NATIVE PEOPLES ROCK THE REZ VOTE
Photogrph: JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
The 2020 United States Presidential Election — From Southwest Indigenous territories to Lower Muskogee Creek, Native Peoples Rock the Rez Vote making headline news. "How Native Americans Shaped Trump's Presidency – and Helped Bring Him Down," reads the headline from Native News Online. An NPR headline penned, "How Native American Voters Have Affected Election Results." Indian Country Today reported, "The Native vote turned out … so today it's a celebration." And headlines from The New York Times opined," Don't Take Native American Voters For Granted" and "Native Americans Helped Flip Arizona. Can They Mobilize in Georgia?"
Wóphila to media outlets covering the Native Vote, and on January 5, 2021, we can play a crucial role again. In Georgia (homelands and traditional territory of the Cherokee and Muskogee Creek), a U.S. runoff will decide control of the Senate. Reportedly, there is an estimated 40,000 Native registered voters in Georgia. The Native vote can sway the U.S. Senate runoff. It did precisely that in the Presidential election in the key battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.
This is important. When it comes to Indian Country, decisions and policies made by U.S. politicians affect Native Nations, federally recognized or not, in profound ways. Their choices have consistently devastated and undermined Native Peoples' human rights, treaty rights, and sovereignty. Unable to civilize or exterminate, their pen has proven to be as violent as their sword. Oppression, poverty, imprisonment, despair, and quasi-sovereign ideologies are the product of U.S. policy. And while there is much talk about truth and reconciliation, how do we reconcile absent fact, absent contrition, absent restitution?
And so, my relatives, Rock The Rez Vote!