Why No One Is Talking About The native American Vote In 2020
Once again, Native Americans are left out of the election conversation.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The 5 million Americans that 2020 candidates refuse to talk about
Once again, Native Americans are left out of the election conversation.
This Sunday, Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will duke it out on the debate stage, likely over the differences in their health care plans, economic strategies, and the proper response to Covid-19 .
But there is one thing we won’t hear about — the 5 million people whose ancestors called this land home before there was a president of the United States. We won’t hear about the 574 federally recognized tribal nations and their citizens. Nor will we hear about the plague of missing and murdered indigenous women . When candidates list out other minorities, like Black or Latino voters, my people won’t be mentioned.
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As a Schitsu’umsh woman, I know why no one is talking about us. Most people think Native Americans only existed in the 1800s on the back of a horse trotting across the prairie. The image of Native people is frozen there forever. More than any other race, ethnicity, or nationality in America, we suffer from invisibility. No one knows we still exist.
And yet in the heat of the 2020 race, the Native vote matters. With 5.1 million Native Americans in the US, Native people are a critical voting bloc in swing states, rural states, and pretty much any state west of the Mississippi — and they tend to lean Democrat. The Native American population, according to the 2010 census, totals more than Iowa (3.1 million) and New Hampshire (1.3 million) combined.
Native Americans are often left out of the election conversation, though, because many of us are rural. Accessing tribal communities in the remote mesas of Arizona or hills of North Carolina is too far of a stretch for these campaigns. Rural tribal areas often lack internet access and paved roads.
For a campaign to reach these remote places, it would take a canvasser days to contact just a handful of prospective voters. It would resemble more of a backpacking trip through the Grand Canyon or the Smoky Mountains than the typical door-knocking event in the suburbs with coffee and doughnuts. Having worked as a field organizer on a congressional campaign before, I can hear the voice of the field director in my head: “It’s not worth the effort.”
But campaigns don’t reach out to urban Native voters, either. Sixty-seven percent of all Native Americans live in urban areas. The 1950s policy of relocation incentivized Native people living on reservations to move to places like Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, or San Jose, like my mother’s family did. Urban Natives, like me, have jobs, friends, and social lives in the city while maintaining connections to their tribal communities back home. And I have never once seen a political campaign directing outreach to urban Native voters.
With Warren out you’re gonna have to wait four more years.
Wally - the Dems/Libs have been fair with the Native Americans - the Republicans have not.
During the Obama years, many NA programs were implemented, but during the Trump years, many programs have been curtailed and massive treaty violations are occurring, specifically with the taking of Tribal/Nation lands. Hell, even LBJ was an advocate for Native Americans.
The issue with Dems/Libs, as I see it, is that they will advocate for programs, run them through the process getting signed by the President - and then not follow through with the funding necessary for the program to proceed. Case in point - The Tribal Law and Order Act - one of the most needed judicial/jurisdictional tools needed by Native Americans and was passed in 2010.
In 1993, the Indian Tribal Justice Act authorized an additional $50 million per year for each of seven years for tribal court base funding. Despite numerous congressional reauthorizations of the Act over the past couple of decades – most recently in TLOA – funds have never been appropriated to implement the Act. The BIA recently conducted an analysis of law enforcement and detention needs pursuant to the Tribal Law and Order Act, and found that the total need for basic law enforcement and detention services in Indian country is $1 billion. This estimate includes tribes without regard to whether they are located in a PL 280 jurisdiction. Given the gross inadequacy of current funding levels, the BIA has had a policy for many years to generally provide law enforcement and detention funding only to tribes in non PL280 jurisdictions. This has left tribes in many areas completely without BIA support for tribal police and detention needs.
Congress, as a whole, is the problem to Indian Country - not just Repubs and not just Dems/Libs - Congress.
1stwarrior it is time for an Indian as President.
Kavika said he didn't want it.
Why is that Wally?
Are you aware that Trump claimed he could be more Indian than real Indians...LMAO
He should take a DNA test. It will show that he isn't Swedish either, something that he claimed for years...
Orange ain't the new Red Dean.
I don’t blame him; Kavika is too smart for that job.
,,,good lord,,,
Warren is not a native American-- I'm surprised you didn't know that!
Actually now that I think about it--I'm not surprised at all!
"Dear Leader" ( AKA "Beloved and Respected Leader" ) . . . is . . . an Elizabeth Warren wannabe?
Who knew?!!?
Acutally it's a bit over 6 million.
Actually it's a bit over 6 million.
Which is a significant number.
(Especially in light of the fact that the Electoral College determines the winner, and that the Indian population is much larger in certain states).
And people complain that certain groups "have too much influence". For example, Jews. .Well, I just googled it-- if the jews have too much power-- they are doing it while making up only about about 2% of the U.S, population!
Do Muslims have too much power? Well, they make up about 1.1% of the population!
So let's not discount the impact "the Indian vote" could have!
Great Article Larry.
I think that it's about time that Indians vote is courted and not taken for granted. It's sad that so few of our candidates seem to think so.
It will be "Happy Camper Day" in this country, when courting "ALL People the same" for a vote, becomes THE "Popular" thingy !
Being singled out with Political Rhetoric different from the Political Rhetoric used elsewhere, IMHO, is very condescending !
It will be "Happy Camper Day" in this country, when courting "ALL People the same" for a vote, becomes THE "Popular" thingy !
Are you aware of the fact that all votes do not have the same value? That its The Electoral College that determines the winner, not the popular vote?
In fact in the vast majority of states your vote doesn't count at all in a Presidential election? (if you live in states like California, Hawaii, or most of the Northeast, if you're only interested in the Presidential Election you might as well stay home on election day. Why?
Ditto states like West Virginia, much of those in the South and Rocky Mountain states.Why?
But OTOH if you live in states such as Ohio and Florida-- your vote (in Presidential elections) is much more important than that of just about anyone else's . . . in the entire country!)
Why?
So while you have every right in your constant impassioned advocacy of treating everybody the same...the actual fact is that in Presidential Elections everybody's vote does not count the same!!!
What does the "electoral college" have to do with "Politically Pandering Differently" Depending on which "Group" is being spoken to ?
The "Electoral College" has always been fine...….until the one that wins, isn't liked (by the Left anyway).
Federal Acts & Assimilation Policies
"It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements, is approaching to a happy consummation."
Andrew Jackson, address to the 21st Congress, 2nd Session, 1830-31
There are a couple of reasons why Native Americans don't count. They never have, and hopefully never will, fully assimilated into white american culture. In other words, they just don't act white enough. The second reason is that they just aren't a large enough part of the population as a whole.
You will, or should, notice that Jackson stated the removal of Indians as a 'benevolent' policy. In many ways, the government would really like to continue such 'benevolent' policies.