Mark Ruffalo, a longtime advocate of Native American issues, walked the walk Saturday as he visited the Navajo Nation for the first time to cast early presidential ballots alongside Arizona’s indigenous community.
The Poor things actor joined “Walk to the Polls,” an event created by Protect the Sacred founder and Navajo activist Allie Redhorse Young. The 3-mile walk celebrated 100 years of Native American citizenship in the U.S. and honored the Navajo Long Walk, when the tribe was forcibly removed from its homeland in the 1860s.
Ruffalo, who is not Indigenous, told Yahoo Entertainment that he and the community of about 200 people who joined him “reflected that walk.”
Participants, some wearing traditional clothing, walked together to cast their votes in Fort Defiance, Arizona – something indigenous people have not had equal access to even after gaining citizenship in 1924.
“This is a nation that has been terrible for these people,” Ruffalo said, “but it was a nation that was built on the idea that it was for all of us.”
However, things are changing, he said, noting that the U.S. has Native American leaders such as Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, who hold public office. Native Americans, he added, “are seen in our media, films, television and our stories in the way they deserve to be seen. And their wisdom is honored, and their power is recognized through votes.”
Ruffalo and community participants also sang a traditional Navajo song, “Shí Naashá,” which means “I walk,” Young said. The song, which Ruffalo said he learned during the walk, is about coming home, having to rebuild and reconnect with what was lost.
Young, who founded Protect the Sacred in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the Navajo community, created “Walk to the Polls” as an offshoot of her organization’s “Ride to the Polls” event, which actors like Yellowstone‘s Mo Brings Plenty and Piper Perabo saddles horses to encourage voting among indigenous communities. Wilmer Valderrama (That 70’s show) also joined ‘Walk to the Polls’.
The goal of Young’s events, in addition to casting ballots for the 2024 election, was to engage Indigenous youth through culture. Historically, Native Americans have faced voting hurdles, including literacy tests, identity requirements, and long-distance travel to access the right to vote.
“It was the bad guys trying to suppress their voices. It’s the bad guys who have made them cynical about voting,” said Ruffalo, who also produced Lakota Nation vs. United States, which won a documentary Emmy in September. “And now it’s time for them to come along and feel and exercise their power and get a seat at the table and change the world for the better.”
Ruffalo and Young reunited in 2018 and have been working together ever since.
“This is a fight, but we also need to create space for celebration,” Young added. “And it means a lot to me to do this in my community. I know my community is strong.”
As for Ruffalo, he said he’s “always honored” to be a part of this movement and what it’s creating.
“To come here and connect personally after being spiritually connected for so long,” he said, “was like coming home for me.”
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