A Navajo man from Shonto recently returned from Washington D.C. where he spent the summer doing an internship with the office of Arizona Congressman Tom O’Halleran, a Democrat respresenting Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.
Shawn Secody, 22, is a 2012 graduate from Page High School. This week, Secody begins his junior year at the University of Arizona. After graduating from Page High School, Secody spent two years serving an LDS mission in Alaska.  
Secody says he became interested in politics while in high school.
“I had some really good history and government teachers,” he said. “Mr. Clanton, my U.S. history teacher, and Mrs. Wilmes, who taught me government and economics. One of the things those two teachers always emphasized is that it’s our duty to be good citizens. When you study history, you learn about notable figures in history, whether it was Martin Luther King or Caesar Chavez. The second thing they challenged us to consider is what’s stopping us from becoming historical figures ourselves.”
After graduating from college, Secody plans to pursue a career in politics but hasn’t yet decided in what capacity that will be. He may run for Senate, he may run for Congress or he may become a lawyer. Whatever political path he chooses, the end result will to advocate for Native American rights and equity, he said.
“I want to tackle the issues of poverty, illiteracy, lack of clean drinking water, sub-par education and poor health that are big problems on parts of the Navajo reservation,” he said. “As I move forward, I’ll determine which branch of politics will be most effective to take on those issues. I’m really looking to increase my knowledge of how legislation works and particularly how it affects Native Americans.”

Secody is particularly interested in learning more about the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Secody learned a lot from his time in O’Halleran’s office.
“It was a good learning experience,” he said. “It was a valuable experience to see how Congress functions and witness how the legislative process works. One area I took a specific interest in was how our legislation affects Native American communities as well as the rural communities in Arizona.”
One of the highlights of his internship was attending a meeting between Navajo Vice President Jonathon Nez and O’Halleran, in which Nez was advocating for more funding for diabetes prevention on the Navajo Reservation.
Secody’s duties were handling the phones, focusing on constituent services, sorting mail and reading emails sent to O’Halleran’s office. It wasn’t the most exciting way to spend the day but it did allow him a close-up view of how the sausage gets made, he said.
His job did have one duty that he really enjoyed performing, which was giving constituents visiting Washington a personalized, intimate tour of the capital.
“Usually such tours occur in groups of 40 or 50,” Secody said. “It’s a very different experience taking the same tour in a small group.”
Secody’s internship began on July 5, but he arrived in town a week early so he could do some sightseeing. He visited the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and about a dozen museums.
“That was the whole reason I went early,” he said, “so I could visit all these historic places. I tried to get in as much as I could.”
On the fourth of July, he sat of the east side of the U.S. capital and watched the fireworks.
“It was amazing!” he said. “Page has some pretty good fireworks, but these were a little bit better.”