Opinion. After attending the Four Directions Native Vote forum at the Potawatomi Casino Resort, I attended the 2024 Hunting Moon Powwow in downtown Milwaukee on Friday evening, where I interviewed several people about the upcoming presidential election.
When I asked individuals how they were going to vote, to my surprise, some responded by saying they don’t know enough about Donald Trump or Kamala Harris to make a decision.
The differences between the presidential candidates are quite large. If they don’t know by now, it’s clear they haven’t been paying attention to the press coverage of the upcoming election.
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With just over two weeks to go until the November 5 presidential election, it’s time for people to start paying attention.
I realize that campaigns can be long and seemingly provoked by media coverage, which can cause audience fatigue.
Last May, a Pew Research Center survey found that “more than half of Americans (58%) say they are following news about candidates for the 2024 presidential election very or somewhat closely. Another 28% say they don’t follow it very closely, and 13% don’t follow it closely at all.”
These numbers indicated that approximately 41% of potential voters openly admitted that they were not paying attention.
Two weeks ago I was at the community meeting of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. One tribal citizen said some of her fellow tribesmen in rural Michigan voted for Donald Trump because Democrats had done nothing for them.
I told her she wasn’t paying attention.
Because if she had been paying attention, she would know that Democratic President Joe Biden has been the best American president for Indian Country in history. A good place to start is with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), the first Native American to ever serve in a secretarial role in a presidential cabinet. The president did not stop short of appointing Secretary Haaland. There are dozens of Native Americans in key positions within the federal government. Two notable Native American “firsts” serving are: Chief U.S. Treasurer Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba (Mohegan Tribe), National Parks Service Director Charles F. “Chuck” Sams, III (Umatilla).
Biden has nominated more than half of Native Americans to one day serve as federal judges. They have all been women. Biden nominated Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby (Black and Native American) to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; Judge Lauren King (Muscogee Creek Nation) of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington; Judge Sunshine Sykes (Navajo) of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Sara Hill (Cherokee) and Danna Jackson (Kootenai) of the United States District Court for the District of Montana.
Within the Biden-Harris administration, more than 80 Native Americans have served in the federal government, which is unprecedented.
During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, approximately $45 billion was invested in Indian Country. Allocating federal dollars is walking the talk; Pledging $45 billion is not merely political rhetoric.
All this impact of the Biden-Harris administration should not go unnoticed. Indian country needs to pay attention.
This year is unique because both major party candidates have worked with Indian Country in the past. As a former president, Donald Trump has a track record of dealing with tribal states during the Covid-19 pandemic, and as vice president, Kamala Harris has been part of an administration that has been very favorable to Indians over the past four years country.
During his presidency, former President Donald Trump had a poor record of working with tribal states.
Former Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), who served as vice chairman of the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, reported on the Trump administration in the fall of 2020:
“The Trump Administration has expressed positions that question the unique legal status of tribes and has attempted to remove tribal lands from the federal trust, while consistently desecrating sacred tribal lands on behalf of corporate polluters.
The Trump Administration has issued multiple statements expressing positions that reject the established legal status of Tribes and imply that programs and regulatory considerations for Tribes are “race-based,” including in one of the President’s first signing statements in 2017 and a letter to tribal leaders from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services in 2018.
The Trump administration failed to reinstate President Obama’s White House Council on Native American Affairs for the first three years of the president’s term, despite repeated requests from Indian Country. It has never convened a conference of tribal leaders at the White House.”
This year, Larry Wright, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, said Native Americans should not vote for the Republican or Democratic party, but for the tribal sovereignty ticket.
Indigenous voters should evaluate which presidential candidate will best serve Indian Country across concerns such as sacred sites, water rights and other tribal sovereignty issues.
Native voters should pay attention to facts, not social media posts, nicknames or misleading labels, such as liberal or conservative.
First, Indigenous voters should pay close attention.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen – We are all related.
About the Author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded the Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print category\/ online by the Native American Journalists Association. He is a member of the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net.
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
