"I feel like the Reader to Reader - Read, Think, Share Program was the start of something I like to call 'multidimensional consciousness,'" says Erla Sagg, an alum of our Read, Think, Share program in Navajo, New Mexico. Erla is now membership coordinator for the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC).
Erla is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. Erla comes from the Hardrock and Big Mountain community on the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation. She represents the Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle clan) and is born for the Bitahnii (Folded arms clan). Her maternal grandfathers are of the Naakai Dine'e (wandering people) and paternal grandfathers are the Ashihii (Salt clan).
"Before I was in the Reader to Reader's - Read, Think, Share Program, I was unaware of the world outside of the classroom and the small community of Navajo, New Mexico, Sagg explains. "I had general knowledge on topics like the Holocaust and genocide occurring in Africa, because these were brought up in history class. I was not aware that my own community, and country had and continues to also be a place of genocide and systematic oppression. It wasn't until I read Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie that I had an awakening of reality. This was one of the first books I picked up while in the program, and I remember sitting in the library, realizing that many of us were facing the same thing. Some of us were having identity crises, facing federal coercion, fighting assimilation, unknowingly angered about generational traumas, or simply not doing anything because we had feelings of exclusion from our communities. Aside from the mysterious murders and underlying behavioral health issues the lead character might've had, this book helped me realize that we can be the answer to change. This program showed me that books had the answers to the questions I had about why people were the way they were. Joining the Reader to Reader's program, gave me the ability to critically comprehend societal behaviors and atrocities happening to American Indian people, while many of my peers were interested in the latest shoes and mainstream music.
After attending Navajo Pine High school, I began reading: Crazy Horse and Custer by Stephen E. Ambrose; God is Red by Vine Deloria Jr.; and Ojibwe Warrior by Dennis Banks. Some of these books were sent to me, from the Reader to Reader Program after leaving Navajo Pine. I can remember feeling the encouragement and motivation when I returned home for the weekend, and I had a big box of books waiting for me. If it wasn't for that box of books that had been provided to me, I feel that I would have slipped slowly into madness. I wanted to become part of the change! At 14 years of age, I wanted to become part of Indigenous survivance.
Today, my bookshelves hold books from authors like Gregory Cajete and Raymond Austin. If it wasn't for this program, I don't know where I would be in life."
After her freshman year at Navajo Pine High School, Erla attended Greyhills Academy High School in Tuba City, Arizona. In May of 2011, she graduated at the top of her class with a 3.98 GPA. Erla received a Presidential Scholarship from Utah State University, where she graduated with an Associates of Science and a Certificate of Completion for the License of Practical Nursing Program. After deciding to change her major from Environmental Chemistry, Erla was accepted to the Native American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico.
In the early parts of 2018, Erla was one of thirteen participants in the Native American Political Leadership Program with George Washington University. She was also one of two Richard M. Milanovich Fellows for this program. In December of 2018, Erla graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Native American Studies with a focus in Leadership and Building Native Nations and a minor in Psychology.
Today, Erla is a graduate student at UNM with a focus in Indigenous Leadership, Self-Determination, and Sustainable Community Building. With a 4.0 GPA, Erla is also working as a Membership Coordinator with the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) located in Washington, DC. NAIHC is a not-for-profit organization which seeks to effectively and efficiently promote and support American Indians, Alaska Native and native Hawaiians in their self-determined goal to provide culturally relevant and quality affordable housing for native people. Along with eight other team members, Erla provides tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities with up-to-date information on grants, trainings, and federal policies such as the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA). NAIHC also provides advocacy efforts for increased allocation funding like Indian Housing Block Grant, Veterans Affairs, and Indian Community Development Block Grant funding.
Erla's goal is to attend Stanford University Law School. She also wishes to pursue a career deeply focused with federal Indian policy and creating change tribal youth across Indian country.
