Code Talker Thomas Begay and Chris Deschene on the campaign trail
First, a progressive candidate for Navajo tribal president doesn't speak enough Navajo and now some elderly Navajo speak too much. Sheesh...
Wait. Let me back up.
Chris Deschene made it on the Navajo Nation ballot for tribal president by coming in second in the primary. Some of the losers of the primary challenged his eligibility for the office claiming that he does not speak fluent Navajo, which is a requirement for the president under current tribal law. He was ordered to take a fluency test. He refused. Deschene insists he's fluent in Navajo and that he was unfairly singled out with this unprecedented test.
He's running against former two-term Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley (D) whose presidency soured a bit at the end due to criticism of his selection of ineffectual vice presidents. His second vice president is current President Ben Shelly (D). Shelly was recently in the news in his now famous sell-out photo sitting in Washington R*dsk*ns owner Dan Snyder's box during a game. However, Shelly's most recent stab in the back was his vetoing of the Navajo Nation Council's bill to change the language requirements for candidates. Preventing Deschene from continuing to campaign.
So things are in limbo now for Deschene, but his name remains on the ballot even though there were threats to postpone the tribal election so that ballots could be reprinted without his name on them.
Part I of the irony: The Navajo language was key in the outcome of World War II. The Code Talkers' use of our language helped save the U.S. from more loss of life in the Pacific Theater. Here's Deschene's recent take on that.
This is my grandfather. Sam Holiday. He is a WWII Navajo Code talker. Tonight, he proudly took my place at the podium at a Kayenta rally. He defended our country with our language, and it’s being used to divide the Diné. Tonight, he used our language to share the truth with hundreds of people.
Many of you have asked why I didn’t take the fluency test. It’s time for me to tell you. I will not allow any member of our nation to be singled out. To be set up for failure. To be tested unfairly. To be left to defend ourselves to the outside. This has happened to us before. It will not happen under my watch. This test was flawed. This test was designed to divide the nation. This test was unacceptable. I am proficient in Diné Bizaad. I am qualified to be your president. I want to be your president.
I am still on the ballot. I have not conceded. I will never stop defending our fundamental rights. I’m told I’ll get in trouble for campaigning. But you won’t get in trouble for voting. You need to vote now.
Part II of the irony: In a
most egregious report yesterday (h/t Erich Bloodaxe RN) it has been reported that a directive was released by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department to stop assisting Navajo language speakers with applications for licenses and identification cards, dubbing them "illiterate." Staff had to sign the directive. Here is a truncated copy of the directive to deny access to identification cards necessary to vote.
You got that? "We are not able to issue license (sic) for illiterates."
Within 24 hours the New Mexico DMV clarified its directive. Um. Let's walk this back. STAT.
While the email summarizing the department’s policies for non-English speakers was poorly worded enough to allow staff in one office to interpret the directive narrowly and to apply the reference to illiterate applicants to all non-English speakers, MVD’s quick action to clarify the rules and policies to the public and staff is the right thing to do.
We are confident that public attention to the issue will lead to the removal of the misleading directive from the employee area in the Farmington office and lead to better training to ensure that all applicants have access to translators and assistance they need to apply for services, whether applicants are seeking licenses needed to drive or identification cards to access services or voting for those who registered by mail.
I love it when crap like that is outed. However, the directors of this voter-suppression effort are still in charge. They put up an "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille" apology-like statement but what will they really do next? I hope the elders they hassle will report it.
8000 Navajo have already voted and many travel dozens of miles to reach polling places. With the election just five days away we are waiting for what happens next.
U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is depending on the Navajo Nation vote to keep her seat. Reprinting ballots or postponing the election will have an effect in the state election.
Let's not forget 2012," said Kirkpatrick's spokesman, D.B. Mitchell. "Everyone thought Ann had lost, until the Navajo vote came in and she gained thousands of votes that ultimately led to her decisive victory.
American Indian voters can make and have made the difference for Democratic candidates in certain states as Meteor Blades has been bringing to the attention of Kossacks for several years regarding Washington, North Dakota and South Dakota. For that reason, Indian-haters will keep trying to suppress the Indian vote any chance they get. It's been 90 years since all Indians supposedly got the right to vote. Attempts to undermine that right continue right up to the present day.
9:56 PM PT: From the Navajo Times:
Election board found in contempt; Deschene to pay attorney fees
Two justices of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court — the third having declined to participate in the proceedings — found the Navajo Nation Board of Election Supervisors in contempt of court Friday for failing to remove Christopher Clark Deschene’s name from the presidential ballot and failing to postpone the election as the court had previously ordered.
[...]“In a system that has tried so hard to be different” from Western law, “strong-arming (the board) into making this choice (to remove Deschene from the ballot) is totally inconsistent with the will of the Navajo people,” Boos said.
[...]Meanwhile, since Deschene’s backers can no longer campaign, they have formed a Navajo Voters’ Rights Coalition and are continuing to raise money, circulate petitions to fill Supreme Court vacancies with law school graduates, and are contemplating a class action human rights lawsuit.