Not Just a Seat
A Pathway for Our Communities
"I’m running for Council Member At‑Large, Seat B to ensure every community has a voice. As the first tribally enrolled Native American woman to run for this seat, I bring not only my lived experience but the strength and stories of those historically left out of city decisions."
-Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand
Headshot taken by Mark Woolcott
Indigenous People's Day celebration 2025, photo taken by eight16creative
Leadership You Know
Integrity and Action
Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand is a Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee artist, organizer, and advocate for equity, inclusion, and authentic cultural representation. She is a small business advocate dedicated to strengthening Indigenous creative communities. With over a decade of experience in youth arts education, she advances literacy, social-emotional learning, and cultural representation through partnerships with organizations like RedLine Contemporary Art Center and the Denver Art Museum. Through her leadership and her work on the Living Land Project with Denver Parks & Recreation, she champions cultural practice revitalization from an ecological perspective, reconnecting communities to land-based knowledge, sustainability, and Indigenous creative economies.
The Vision:
Our Common Future
Local Ownership & Community Wealth
Denver’s land, homes, and storefronts should be owned by the people who live and work here , not out-of-state developers or hedge funds.
We will:
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Prioritize Colorado-based ownership in new development
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Help small businesses buy their buildings
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Create pathways from renting or homelessness to affordable homeownership
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Keep neighborhood profits circulating locally
Goal: Build generational wealth for Denver families, not distant investors.
Safe, Clean & Thriving Neighborhoods
Denver’s land, water, and ecosystems should be guided by ecological stewardship so development never outweighs the health of the people and neighborhoods who depend on them.
We will:
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Honor Indigenous stewardship to safeguard water as a living system essential to community health.
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Use Indigenous land practices to strengthen climate resilience and reduce environmental harm.
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Limit high‑impact data centers in vulnerable watersheds to prevent over‑extraction of water.
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Center community‑led governance so development protects clean water and neighborhoods.
Goal: Ensure that everyone has access to clean, protected water and that all climate‑change solutions are grounded in ecological knowledge and evidence‑based environmental science.
Lived Perspective at the Center of Denver’s Creative Future
Denver’s arts and education communities thrive when the people who create, teach, and live here can shape the city’s cultural landscape not be pushed out of it.
We will:
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Expand creative affordability through accessible housing, studio space, and stable workspaces for artists, educators, and cultural workers.
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Invest in lived‑experience arts education that uplifts local history, and multicultural perspectives.
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Support small creative businesses as essential hubs of neighborhood identity and economic opportunity.
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Build real career pathways with apprenticeships, paid internships, and partnerships across schools, cultural institutions, and creative industries.
Goal: A city where lived experience shapes culture, creativity is sustainable, and every artist and student has the opportunity to belong and build a future.
From Vision to Action
Real change doesn’t happen because one person has a good idea, it happens when a community comes together with a shared purpose. Moving from vision to action means building real partnerships, listening deeply, and creating space for every voice to shape the path forward. As a community organizer, I know that progress is never top‑down. It grows from relationships, trust, and the belief that we are stronger when we work side by side.
Collaboration isn’t just a strategy; it’s the true meaning of community. People coming together, pooling their strengths, and turning collective hopes into concrete solutions that improve all of our lives.