On the recordMarch 21, 2024
I rise today to recognize Dr. Joseph Suina for his service to our Nation. Dr. Suina is a former Cochiti Pueblo Governor, a University of New Mexico professor emeritus, and a Vietnam and Marine Corps veteran. Recognition of Dr. Suina's service is long overdue. But before I speak about his military service, I want to take a moment to recognize what Dr. Suina's decades of leadership have meant for Cochiti Pueblo and for New Mexico as a whole. Over the course of his life, Dr. Suina has served as a Governor for his Pueblo and a Tribal council member. He also served as the president and CEO of the Cochiti Community Development Corporation and as the chair of the Cochiti Language Revival Committee. But before all of that, Dr. Suina grew up in Cochiti Pueblo, within the adobe walls of his grandmother's home. He has recounted the nights she would sing to him in their native language and tell him stories of her childhood, well before electricity and cars had made their way to the Pueblo. As a young boy, he was shunned by his teachers for speaking his native language at school and experienced the stark contrast between the teachings of his grandmother and those of his nonnative teachers. Through it all, Dr. Suina found strength in his culture, later leading him to become a champion for keeping indigenous language and culture at the center of Native American education policy. Dr.…
