indigenous people, Rattling Leaf said. Now it’s up to people like him, Shendo and their allies to take it further.
“We live collectively on this planet now. … We share the land, we share the air — and now that we have children, grandchildren, what kind of future are we going to help prepare for them?” Rattling Leaf said. “And I think we have to come together, and I think education has a role in that. Research has a role in that. Science has a role. TKE has a role. And tribes have a role in that.”
Cowell said responsibility for the success of Native students and those programs lies with the entire university. The creation of Shendo’s position doesn’t mean the job is done.
“I don’t think we’ve solved all the problems now, and we can sit back and put our feet up,” he said. The task ahead is to recognize “the potential we have here for (stronger) relationships, whether it’s with individual students on our campus or with tribal governments at large.”
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.
