"So much of the political system has ignored the Indian vote," said Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance and a member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma. "That is changing."
It's not just that it matters because Native voices should matter. Votes from tribal communities could actually be the margin of difference in Nevada, both in the state's Democratic presidential caucus in February and the general election in November.
Indigenous people make up nearly 2 percent of the state's population, with significant pockets living on reservations in rural Nevada, and the voting rights organization Four Directions estimates that the Native voting age population in Nevada will be nearly 67,000 by the time of the 2020 election, though it's unclear how many are registered to vote.
It's a fact that presidential hopefuls are keenly aware of. Candidates have sent representatives to the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada, released Native-specific policies and even used their bully pulpits to draw attention to issues affecting Indian Country here, including a longstanding proposal to construct a long-term, high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, which is sacred to the Shoshone and Paiute peoples, and contamination related to the Anaconda Copper Mine outside of Yerington.
"I think there's an increase in outreach to Indian Country. I've noticed that since the last election," said Laurie Thom, chairman of the Yerington Paiute Tribe. "I think there's been more activity, and they're more proactive in reaching out to the tribal leaders." But not all candidate outreach has been equal or received equally. Several tribal leaders in Nevada named Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as the candidate most fluent in Native American issues, and some have even endorsed him, citing a longstanding commitment to Native communities and the efforts he has made to meet with them during trips to the state. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has also received a prominent endorsement from a tribal chairman in the state.
Native leaders appreciate the outreach from candidates, but it's a two-way street. They want to be invited to presidential candidates' events, but they want candidates to come to their events, too.
To that end, they're planning a Native American presidential forum at UNLV in mid-January, which will bring together leaders from Nevada's 27 tribes as well as those from surrounding states to hear from Democratic presidential hopefuls, attend planning meetings on how to turn out the Native vote nationally and host caucus trainings.
The forum will be the second-ever of its kind the first was hosted in Sioux City, Iowa in August but organizers say the Native vote isn't going to make a difference in Iowa, where just 0.5 percent of the population identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native. It could in Nevada.
The Native vote isn't a monolith, but experts say that it tends to lean blue. And with the way that delegate math works in the presidential caucus, winning rural Nevada could be the key to victory in a close race just ask Barack Obama, who lost the popular vote in Nevada in 2008 but came out of the state with the most delegates, largely because of his organizing in rural portions of the state.
And in a small turnout election 118,000 Democrats caucused in Nevada in 2008 and 84,000 in 2016 every vote counts.
"I think the candidates are actually considering and thinking about tribes," said Alan Mandell, vice chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. "In a caucus state like us, it could make a good difference."
Sanders, speaking at a town hall in Carson City last week, opened with a tirade against the U.S. government and its treatment of Native Americans. It was the first address given by a presidential candidate in Indian Country in Nevada this year.
"Everybody in this room knows the way that the United States government has treated the Native American people from day one is a shame and a disgrace," Sanders said, addressing a crowd of about 400 that had gathered the Washoe Tribe's Stewart Community Center. "We need our Native American brothers and sisters to go all over this country and, as president, that's what I will ask them to explain sustainability to the American people and to the world."
Later in the event, the Vermont senator was asked what specifically he would do to help Indigenous families. He launched into another scathing attack of the government, its treatment of the land and its failure to fulfill its treaty obligations. He then pivoted to corporations, which he criticized for only being able to see as far at the end of the financial quarter, where Native communities, he said, consider the impact their actions will have for generations.
"You don't destroy your source of food. You don't wipe out the buffalo if you're dependent upon that for food. You don't poison the water if you need water to drink," Sanders said. "That's what they have understood, and that when you look at your policy, what you do is you look at it over a long period of time, not just the end of the quarter and the profits that you make."
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