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With the 2024 presidential campaign now at full throttle, the weight of the Native Vote can play out big, especially in tight races and battleground states with high numbers of Native Americans.
Savvy candidates should be wary of stereotypes, tropes, and indifference that can strike the Native electorate as racist or ignorant.
Past comments by Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) show him calling Indigenous Peoples Day a “fake holiday” among other inflammatory statements.
A few years earlier, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) stoked ridicule and anger when she claimed Native American ancestry, along with a DNA test.
“It’s really unfortunate, actually.”
Jaynie Parrish is a Diné tribal member and executive director of Arizona Native Vote, a non-partisan group aimed at driving up Native representation at the polls.
She says, for candidates navigating Indian Country, the words they use and reactions they share on Indigenous issues can show how educated they are on Native people:
“If our elected leaders took the time to learn more about constituents, especially about groups like ours that are underrepresented in a lot of governmental structures it would really benefit them. But alas, that would be in a really…a really good world, a really different world!”
As for politicians who work well with Native Americans, Parrish has a few she can name, currently in the U.S. Senate or House:
“We have U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). We have (U.S. Senate) candidate, U.S. Rep. Rubén Gallego (D-AZ). Great people like U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), who is from Oklahoma, is conservative, Republican, but has served in a lot of essential seats that really has helped elevate Indian Country. Another great example is U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and many folks in Alaska. Folks that have taken the time to learn, and to visit Indian Country.”
Parrish says people should register or check their voter registration status through their local county election office, the secretary of state’s office, or Vote.gov.
In the upper Midwest, Native organizers in Wisconsin are hoping to field new voters with a baseball-themed effort to encourage Native Americans to turn up at the polls this fall.
Danielle Kaeding reports.
The Wisconsin Native Vote initiative hopes to draw more than 1,000 people from the state’s 11 tribes to a baseball tailgate next month.
The event will be held August 15th before a Milwaukee Brewers game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Anne Egan-Waukau (Menominee Indian Tribe) is an urban organizer with the initiative in Milwaukee. She says it’s a way to bring communities together while urging them to vote.
“We’re hoping that we just build a sense of camaraderie, let our people know their voices are heard, that they remember to vote, that they register to vote for the seventh generation and that means to vote for all generations in the future.”
She says they want tribal residents to make their voices heard on issues like health care and environmental protection.
Native Americans make up 1% of Wisconsin’s population.
Organizers want voters to know their vote matters – especially as past presidential elections in the state have been decided by slim margins.
And if baseball isn’t your thing, how about Rez Ball?
The new film produced by NBA legend Lebron James looks at a Native American high school team’s attempts to rebound from a star player’s tragic death.
Sydney Freeland, who directed the Marvel series Echo, helms Rez Ball and co-wrote it with Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs fame.
The drama stars Cody Lightning, Dallas Goldtooth, and Amber Midthunder, among others.
Rez Ball comes to Netflix September 27.
Watch Native America Calling’s conversation with Sydney Freeland
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