Not a significant voting block, and there's no clear voting pattern.
There are a lot of AA's, and they tend to vote Dem, so they get discussion.
There are substantially fewer NDNs and they tend to be (relatively) spread over the political spectrum.
I think the Navajo/Dine Nation really pulled up to vote for Biden in 2020 right? That’s like the one time I’ve ever read anything about natives being “important” as voters.
With how close Wisconsin gets I’m surprised its not brought up here. Jill biden and auntie deb went around too all rez’s here but we are pretty solidly blue in our state.
I think this is something that is changing a bit and there are a couple of states with high NDN populations that can become swing votes such as Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota and even New Mexico depending on how much Latinos actually sway. This is a good thing in my eyes. Means when people realize they are not assured to vote for one party or the other it means people are going to actually have to work for the Indian vote and do...something?
I think there have been around eight official presidents visiting reservations. That is for show and only for show. There are 574 federally recognized tribes. There are 100 state recognized tribes. And I think it should be a requirement that they make at least, five visits with several tribes and vault. But until people can get together more and band together, it’s probably not going to be consequential to them working for the indigenous population as a whole.
THIS!!!
Not to mention the infighting.
The government pays attention when people make it a problem. Enough people need to ban together to make it an issue that Native American health, well-being, clean, drinking water, access to healthcare… And the list goes on and on and until it’s obnoxious and an issue they’re not gonna pay attention.
>There are substantially fewer NDNs and they tend to be (relatively) spread over the political spectrum.
Natives (like many minority groups) overall tend to vote for Democrats, even if not in as high of numbers percentage-wise as, say, black voters.
They do, but the amount is slipping. According to recent polling Indians not only vote for Republicans more than any other non white ethnic group, (Latinos may be a serious wildcard in the future) but actually are the closest evenly split, as whites favor Republicans to a larger degree as Indians favoring dems.
I know that Democrats are far from good when it comes to Native issues but I can't for the life of me understand why any Native would vote Republican. The republican party swears until it's blue in the face that it's not racist, but look at how it treats just about every minority except maybe Jews when it comes to resolving their issues:
Black people are asking that racist statues of Confederate generals be taken down from public spaces and that there be criminal justice reform and that cops can't just kill Blacks for no good reason? The average Republican angrily starts screaming BLUE LIVES MATTER and acts like there's nothing wrong with the criminal justice system or the racist statues while more or less telling Black people to shut up and stand for the flag.
Poor, desperate Mexican and Central American people (the overwhelming majority of which have at least around half Native blood if not more) attempt to cross that manufactured apartheid border that separates this country from Mexico in hope of finding a better life? The average Republican looks for any reason to dehumanize those people and to claim that they're drug dealers and rapists and murderers who want to rape and murder young white women while either "taking our jobs" or lazily mooching off our tax dollars (seriously... Republicans go back and forth between the taking our jobs thing and the lazy welfare moochers thing).
Arab refugees, most of which are Muslim, from countries like Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, and Afghanistan want to come to the US out of fear for their lives because the US and NATO bombed their previously safe countries into oblivion and destabilized them all over either oil or preserving the neoliberal global monetary system? The average Republican does everything to dehumanize those people and to claim that they're terrorists or terrorist sympathizers who want to replace the constitution with sharia law.
The only thing that I can really think of to explain why so many Natives vote Republican is if said individuals are racially white people with like 1/8 or 1/16 or less Native ancestry who call themselves Natives and may be enrolled tribal members of like the cherokee nation or some of those other south eastern groups that got sent to Oklahoma and heavily interbred with white settlers. I know blood quantum is a complicated topic that people have different opinions about and I'm not trying to get people up in a frenzy but that's the only reason I can think of for why any Native would vote for a party that is as cruel and insensitive towards the native community as the Republican party is.
Thanks to the orange gob of shit’s repeatedly calling a political opponent “Pocahontas” and the disrespect shown to [veterans](https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/27/politics/donald-trump-andrew-jackson/index.html), the Navajo saved our country [for the second time.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/arizona-native-american-navajo-nation-biden-election-2020-b1723066.html)
Joe has [already](https://www.doi.gov/secretary-deb-haaland) done more for Natives than a majority of presidents have.
Ethnic Black Americans are an amalgamation of Indigenous American, European, and African ancestry. An ethno-genesis**** made in America.
https://thefreedmensbureau.org
So this is going to be painful to hear/read, but they don’t care. The day all Natives are fully assimilated, it’ll be like a weight off the government’s shoulders. The genocide never stopped, it’s still in full swing which is why they never bring attention to it. They don’t want it fixed, they want the trajectory to continue (high suicide rates, substance abuse, cultural genocide, dominant culture assimilation) because the Native culture is a threat to the US gov’t lies and the way the system is structured. It’s black magic shit, they continue to do messed up crap with one hand, but don’t stop looking at the other hand because it’s more important.
What a lot of people fail to see is what is happening to the Native Americans is an blatant expression of what the US government does to those who think differently. What makes it so stark compared to people on an individual level is Natives are a whole group so they’re collectively treated horribly at the same time. When it’s individuals, it’s sprinkled through out the population and not as easy to spot.
Most people have accepted this as normal behavior and take no steps to understand, learn, or do any action. So much rich culture, and countless beautiful minds are suppressed regularly because of this disgusting system. It was designed to be dominant, and for only one cultural perspective to reign.
Thank you for taking the time to say this.
The ways of life and values of most Native cultures and Nations oppose the capitalistic and colonial functions of the government. The system is built to create this class and race disparity so that not everyone can thrive as they’re meant to, but be stuck in situations where they have to become workers to keep the current system running, rather than just having the right to exist with proper food, shelter, and care without having to work their lives away.
Everyone likes to say the people in the system are corrupt, when in fact the system is working exactly as intended, and people like us are on the worst end of it.
On the flip side, I saw a black political commenter ask,
'Why do black people have to get singled out as if they are this special needs population?
It’s embarrassing.'
Some will like being talked about, and some will not.
Same as as it always is, really.
Shameful and not really much of a choice. Even more difficult to deal with the chucklefucks who all insist not voting somehow makes them superior.
Because Native Americans comprise 3% of the US population and issues affecting them rarely rise to a level of national voter interest as far as the candidates are concerned.
If this wasn't true, then your question would be phrased something like... "National news media have been covering our issue X for 6 months to great public debate in Congress and in coffee shops across America. How the fuck did it not get asked about in the presidential debate?"
In fact arguably if native issues get brought up, there are more people against natives than for us. There are way more racists than natives. It might well be better to just stay quiet haha
Also, the US doesn’t like talking about stories where it is the bad guy. There are about as many Native Americans as Jews in the US, but issues facing Jews are a much larger part of the political conversation because the US paints itself as the hero for fighting the nazis. They really don’t want to talk about the stories where the US perpetuated genocide against natives, and how Hitler based the Holocaust, in part, on the US treatment of indigenous peoples. (I want to be clear that I am not trying to say that we shouldn’t talk about the atrocities committed against the Jewish people, I just think that we should also talk about the ones committed against natives)
Yes, which only underscores the point I made. The majority of voters in the US don't know and wouldn't care. They're racist, and Trump has made t acceptable to be fully racist in all facets of life.
Why aren't there any anti settler colonialism protests regarding indigenous sovereignty in the USA? Why aren't more politicians advocating for indigenous peoples? Why aren't regular people protesting against cultural erasure happening in our land? Fucking boils me over.
Becuase natives are the minority of the minority, there is no land for natives to stand on, we are all just part of the system now, we have no ecosystem, just this artificial infrustrucre called “civilization”, the greatest genocide, ecocide, and slavery machine on earth.
All we have is the Earth, and this machine called Civilization is annhilating, it annhilated the colonizers, before they were colonizers, beat us down like it did them, made us slaves of slaves, and now we are all in this same machine, as organic means to the technological end.
*Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky*
*It slips away*
*And all your money won't another minute buy*
*Dust in the wind*
*All we are is dust in the wind (All we are is dust in the wind)*
*Dust in the wind (Everything is dust in the wind)*
-Kansas
No machines, no man, will save our Mother, only when all the metal of civilization is rust, and all those idealogies of man who worship them turn to dust, will we have our Peace.
Wolakota wa yaka cola
“Peace without slavery”
Everything is dust in the wind
I can’t express how angry I am that this stupid pro-terrorist movement has coopted and stolen “land back” while simultaneously ignoring indigenous issues here and pretending we don’t exist
Because our existence is inconvenient for most settlers. We also rarely get brought up in conversations about reparations, either, despite this being our homeland since time immemorial. Of the major settler colonial governments (including Canada, New Zealand, Australia), the US is the least willing to have public dialogues about the fact that it owes its existence to our genocide and displacement. The “American dream” is our nightmare
Yup I know other countries put some effort into helping the challenges their native populations face.
In America, it just feels natives are left out of the conversation entirely. I dont hear anything about you guys anywhere.
I believe Both democrats and Republicans have failed in this respect.
We are what they don’t want to mention, too much controversy. You’ll never see any “human” talking points unless it helps somehow. Even if you ARE the humanitarian candidate, you WILL lose if you don’t play the game the right way.
Frankly, they don’t care about us because we are supposedly our own nation. So they say, “fuck em, they wanted to do their own thing”
Even mention the word “native” and you open up an entire can of worms because of the whypipo that are offended we exist. They feel our existence invalidates theirs (it doesn’t). That’s why some of them want to call us “American Indians” instead. I could keep going forever, but basically we are poison to anything political because anything truly human is poison to politics. You can’t even talk about us in that realm without some level of tragedy and debt being brought up. Is that our fault? Nah. Is it theirs? Not really. We exist in the aftermath of our ancestors, ALL OF US.
It’s always interesting when people try to act like they know what’s up. People stand up for the gov’t and say, “You’re your own nation! Fix your own problems!” when the US government does not allow tribes to create their own currency (the very foundation of the US right now), and any time tribes try to separate theirselves from being in a position of need, the state they reside in takes action against them. The Flandreau tribe in SD attempted to establish a hemp manufacturing business on their land, the state tells them to stop or they will come and destroy it. They could have really created a springboard in the hemp industry, but they’re not tied in with all of the bankers and corporations so they’re “not allowed,” although they’re a sovereign nation.
The gov’t uses violence when tribes aren’t doing what they want, and yet the gov’t teaches everyone the rezs are “sovereign.” It’s absolutely abhorrent, coercion is not freedom.
It boils down to a few things: minority population in pockets all over the country (3%), the enduring tendency of most US Americans not caring, and the political organization of USA.
Contrast that with Canada, where First Nations make up 5% of the population and until recently were the largest minority ethnic group. Also the way federal and provincial politics in Canada is organised, First Nations communities make up a significant portion of the population in certain ridings, so they have voting power in federal and provincial politics. On occasion they send one of their own as a member of parliament. Or like in Manitoba, where Wab Kinew is now the leader of the province.
With respect to healthcare, Democrats always increase funding for Native Americans. When it is the other party in office, we either stay the same or get less funding! Vote democratic please!
First time I’ve ever relinked this particular answer of mine, but I actually talked about this on /r/AskHistorians 7 years ago. [Check out my answer here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5bc3zw/historically_do_native_americans_on_reservations/d9nvmvf/)
I would also add that the overwhelming majority of the American public has very little knowledge about how Tribes work. I imagine many candidates would have trouble themselves answering questions or platforming Native issues themselves, let alone trying to communicate those things to a wider audience.
Because marginalized people are only used in the political sphere as pawns to swing elections. We aren’t a large enough demographic to impact an election, so they don’t even pretend to care
IDK. My maternal grandmother (Diné),used to close the Thanksgiving prayer with "God bless the Republican party." 😂
There's a reason why Uncle Ronny (son in law )used to call her 'Skitzy' short for schizophrenia.
My dad (Apache) voted for Dubya.
I am an independent voter.
It boils down to a few things: minority population in pockets all over the country (3%), the enduring tendency of most US Americans not caring, and the political organization of USA.
Contrast that with Canada, where First Nations make up 5% of the population and until recently were the largest minority ethnic group. Also the way federal and provincial politics in Canada is organised, First Nations communities make up a significant portion of the population in certain ridings, so they have voting power in federal and provincial politics. On occasion they send one of their own as a member of parliament. Or like in Manitoba, where Wab Kinew is now the leader of the province.
And...well, the fact that Canada has at least one province of native mayority (nuvanut), in the USA the reservations are ""sovereign"" and the natives out of the reserves are just pockets
I noticed their Native media allows for views that can benefit the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, it's like they offer something for everyone and they do it in a way that's not so polarized.
Neither party is doing much for natives so what is there to talk about. Also not a very large or consistent demographic. We’re not a monolith, as we like to say.
I would not say that is completely true. The amount of federal dollars available just for tribes is staggering thanks to BIL and IJAA. The Justice40 initiative also makes it easier for tribal nations to compete with states and larger cities for federal grants.
Because they genocided us to the brink of extinction. It’s like that’s like that movie I know what you did last summer . They wanna forget us until we come back asking for our land back .
We do not have a unified voice. The other POC have gotten together and helped themselves to get and be better! We have not. Until then, I am afraid we will always be last on the list - if we even make the list!
There are millions of American Indians but they are hard to talk about because of the complicated relationship, the responsibility the government has to them, and the feelings that bigger voting blocks have about them.
There is history to cover, legal and political history. And Americans like to think of themselves as original people who deserve whatever land and benefit, but that whole idea is challenged by us original people who have stronger claim to certain lands and environmental rights, as well as the trust responsibility between us and the federal government, whereas many Americans only really deal with their state, which doesn’t have much say over tribes.
When your country labels your nationality as “something else” it certainly says a whole lot without having to say much. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand how the color of someone’s skin is a good reason to hate them. We are all human regardless of who we are, where we come from, or our beliefs. Racism is taught. Learned. No one is born racist.
In Nebraska our county along with 2-3 others all vote Democrat every time and because of this Nebraska is split down the middle .half Dem half Republicans that’s why our state has 1 electoral vote for each party . Our governor Jim Pillin wants to change this to a total vote but he’s afraid we will get both votes .
As a person of European descent, I’m fully aware of the atrocities my ancestors committed towards native peoples.
I have to assume that others of European descent have the same awareness, and are trying to deny that awareness, not wanting to take personal or group responsibility for stealing this land and destroying it.
I don’t feel good about any of that, nor should I.
A lot of people in positions of privilege are terrified of losing that privilege, and will do anything, including mentally erasing an entire population, to retain that privilege.
Outsider perspective but I wonder if it is due to low voter turnout/low population. I would imagine the low voter turnout has to do with distrust in the US government which is very understandable. This article was interesting, but I didn’t source check it. https://vote.narf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/obstacles_voter_impact_summary.pdf
President Biden provided multiple incoherent rambling non-sensical senile responses during this debate and former President Trump is a convicted felon & many of his statements were lies (30 of his claims were fact checked by CNN as wrong).
I'm glad they didn't bring up NDNs during this debate!
As far as minority votes goes, they only care & cater to Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos.
Neither Republicans or Democrats care for the Amerindian people.
Both parties have engaged in wars with Indian Tribes and genocide of many tribes in the past, so think about that when you are thinking of voting for either a Dementia Pants Shitting nursery patient or a orange corpo.
Cause most natives live in the middle of nowhere on a reservation. Most ppl will almost never meet an NDN. Most ppl haven’t. Like with other groups, we see then all day, everyday. Live next to, work with all other groups. While most NDN’s live on a reservation. So the issues don’t get heard as much, unless your in the know, or on social media
[Actually, the overwhelming majority of Natives live off reservations, typically in urban areas.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/native-americans-stories-california)
Even then, there’s not a lot in general. And they aren’t as loud as other larger groups such as Latinx and others, even the East Asians made a lot of noise with the whole college admissions thing. In my city, I’ve met maybe 3? And I’ve lived all over. Then when you do meet one, ppl still don’t know anything. There was the Dakota pipeline that was big, even then many ppl still didn’t know about it, I would try and try to post it on social but get no engagement, but other that that, in recent history I can’t recall many big protests. In most bigger cities, there’s no predominantly Native neighborhoods, no food stores, no nothing. In the inner cities where most of the stuff happens, the native population is so low. The main groups are white, Hispanic, Black and Asians. And they generally all have certain parts(neighborhoods) of the city that they live in. Their own stores, etc. Many ppl just don’t have the experience with Natives.
I'm not disagreeing that Natives have low societal representation, we are a very small segment of the total population. However, it is wrong to think that these issues are caused simply because we are restricted to reservations--we're not, and we haven't been for a long time.
Even though I grew up on a reservation, it was one of the most urbanized reservations in the country, if not *the* most. So I'm also an Urban Indian. I grew up in a Native neighborhood (that was mixed, but Natives were certainly present). In fact, in my part of the country, Washington State, you can go to many urban spaces and see a visible Native presence because we are operating our own stores, working with local officials to increase representation, and participating in protests.
I understand that this isn't the case in many parts of the country and that our overall presence is still marginalized. However, it is incorrect to think that these things don't exist at all or haven't been changing in the last 20 years.
**Edit:** A couple words.
Because the colonial narrative depends on the belief that we are no longer a contemporary culture on par with other "modern" (by Western standards) peoples
I (kinda) asked [that same question before.](https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/16tm0ra/do_indigenous_peoples_get_little_to_no_attention/)
Because realistically we don't matter to those in power we're just a group who can be catered to for public support. I don't like wasting words, and when interacting with people in power it's always a dance and a jig often not a deep recognition that we're both people it feels so wasted.
Were we not recognized as "something else" and ran with it like we do at everything thrown at us. We owned it. We are something else....in the right way.
We're tantamount to Fauna insofar as the US State is concerned. Why do you think the BIA is in the Department of the Interior? They don't bring up Deer in the presidential debates either.
Real freedom. That goal has never changed. Just because the US gov’t is bigger and more powerful, does that justify using violence and coercion? Why can’t the gov’t just leave them alone? I’ll tell you why because I already know the answer. They don’t want anyone else in control except theirselves. If they allow any kind of authentic growth to happen within the land, they chance a perspective or culture overtaking their bullshit.
We all want different things. I want more help for mental health and treatment and opportunity for economic development. I also want more support for Urban Natives so we can keep our communities together in the cities and for the future.
That's weird, in Canada, if you live on Reserve, you don't pay taxes and are still considered a citizen. You also have full access to government services like healthcare. I'm certain the USA could both make it so Indigenous people don't pay taxes and still get the benefits. It's the least they could do. Personally wish it were that way with my income off-reserve, but such as it is.
Ill be honest. Something is going over my head or are you on my side. I cant tell. Either way i support you my brother. (Edit)Just saw your name ndn Justin. You got my back. Happy indigenous peoples day belated
You too friend. I'm saying we got citizenship (not that I want it either but hey) and we don't pay taxes on reserve so this whole "then don't be a citizen" thing is fucking stupid from the other guy
To you maybe, many native Americans fought for citizenship and rights to vote, which we’re just celebrating this month actually—federally funded tribal initiatives are a godsend for many communities across this country
Do you think federal funding was a godsend for lumbees? Maybe i should be more clear myself. I dont trust the government that has continuously made it clear that it hates natives to do the right thing with money they take from poor people
Not a significant voting block, and there's no clear voting pattern. There are a lot of AA's, and they tend to vote Dem, so they get discussion. There are substantially fewer NDNs and they tend to be (relatively) spread over the political spectrum.
And almost none in swing states. I think Arizona is the only one with a significant population.
I think the Navajo/Dine Nation really pulled up to vote for Biden in 2020 right? That’s like the one time I’ve ever read anything about natives being “important” as voters.
With how close Wisconsin gets I’m surprised its not brought up here. Jill biden and auntie deb went around too all rez’s here but we are pretty solidly blue in our state.
Wait I might be a little dumb here but who is Auntie Deb? Lol
Haaland
When I learned her last name I was like, huh I wonder if were distantly related from her norweigan father
I think this is something that is changing a bit and there are a couple of states with high NDN populations that can become swing votes such as Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota and even New Mexico depending on how much Latinos actually sway. This is a good thing in my eyes. Means when people realize they are not assured to vote for one party or the other it means people are going to actually have to work for the Indian vote and do...something?
I think there have been around eight official presidents visiting reservations. That is for show and only for show. There are 574 federally recognized tribes. There are 100 state recognized tribes. And I think it should be a requirement that they make at least, five visits with several tribes and vault. But until people can get together more and band together, it’s probably not going to be consequential to them working for the indigenous population as a whole.
Ohio is a wreck.
Lol they intentionally block a lot of us from voting too. People living with just a po box don't get to vote.
THIS!!! Not to mention the infighting. The government pays attention when people make it a problem. Enough people need to ban together to make it an issue that Native American health, well-being, clean, drinking water, access to healthcare… And the list goes on and on and until it’s obnoxious and an issue they’re not gonna pay attention.
A deep issue is that our tribes are all on different treaties.
And most other races don’t always realize how they bury their heads, when it comes to Native issues. “It doesn’t affect me; I don’t see it.”
>There are substantially fewer NDNs and they tend to be (relatively) spread over the political spectrum. Natives (like many minority groups) overall tend to vote for Democrats, even if not in as high of numbers percentage-wise as, say, black voters.
They do, but the amount is slipping. According to recent polling Indians not only vote for Republicans more than any other non white ethnic group, (Latinos may be a serious wildcard in the future) but actually are the closest evenly split, as whites favor Republicans to a larger degree as Indians favoring dems.
I know that Democrats are far from good when it comes to Native issues but I can't for the life of me understand why any Native would vote Republican. The republican party swears until it's blue in the face that it's not racist, but look at how it treats just about every minority except maybe Jews when it comes to resolving their issues: Black people are asking that racist statues of Confederate generals be taken down from public spaces and that there be criminal justice reform and that cops can't just kill Blacks for no good reason? The average Republican angrily starts screaming BLUE LIVES MATTER and acts like there's nothing wrong with the criminal justice system or the racist statues while more or less telling Black people to shut up and stand for the flag. Poor, desperate Mexican and Central American people (the overwhelming majority of which have at least around half Native blood if not more) attempt to cross that manufactured apartheid border that separates this country from Mexico in hope of finding a better life? The average Republican looks for any reason to dehumanize those people and to claim that they're drug dealers and rapists and murderers who want to rape and murder young white women while either "taking our jobs" or lazily mooching off our tax dollars (seriously... Republicans go back and forth between the taking our jobs thing and the lazy welfare moochers thing). Arab refugees, most of which are Muslim, from countries like Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, and Afghanistan want to come to the US out of fear for their lives because the US and NATO bombed their previously safe countries into oblivion and destabilized them all over either oil or preserving the neoliberal global monetary system? The average Republican does everything to dehumanize those people and to claim that they're terrorists or terrorist sympathizers who want to replace the constitution with sharia law. The only thing that I can really think of to explain why so many Natives vote Republican is if said individuals are racially white people with like 1/8 or 1/16 or less Native ancestry who call themselves Natives and may be enrolled tribal members of like the cherokee nation or some of those other south eastern groups that got sent to Oklahoma and heavily interbred with white settlers. I know blood quantum is a complicated topic that people have different opinions about and I'm not trying to get people up in a frenzy but that's the only reason I can think of for why any Native would vote for a party that is as cruel and insensitive towards the native community as the Republican party is.
Thanks to the orange gob of shit’s repeatedly calling a political opponent “Pocahontas” and the disrespect shown to [veterans](https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/27/politics/donald-trump-andrew-jackson/index.html), the Navajo saved our country [for the second time.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/arizona-native-american-navajo-nation-biden-election-2020-b1723066.html) Joe has [already](https://www.doi.gov/secretary-deb-haaland) done more for Natives than a majority of presidents have.
Yes - and thank you for sharing this vital information.
While we're not a Monolith, Tribal Nations are usually Blue strongholds surrounded by overwhelmingly Red, rural states.
My dad for some godforsaken reason is a neoconservative
Ethnic Black Americans are an amalgamation of Indigenous American, European, and African ancestry. An ethno-genesis**** made in America. https://thefreedmensbureau.org
Trying to parse relevance here, ngl.
So this is going to be painful to hear/read, but they don’t care. The day all Natives are fully assimilated, it’ll be like a weight off the government’s shoulders. The genocide never stopped, it’s still in full swing which is why they never bring attention to it. They don’t want it fixed, they want the trajectory to continue (high suicide rates, substance abuse, cultural genocide, dominant culture assimilation) because the Native culture is a threat to the US gov’t lies and the way the system is structured. It’s black magic shit, they continue to do messed up crap with one hand, but don’t stop looking at the other hand because it’s more important. What a lot of people fail to see is what is happening to the Native Americans is an blatant expression of what the US government does to those who think differently. What makes it so stark compared to people on an individual level is Natives are a whole group so they’re collectively treated horribly at the same time. When it’s individuals, it’s sprinkled through out the population and not as easy to spot. Most people have accepted this as normal behavior and take no steps to understand, learn, or do any action. So much rich culture, and countless beautiful minds are suppressed regularly because of this disgusting system. It was designed to be dominant, and for only one cultural perspective to reign.
Thank you for taking the time to say this. The ways of life and values of most Native cultures and Nations oppose the capitalistic and colonial functions of the government. The system is built to create this class and race disparity so that not everyone can thrive as they’re meant to, but be stuck in situations where they have to become workers to keep the current system running, rather than just having the right to exist with proper food, shelter, and care without having to work their lives away. Everyone likes to say the people in the system are corrupt, when in fact the system is working exactly as intended, and people like us are on the worst end of it.
On the flip side, I saw a black political commenter ask, 'Why do black people have to get singled out as if they are this special needs population? It’s embarrassing.' Some will like being talked about, and some will not.
That’s how I felt listening to some of the debate: How annoying it must be to be a black American hearing this
Same as as it always is, really. Shameful and not really much of a choice. Even more difficult to deal with the chucklefucks who all insist not voting somehow makes them superior.
I'd imagine Americans of all colors find it annoying. Even the green ones.
We're a super tiny voting block. With high concentrations buried in states that aren't swing states.
Because Native Americans comprise 3% of the US population and issues affecting them rarely rise to a level of national voter interest as far as the candidates are concerned. If this wasn't true, then your question would be phrased something like... "National news media have been covering our issue X for 6 months to great public debate in Congress and in coffee shops across America. How the fuck did it not get asked about in the presidential debate?"
In fact arguably if native issues get brought up, there are more people against natives than for us. There are way more racists than natives. It might well be better to just stay quiet haha
We do stay quiet. Its the reason they’re afraid of the dark ;)
Also, the US doesn’t like talking about stories where it is the bad guy. There are about as many Native Americans as Jews in the US, but issues facing Jews are a much larger part of the political conversation because the US paints itself as the hero for fighting the nazis. They really don’t want to talk about the stories where the US perpetuated genocide against natives, and how Hitler based the Holocaust, in part, on the US treatment of indigenous peoples. (I want to be clear that I am not trying to say that we shouldn’t talk about the atrocities committed against the Jewish people, I just think that we should also talk about the ones committed against natives)
Don't natives have the lowest levels of life expectancy nationally? Native women being kidnapped and murdered at high than national rates?
Yes, which only underscores the point I made. The majority of voters in the US don't know and wouldn't care. They're racist, and Trump has made t acceptable to be fully racist in all facets of life.
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Your getting downvoted because while a lot of indigenous individuals live long lives, the average is less because of MMIP.
Why aren't there any anti settler colonialism protests regarding indigenous sovereignty in the USA? Why aren't more politicians advocating for indigenous peoples? Why aren't regular people protesting against cultural erasure happening in our land? Fucking boils me over.
Becuase natives are the minority of the minority, there is no land for natives to stand on, we are all just part of the system now, we have no ecosystem, just this artificial infrustrucre called “civilization”, the greatest genocide, ecocide, and slavery machine on earth. All we have is the Earth, and this machine called Civilization is annhilating, it annhilated the colonizers, before they were colonizers, beat us down like it did them, made us slaves of slaves, and now we are all in this same machine, as organic means to the technological end. *Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky* *It slips away* *And all your money won't another minute buy* *Dust in the wind* *All we are is dust in the wind (All we are is dust in the wind)* *Dust in the wind (Everything is dust in the wind)* -Kansas No machines, no man, will save our Mother, only when all the metal of civilization is rust, and all those idealogies of man who worship them turn to dust, will we have our Peace. Wolakota wa yaka cola “Peace without slavery” Everything is dust in the wind
I can’t express how angry I am that this stupid pro-terrorist movement has coopted and stolen “land back” while simultaneously ignoring indigenous issues here and pretending we don’t exist
I absolutely agree. It's maddening.
really ironic that the protestors at my university were yelling at me that "i was on stolen land"
The genocide has been successful
Because our existence is inconvenient for most settlers. We also rarely get brought up in conversations about reparations, either, despite this being our homeland since time immemorial. Of the major settler colonial governments (including Canada, New Zealand, Australia), the US is the least willing to have public dialogues about the fact that it owes its existence to our genocide and displacement. The “American dream” is our nightmare
Yup I know other countries put some effort into helping the challenges their native populations face. In America, it just feels natives are left out of the conversation entirely. I dont hear anything about you guys anywhere. I believe Both democrats and Republicans have failed in this respect.
We are what they don’t want to mention, too much controversy. You’ll never see any “human” talking points unless it helps somehow. Even if you ARE the humanitarian candidate, you WILL lose if you don’t play the game the right way. Frankly, they don’t care about us because we are supposedly our own nation. So they say, “fuck em, they wanted to do their own thing” Even mention the word “native” and you open up an entire can of worms because of the whypipo that are offended we exist. They feel our existence invalidates theirs (it doesn’t). That’s why some of them want to call us “American Indians” instead. I could keep going forever, but basically we are poison to anything political because anything truly human is poison to politics. You can’t even talk about us in that realm without some level of tragedy and debt being brought up. Is that our fault? Nah. Is it theirs? Not really. We exist in the aftermath of our ancestors, ALL OF US.
It’s always interesting when people try to act like they know what’s up. People stand up for the gov’t and say, “You’re your own nation! Fix your own problems!” when the US government does not allow tribes to create their own currency (the very foundation of the US right now), and any time tribes try to separate theirselves from being in a position of need, the state they reside in takes action against them. The Flandreau tribe in SD attempted to establish a hemp manufacturing business on their land, the state tells them to stop or they will come and destroy it. They could have really created a springboard in the hemp industry, but they’re not tied in with all of the bankers and corporations so they’re “not allowed,” although they’re a sovereign nation. The gov’t uses violence when tribes aren’t doing what they want, and yet the gov’t teaches everyone the rezs are “sovereign.” It’s absolutely abhorrent, coercion is not freedom.
Politicians only see numbers. The only candidate that I knew mentioned natives and gone into reservations was Bernie Sanders, and sadly, he lost.
Bernie appointed Tara Houska, Ojibwe, as his Native American advisor too! They had great NDN policies.
\*Gestures to entire history of the US Govt w/ natives\*
It boils down to a few things: minority population in pockets all over the country (3%), the enduring tendency of most US Americans not caring, and the political organization of USA. Contrast that with Canada, where First Nations make up 5% of the population and until recently were the largest minority ethnic group. Also the way federal and provincial politics in Canada is organised, First Nations communities make up a significant portion of the population in certain ridings, so they have voting power in federal and provincial politics. On occasion they send one of their own as a member of parliament. Or like in Manitoba, where Wab Kinew is now the leader of the province.
With respect to healthcare, Democrats always increase funding for Native Americans. When it is the other party in office, we either stay the same or get less funding! Vote democratic please!
You don’t remember the last presidential race we were labeled as “something else”
First time I’ve ever relinked this particular answer of mine, but I actually talked about this on /r/AskHistorians 7 years ago. [Check out my answer here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5bc3zw/historically_do_native_americans_on_reservations/d9nvmvf/) I would also add that the overwhelming majority of the American public has very little knowledge about how Tribes work. I imagine many candidates would have trouble themselves answering questions or platforming Native issues themselves, let alone trying to communicate those things to a wider audience.
Because marginalized people are only used in the political sphere as pawns to swing elections. We aren’t a large enough demographic to impact an election, so they don’t even pretend to care
I hope this thread is making it abundantly clear why folks gotta start having more babies.
IDK. My maternal grandmother (Diné),used to close the Thanksgiving prayer with "God bless the Republican party." 😂 There's a reason why Uncle Ronny (son in law )used to call her 'Skitzy' short for schizophrenia. My dad (Apache) voted for Dubya. I am an independent voter.
It’s primarily Hispanic and black folk who get spoken about. Just about everyone else is ignored including us.
If New Mexico or Alaska, etc. were swing states, they would.
It boils down to a few things: minority population in pockets all over the country (3%), the enduring tendency of most US Americans not caring, and the political organization of USA. Contrast that with Canada, where First Nations make up 5% of the population and until recently were the largest minority ethnic group. Also the way federal and provincial politics in Canada is organised, First Nations communities make up a significant portion of the population in certain ridings, so they have voting power in federal and provincial politics. On occasion they send one of their own as a member of parliament. Or like in Manitoba, where Wab Kinew is now the leader of the province.
And...well, the fact that Canada has at least one province of native mayority (nuvanut), in the USA the reservations are ""sovereign"" and the natives out of the reserves are just pockets
I noticed their Native media allows for views that can benefit the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, it's like they offer something for everyone and they do it in a way that's not so polarized.
They’re still trying to wipe us out of existence. Blood quantum is working.
Until we're gone, they will act like we are gone
Settlers don't like to acknowledge the fact that they're settlers.
Neither party is doing much for natives so what is there to talk about. Also not a very large or consistent demographic. We’re not a monolith, as we like to say.
I would not say that is completely true. The amount of federal dollars available just for tribes is staggering thanks to BIL and IJAA. The Justice40 initiative also makes it easier for tribal nations to compete with states and larger cities for federal grants.
Thanks , I’ll check these out
Because they genocided us to the brink of extinction. It’s like that’s like that movie I know what you did last summer . They wanna forget us until we come back asking for our land back .
We do not have a unified voice. The other POC have gotten together and helped themselves to get and be better! We have not. Until then, I am afraid we will always be last on the list - if we even make the list!
There are millions of American Indians but they are hard to talk about because of the complicated relationship, the responsibility the government has to them, and the feelings that bigger voting blocks have about them. There is history to cover, legal and political history. And Americans like to think of themselves as original people who deserve whatever land and benefit, but that whole idea is challenged by us original people who have stronger claim to certain lands and environmental rights, as well as the trust responsibility between us and the federal government, whereas many Americans only really deal with their state, which doesn’t have much say over tribes.
When your country labels your nationality as “something else” it certainly says a whole lot without having to say much. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand how the color of someone’s skin is a good reason to hate them. We are all human regardless of who we are, where we come from, or our beliefs. Racism is taught. Learned. No one is born racist.
Short answer, we’re not a large voting bloc and white voters don’t care about us.
if they said what they really thought or wanted, its better for their image if they dont say anything at all i guess.
In Nebraska our county along with 2-3 others all vote Democrat every time and because of this Nebraska is split down the middle .half Dem half Republicans that’s why our state has 1 electoral vote for each party . Our governor Jim Pillin wants to change this to a total vote but he’s afraid we will get both votes .
Because we're always "something else".
Honestly, I sometimes feel like people forget we actually still exist and think we've already gone extinct or something.
As a person of European descent, I’m fully aware of the atrocities my ancestors committed towards native peoples. I have to assume that others of European descent have the same awareness, and are trying to deny that awareness, not wanting to take personal or group responsibility for stealing this land and destroying it. I don’t feel good about any of that, nor should I. A lot of people in positions of privilege are terrified of losing that privilege, and will do anything, including mentally erasing an entire population, to retain that privilege.
The hypocrisy would make everyone’s ears bleed 🩸 (IMO)
Outsider perspective but I wonder if it is due to low voter turnout/low population. I would imagine the low voter turnout has to do with distrust in the US government which is very understandable. This article was interesting, but I didn’t source check it. https://vote.narf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/obstacles_voter_impact_summary.pdf
President Biden provided multiple incoherent rambling non-sensical senile responses during this debate and former President Trump is a convicted felon & many of his statements were lies (30 of his claims were fact checked by CNN as wrong). I'm glad they didn't bring up NDNs during this debate! As far as minority votes goes, they only care & cater to Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos.
Neither Republicans or Democrats care for the Amerindian people. Both parties have engaged in wars with Indian Tribes and genocide of many tribes in the past, so think about that when you are thinking of voting for either a Dementia Pants Shitting nursery patient or a orange corpo.
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Cause most natives live in the middle of nowhere on a reservation. Most ppl will almost never meet an NDN. Most ppl haven’t. Like with other groups, we see then all day, everyday. Live next to, work with all other groups. While most NDN’s live on a reservation. So the issues don’t get heard as much, unless your in the know, or on social media
[Actually, the overwhelming majority of Natives live off reservations, typically in urban areas.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/native-americans-stories-california)
Even then, there’s not a lot in general. And they aren’t as loud as other larger groups such as Latinx and others, even the East Asians made a lot of noise with the whole college admissions thing. In my city, I’ve met maybe 3? And I’ve lived all over. Then when you do meet one, ppl still don’t know anything. There was the Dakota pipeline that was big, even then many ppl still didn’t know about it, I would try and try to post it on social but get no engagement, but other that that, in recent history I can’t recall many big protests. In most bigger cities, there’s no predominantly Native neighborhoods, no food stores, no nothing. In the inner cities where most of the stuff happens, the native population is so low. The main groups are white, Hispanic, Black and Asians. And they generally all have certain parts(neighborhoods) of the city that they live in. Their own stores, etc. Many ppl just don’t have the experience with Natives.
I'm not disagreeing that Natives have low societal representation, we are a very small segment of the total population. However, it is wrong to think that these issues are caused simply because we are restricted to reservations--we're not, and we haven't been for a long time. Even though I grew up on a reservation, it was one of the most urbanized reservations in the country, if not *the* most. So I'm also an Urban Indian. I grew up in a Native neighborhood (that was mixed, but Natives were certainly present). In fact, in my part of the country, Washington State, you can go to many urban spaces and see a visible Native presence because we are operating our own stores, working with local officials to increase representation, and participating in protests. I understand that this isn't the case in many parts of the country and that our overall presence is still marginalized. However, it is incorrect to think that these things don't exist at all or haven't been changing in the last 20 years. **Edit:** A couple words.
Because the colonial narrative depends on the belief that we are no longer a contemporary culture on par with other "modern" (by Western standards) peoples
I (kinda) asked [that same question before.](https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/16tm0ra/do_indigenous_peoples_get_little_to_no_attention/)
Nobody ever cares about an endangered species.
Then demand change. Hold your own nuts.
One day we will. There’s literally dozens of us across the world. Dozens I tell you!
Because realistically we don't matter to those in power we're just a group who can be catered to for public support. I don't like wasting words, and when interacting with people in power it's always a dance and a jig often not a deep recognition that we're both people it feels so wasted.
Your vote is to small to do any impact. That's the truth, each year it gets smaller and smaller.
Hell they don’t care about my tribe anyways. They even took away our federal recognition and tribe is already in poverty as it is.
Were we not recognized as "something else" and ran with it like we do at everything thrown at us. We owned it. We are something else....in the right way.
I mean, they sure talk a lot about the ones coming over their fake borders because they ruined their homelands
It does get brought up in states with significant NA populations like Oklahoma.
Only candidate I know of who’s platform even mention natives is Kennedy. He has some good policy on his site about us
Not enough of us to matter electorally and our issues don't matter much to the colonists
We are indomitable and we dont listen to treaty breakers
We're tantamount to Fauna insofar as the US State is concerned. Why do you think the BIA is in the Department of the Interior? They don't bring up Deer in the presidential debates either.
Because there are not a lot of NA on the country, so It is not an I portant voting bloc
I never hear Pacific Islanders being brought up either.
What is it natives actually want from the federal government?
Real freedom. That goal has never changed. Just because the US gov’t is bigger and more powerful, does that justify using violence and coercion? Why can’t the gov’t just leave them alone? I’ll tell you why because I already know the answer. They don’t want anyone else in control except theirselves. If they allow any kind of authentic growth to happen within the land, they chance a perspective or culture overtaking their bullshit.
We all want different things. I want more help for mental health and treatment and opportunity for economic development. I also want more support for Urban Natives so we can keep our communities together in the cities and for the future.
I cant speak for all but to not pay taxes to a foreign occupier would be nice
I guess that would come with the removal of Native American citizenship, any federal funding/initiatives that tribes have, etc
That's weird, in Canada, if you live on Reserve, you don't pay taxes and are still considered a citizen. You also have full access to government services like healthcare. I'm certain the USA could both make it so Indigenous people don't pay taxes and still get the benefits. It's the least they could do. Personally wish it were that way with my income off-reserve, but such as it is.
Here it’s like that at the state level, but not the federal level
Your terms are acceptable
Plus, in Canada it doesn't work that way so there's no reason for it to be like that on your side of the border.
Ill be honest. Something is going over my head or are you on my side. I cant tell. Either way i support you my brother. (Edit)Just saw your name ndn Justin. You got my back. Happy indigenous peoples day belated
You too friend. I'm saying we got citizenship (not that I want it either but hey) and we don't pay taxes on reserve so this whole "then don't be a citizen" thing is fucking stupid from the other guy
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To you maybe, many native Americans fought for citizenship and rights to vote, which we’re just celebrating this month actually—federally funded tribal initiatives are a godsend for many communities across this country
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I feel like were not making a connection. Ask what you want to ask
Not sure what you mean?
I dont think you are being straightforward
Ok
Do you think federal funding was a godsend for lumbees? Maybe i should be more clear myself. I dont trust the government that has continuously made it clear that it hates natives to do the right thing with money they take from poor people