The right to vote should be one that is protected for all Americans. No one, regardless of ability, race, economic status, or region should be denied their civic duty.
But some of us are being left out of the process. In addition to Black Americans—many living in the South particularly—Indigenous voters are stymied by barriers to voting, such as access and language differences.
A report recently released by the Biden administration lays out the urgency for Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—which includes provisions bundled as the Native American Voting Rights Act (NAVRA)—as Indigenous voters suffer from a slew of blockades to casting a ballot.
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“For far too long, members of Tribal Nations and Native communities have faced unnecessary burdens when they attempt to exercise their sacred right to vote,” the White House said. “Native voters often have to overcome language barriers, a lack of accessibility for voters with disabilities, cultural disrespect and outright hostility, geographically remote residences, and persistent poverty — conditions that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Following the announcement of the White House’s Native American Voting Rights Report, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement:
Tribal nations have played a significant role in influencing the contours of American democracy, yet systemic barriers continue to disenfranchise Indigenous people and impede a free and fair electoral process.
The Interior Department is committed to defending the right to vote, which includes increasing access to voter registration and engaging young people in our democratic system.
Haaland is talking about barriers such as the plethora of tribal languages within Indigenous communities, regions without access to postal services, the desperate need for spaces for Native Americans to register to vote, and training for poll workers, to name a few.
As the report points out, there are “574 federally recognized Tribal Nations (commonly referred to as tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities, and native villages)” in the U.S.—a population of about 9.7 million.
One unaddressed need impacting Native voters is those who are disabled.
“Native Americans have the highest rate of disability among all American ethnicities and racial groups; nearly one in four Native Americans has a disability,” the report reads, leaving disabled Native voters unable to reach polling sites.
The report also cites instances of Native and non-Native people living in close proximity to one another, but living within distinctly different cultures.
“The Steering Group heard repeated examples of non-Native election officials treating Native voters in a manner perceived at best as culturally insensitive and at worst as conveying profound disrespect. And that mistreatment can have the effect of alienating Native voters,” according to the report. The report added that the mistreatment of Natives at voting sites can and has been threatening and hostile.
“One Tribal leader related that one week before the 2020 election, they learned that a county election official had refused to comply with a county directive to provide drop boxes in towns on the Blackfeet Reservation, based on an assumed preference about how Tribal members would vote. After an outcry, the drop boxes were put in place three days before the election—but a last-minute effort reportedly found at least 200 ballots that Tribal members had been unable to return.”
Another barrier is identity documentation: Native American voters are less likely to possess a driver’s license, and states such as Texas refuse to accept Tribal identification cards. However, Oklahoma will allow them. All of this leaves Native voters confused and discouraged.
Although the White House states that the report will be translated into languages like Navajo, Yup'ik, Ojibwe, Cherokee, Lakota, and Native Hawaiian, voters are often left out of the process due to language issues.
“The Census Bureau reports that 22% of voting-age residents identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native speak a language other than English at home; 7%—hundreds of thousands of eligible voters—say that they speak English less than ‘very well.’”
In addition to locations where Native Americans live often being rural and distant from polling stations, income inequality is a major block to voting for Native Americans.
The report found that “20% of American Indian or Alaska Native people live in poverty—twice the rate of the white population.”
“A national pre-COVID count in January 2020 found that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders had the highest rate of people experiencing homelessness in the country, at more than 6 times the national average.”
The White House report adds that in addition to passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, states can also pass laws themselves that can protect Native American voters while they wait for Congress to take action.