Native American voters could put Trump or Harris first

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER

RED SPRINGS, N.C. (AP) — Native American communities have been crucial voting blocs in key states in 2020, and with the 2024 race stubbornly out of whack, both campaigns have sought to mobilize Native voters in the final weeks of the presidential election.

But when it comes to messaging, the two campaigns couldn’t be more different, many Indigenous voters say. It’s been 100 years since Native Americans were given the right to vote with the passage of the Snyder Act in 1924, and any campaign that can use its power in this election could flip some of the nation’s most hotly contested districts.

In swing states like Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada, candidates including Vice President Kamala Harris have targeted Native Americans with radio ads and events on tribal lands featuring speakers like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump Jr.

Native American voters tend to favor Democrats, but they are more likely to vote Republican than Hispanic or African-American voters, said Gabriel R. Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He said they are one of the least passionate and youngest demographics in the country, often motivated by issues that directly affect their communities, such as land rights and environmental protection.

In 2020, the Biden administration campaigned on several tribal nations in critical states such as Wisconsin and Arizona, and districts on tribal lands there did little to help tilt the election to the Democrats. “Arizona was kind of the textbook example of what it can look like if you make that initial investment,” Sanchez said.

In the composition of a Advertising campaign for 370 million dollars released this month, including several caveats, Harris said the U.S. must respect treaty rights and uphold tribal sovereignty. Crystal Echo Hawk, CEO of Illuminative, a nonprofit that works to increase the visibility of Native Americans, said these obligations, along with the economy and environmental protection, are the top concerns Native voters identified in Illuminative’s polls.

Echo Hawk said that investment could pay off again for Democrats. “I haven’t seen the same kind of focused messaging and outreach from the Trump campaign,” she said. Harris will also inherit some of the goodwill left over from the administration Barack Obama and Joe Bidenshe said.

Obama has increased consultation with tribes on issues such as land protection and criminal justice, and Biden has appointed more than 80 Native Americans to senior administration positions.

“The minute the announcement came that Harris was in the race, you saw people organize overnight,” Hawke told the Echo. And Trump, she said, will have to contend with his 85% reduction of Bears Ears National Monument and his resumption of the Keystone XL pipeline, both unpopular with indigenous peoples. “I think a lot of these people remember that,” she said.

on friday Biden officially apologized for the nation’s support of Native American residential schools and their legacy of violence and cultural destruction. Although it was considered long overdue, the tribal chiefs approved it. Vice presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Waltz will campaign in Navajo on Saturday.

Trump’s campaign has not released ads targeting Native Americans, but U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma and a member of the Cherokee Nation, has championed the former president in local communities in North Carolina, a swing state that was decided by less than one point in 2020 year

On a chilly evening earlier this month, Mullin sat next to Donald Trump Jr. and the former Hawaii representative. Tulsi Gabbardthe former Democrat, who recently announced she was joining the Republican Party, on a small stage in front of a few hay bales to take questions from an audience of several hundred people. They discussed a wide variety of issues from the economy to tribal self-determination.

The event took place on a small farm in Red Springs, North Carolina, which is part of the traditional homeland of Mullin’s ancestors and is now home to the Lambie Tribe, a state-recognized tribe of approximately 55,000 members.

Federal recognition of the Lambie was opposed by several tribal nations, including the neighboring Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Mullin’s own tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The Lumbee’s push for federal recognition has been a focus of both campaigns and a rare issue on which both sides agree. Last month, Trump said he would sign legislation granting federal recognition to the Lumbee. Last week, Harris called the Lumbee tribal chief to discuss the legislation.

“This is an injustice that needs to be corrected when it comes to the Lumbees,” Mullin told the crowd. “This is absolute absurdity. It must be done. I was very proud when President Trump said he would sign it.”

But Mullin soon touched on one of the many areas where the two candidates diverge: energy policy. Emphasizing the fact that he believes Trump’s second term will mean a better economy and lower energy costs, Mullin laid out Trump’s policies in one catchphrase that the audience repeated: “Boers, baby, boers.”

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have sought to extract more oil and gas than ever before, including extractive energy projects opposed by indigenous peoples. Native leaders, however, have expressed concern that Trump is likely to further weaken tribal land protections.

Mullin suggested that if tribal nations are truly sovereign, they should be able to extract energy without the burden of federal intervention. He said that, like Lambie’s fight for federal recognition, tribal rights to manage their lands are a casualty of the federal bureaucracy.

“Why is tribal land treated as state land?” Mullin asked, questioning why the federal government should control tribal nations that extract natural resources on their own lands. “You have natural resources being extracted from the ground right through the reservation fence. You have extremely wealthy private landowners and you have people literally starving on reservations,” he said, comparing some to Third World countries.

He promised that Trump would have a deep understanding of tribal sovereignty.