Native journalists are demanding an apology from the Albuquerque Journal after the paper published a political cartoon from it’s in-house cartoonist they say relies on racist Native stereotypes and is culturally inaccurate.
The cartoon by John Trever ran in the paper’s Sunday, Nov. 8 edition and depicts New Mexico Gov.-elect Deb Haaland uses a “totem pole” joke to mock Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna. It also depicts Haaland with exaggerated Native features, including a exaggerated long nose. Totem poles are sacred to Northwest indigenous culture, not New Mexico. The Indigenous Journalists Association condemned the Journal for inaccurately attributing a Pacific Northwest cultural practice to a Pueblo woman and turning her heritage into a punch line, arguing that editors bear direct responsibility for approving the caricature.
This is not the first time the Journal has been criticized for its approach to covering Haaland. The paper’s editor promised that the Journal would be investigating Haaland after she declined to appear in a candidate forum during the election. Haaland said she would not appear because opinion writer Jeff Tucker, who would be present to ask questions, had written a scathing piece pre-judging her responses and calling her a “know nothing.” In February 2018, the state’s largest newspaper drew national condemnation and local protests after printing a syndicated cartoon that portrayed young immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as violent muggers. That incident prompted a rare public apology from the newspaper’s then-editor, who acknowledged the cartoon had inflamed emotions rather than sparked constructive debate.
Now, media advocates are demanding a similar accounting from the Journal‘s leadership. In a formal statement, the Indigenous Journalists Association called on the newspaper to publish a print and online apology, disclose how the Nov. 8 cartoon passed editorial review and institute newsroom training on covering Native American communities. While acknowledging that cartoonists have the right to scrutinize Haaland’s political record, the association noted that the Journal serves a state with 23 federally recognized tribes and a city with roughly 46,857 Native American residents, according to 2020 U.S. Census data.
“They deserve the same care, accuracy and respect that every community should expect from its newspaper,” the association stated. As of this week, the Albuquerque Journal has not publicly responded to the criticism or the requests for an apology.