From Cisco's approach to the talent gap to supporting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), the equipment giant continues to expand its work in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the tech and telecom sectors.

While the historically homogenous tech and telecom sectors have opened to the business-lead benefits of DE&I to address the talent gap, much of the work extends beyond the need for a talent pipeline. In fact, one of the company’s smaller employee resource groups (ERGs), the Native American Network (NAN), has gained significant momentum in recent years.

Open to Native and non-Native allies, NAN's position is to raise awareness across the company on Native culture, tribal issues, and matters of social justice for key initiatives like land acknowledgement.

Silicon Valley sits on Ohlone land, for example. “Everyone here that's in the United States is on native land … that was stolen from us. There’s gotta be some transparency there,” Alice Sanchez , Cisco compliance engineering architect and the global co-lead of NAN, told SDxCentral.

With only 0.3% of the company identifying as Native, Sanchez explained the work has been uphill to establish an official ERG, but the support has come a long way. “We're small, but we're mighty,” she explained.

NAN recently held its flagship event last month highlighting Native performances and perspectives – marking major headway in the ERG's impact throughout Cisco.

“The thing I love about Cisco is we are encouraged to have what we call 'courageous conversations,'” she explained. When NAN approaches executive sponsors, she says they come to the table informed and open to transparent dialogues – never: “I'm gonna give you guys some money; go away.”

These “courageous conversations” have been a lifelong pursuit for Sanchez and are the basis of NAN’s work at Cisco.

“My family and community have been impacted by systemic policies meant to eradicate our very existence; that is the reality of my people,” she recent wrote in a Cisco blog.

Sanchez explained during that interview that raising awareness to this reality means cutting into issues like land acknowledgement and missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) – who are 2.5 times more likely to be assaulted, abused, or murdered compared to any other race.

Sanchez noted that these dialogues are also about changing the narratives and language that dehumanize Native people – and that trivialize and appropriate terms like powwow as white-centric jargon.

“A lot of times, people think, oh, you're being too sensitive. But the truth of the matter is, you're taking something that is meaningful to us, and you're making it out to be less than what it is,” she explained.

Sanchez also cited when an ABC reporter referred to Native dancers last month as “indigenous creatures” during a performance celebrating Native American Heritage Month.

She explained it’s crucial to have transparent dialogues around the harm this causes – and to offer space for indigenous people to educate others around these dehumanizing issues. She applauded Cisco as an organization that heeds this component seriously in promoting NAN voices to bring this awareness to the company and beyond.