The Pueblo were matriarchal: Clans and property were passed down through the women. Yet after the Spanish settlers came, that female-centric attitude changed. In the late ’90s, the Laguna would not allow women to run for tribal office — until Haaland helped a friend challenge the practice in tribal court, prompting a voter referendum that ended the gender ban.

Indigenous women have been the backbone of this particular resistance movement, but also in general, of tiospaye, family units, in Lakota nations. And Indigenous women—as well as [being] traditionally the backbone of their families, they often are the ones to call out injustice when they see it immediately. We saw that at Standing Rock. LaDonna has a story in which she describes how there were bulldozers going over the sacred burial sites, and the men were just so in shock that they didn't know what to do. And LaDonna said, “Well push [the men] out of the way and tell the women to stop it.” And that's what happened. Women got arrested: doctors, mothers, sisters. They are a force to reckon with. And I think that that's why we were meant to carry this particular message to Europe.