2020 Census in Trouble
A troubled Census: Norm DeWeaver, James Tucker, and Liz Medicine Crow, talk about the challenges for Native people in the 2020 Census. (Photo by Mark Trahant)
American Indians and Alaska Natives are undercounted during the best of circumstances, like every time the U.S. conducts its once-a-decade count.
And this year? Trouble ahead.
This is Trahant Reports.
Yes, the 2020 Census is in trouble. It’s been in trouble for a while, said Norm DeWeaver, a consultant who has served on Census advisory boards, and has works with tribes to improve their count.
DeWeaver said Census troubles have been brewing for several years because Congress hasn’t wanted to spend enough money on the process. Congress has the idea that the Census should cost the same as it did a decade ago.
Native communities have a number of additional problems, ranging from the lack of rural addressing to a justified concern about answering questions from the government.
Yet the stakes are huge. One estimate says that every tribal citizen who is not counted costs their tribal government at least $3,000 in lost federal services.
Let’s put that in perspective. If a 10,000 member tribe is undercounted by 5 percent, that’s a loss of $1.5 million a year in federal funds, every year, for the next ten years. Many federal programs and block grants use Census numbers to determine the spending. The Census itself says the undercount of American Indians and Alaska Natives was 4.9 percent last time around. Most experts think the undercount was much higher.
The top 16 federal programs use Census data to determine funding models and block grants. James Tucker an attorney said: “If you are not counted, you do not exist for purposes of those federal grants and you are hurting your tribe. It’s as simple as that.”
In getting ready for 2020, there were supposed to be field tests at Standing Rock and at Colville, a way to test the methodology, but those were called off to save money. Yet it’s that practice, that improves the count.
Three U.S. Senators, Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; said the Census was setting aside Native communities for “other priorities.” The three senators asked the bureau to come up with an action plan to be certain that there is an “accurate and cost effective process to count all American Indians and Alaska Natives.”
Another reason why the Census is so important is because it determines representation in the Congress and state legislatures. One Congressional district is about 700,000 people (except in states where there is one member for the entire state). Several states are hoping that population gains will mean an additional seat because of the 2020 count.
Elizabeth Medicine Crow of the First Alaskans Institute says Alaska Natives should have had at least two additional seats in the state legislature based on population.
So how do you fix the Census? The best answer would be more support from the Congress. But another answer is for tribes to do more of the work on their own — in a way bailing the federal government out.
I am Mark Trahant.
Native Women
This is Trahant Reports.
Two years ago Denise Juneau was making history. She was running for Montana’s only seat in Congress. It was a hundred years since Jeannette Rankin had won that same seat, the first woman ever elected to the Congress. So a century later Juneau, Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara, would be the ideal first Native woman to serve. She was following her plan perfectly, raising $3 million, crisscrossing that huge state, and mobilizing voters.
Still, she lost.
Juneau is now Superintendent of Schools for the city of Seattle. She said she didn’t feel bad about losing because “we did everything we were supposed to. We just lost.”
Then she turned philosophical.
She said every time another Native woman steps up to run for any office, whether that be the state legislature, the city council, the. Congress, it paves the way. There’s sort of a pipeline, which is really awesome right now, that there’s never been a path for Native women to just really step up. “I believe right now, we’re in a time and space where we see that happening,” Juneau said. “There will be a first at some point.”
That “first at some point” is coming fast. There are now more Native women running for office than men, 51 candidates out of 99 running for offices across the nation. More Native women than men are running for every office from state legislature to governor.
The only exception: Congress. There are three Native women running and five Native men for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
How does that compare to the rest of the country? Well, nationally it’s a record year for women seeking office: There are currently 251 women seeking one of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 26 more women seeking one of 35 Senate seats.
Last week I even added a new name to my tally, Yvette Herrell, who running for the second congressional district in New Mexico as a Republican. The Cherokee Nation let me know that Herrell is a citizen. So New Mexico could send two, not one, Native American women to the Congress.
Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, is the Democratic nominee in the state’s first congressional district. Sharice Davids, Ho Chunk, is a candidate in Kansas.
Beyond Congress, there are two Native women running for governors, Paulette Jordan, Coeur d’Alene, In Idaho and Andria Tupola, Native Hawaiian, in Hawaii. And there are four Native women running for lieutenant governor, Debra Call, De’nina, in Alaska; Anastasia Pittman, Seminole, in Oklahoma, and in Minnesota, two candidates, Peggy Flanagan, White Earth, on the Democratic side, and Donna Bergstrom, Red Lake, as the Republican nominee.
Yes … Native American women are making history this election. Next week we will dig into some numbers.
I am Mark Trahant.
McCain Legacy
Photo: John McCain at the U.S. Capitol. (credit JohnMcCain.com)
Arizona Senator John McCain died Saturday. He was 81. McCain leaves behind a rich and complicated legacy.
This is Trahant Reports.
McCain served with two of Arizona’s most well-known legislators, Sen. Barry Goldwater and Rep. Morris Udall. All three ran for president in their day.
Udall, a Democrat, was a close friend of McCain. He was eager to keep him informed about federal Indian policy and to work with him across the aisle. He often would ask McCain, then in the House of Representatives, to attend press conferences or meetings with tribes. The result was the two Arizonans were often allies on tribal issues and developed a personal relationship.
McCain and Udall were authors of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Back then tribal casinos and bingos were about a $100 million enterprise. Today it collects billions. Tens of billions. Of course not every tribe, nor even every tribal member, has benefited from the success of gaming. But without question the industry has changed the face of Indian Country.
McCain was always close with Native American veterans groups. He said: “From the Revolution through Desert Storm, Native Americans have served, suffered and died for the cause of American freedom … Native American Veterans bow to no one in depth of his patriotism and love of country.”
A statement by the National Congress of American Indians called the senator a “tireless champion.” McCain dedicated many years to Indian Country. Serving as longtime member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, he met frequently with tribal leaders on the Hill, in their community, and at our gatherings. In his last speech at NCAI Senator McCain said, “We must listen more to you, and get out of the way of tribal authority.”
Of course McCain was not perfect. He called himself “an imperfect servant.” And many objected to his part in transferring Apache sacred land to a mining company. A YouTube video of a polite controntation in Window Rock when viral when the senator asked a young man to leave.
McCain also advocated for tribal provisions in the Violence Against Women Act. He said: “Domestic violence is a national problem and not one that is unique to Indian Country. Yet, due to the unique status of Indian tribes, there are obstacles faced by Indian tribal police, federal investigators, tribal and federal prosecutors and courts that impede their ability to respond to domestic violence in Indian Country. This bill is intended to remove these obstacles at levels and to enhance the ability of each agency to respond to acts of domestic violence.”
Sovereignty is the answer, again and again. In his final speech at the National Congress of American Indians, McCain found his older theme. He said: ”We must listen more to you, and get out of the way of tribal authority.”
John McCain, the maverick.
I am Mark Trahant.
For more information look at Indian Country Today and Mark Trahant’s analysis of the McCain legacy.
Davids wins Kansas primary
Unprecedented. Amazing. And long overdue. Another Native woman is her party’s nominee for Congress.
This is Trahant Reports.
Sharice Davids won the Kansas primary with hard work, focus on what was important, and avoiding the distractions from outside influences. That sound like a practice that would work in Congress too. (You know … instead of grandstanding on legislation that has no chance of ever actually becoming law.)
Davids, Ho Chunk, was an unlikely candidate. She started late, just about four months ago, running against a candidate who had been working for a year on that race.
But in politics timing is everything. And those four months were exactly the right time.
This year is one where women across the country are coming together as candidates and as voters in an unprecedented way.
Native women, too. There are now two Native women, Davids and Deb. Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, as their party nominees for the November election. And Amanda Douglas in Oklahoma has a primary at the end of this month. So there could be three.
This is unprecedented. And so long past time. There have been some 12,000 people (mostly men) elected to Congress since 1789. So It’s time for new voices.
On Saturday Andria Tupola, a Native Hawaiian, won the Republican nomination for governor of Hawaii. So there are now two Native women campaigning to lead states as party nominees. (The other is Paulette Jordan, Coeur d’Alene, in Idaho.)
It’s not just Indian Country that is ready to listen to new voices. More women than ever are running for and winning primary elections. As the Brookings Institution pointed out: “If enough of these women get elected in 2018 to tip control of the House to the Democrats, we could see significant changes to the congressional agenda.”
You think?
And it’s not just the candidates. There is another trend at work, a growing gender gap of voters. This trend is what helped Davids win the primary. In states across the country the gender gap is widening to more than 20 points. The thing is it’s not just the gender gap, it’s the turnout. Women are showing up to the polls in greater numbers, too. And that’s defining the 2018 election.
This is the untold story of this election, that the country, thanks to women voters, is finally stepping up to the diversity that is already here.
The late Wilma Mankiller used to say that no government can function with only half its people. “Where are your women?” she said Cherokee leaders once asked the Americans.
There is a new answer to that very question.
For her part, Davids says she is humbled by the party nomination and she is looking forward to the November election. And she plans to win by staying focused on the issues … and outworking her opponent.
I am Mark Trahant.
Govern Ready?
Are Republicans ready to govern? It’s time to make that case at least in the Senate and in the House.
This is Trahant Reports.
The Senate is returning to what’s called “regular order.” In that process a spending bill works its way through committee, is passed by the Senate. The House does the same thing. The two bills are resolved and it’s sent to the president.
Textbook.
Last week at a Senate news conference Tuesday, Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said he has reached a deal with Democrats to move forward with 90 percent of the federal budget, including appropriations bills for Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. McConnell’s goal is to move 90 percent of the appropriations bills this way and the Senate will be done by Labor Day.
Then McConnell jopes the House will move quickly too — so common ground can be found before the fiscal year ends on September 30. (The Interior Appropriations bill that includes the the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are included in this regular order process.)
As part of the deal, Republicans have agreed to avoid policy riders that make it impossible to round up votes from Democrats. It will take 60 votes in the Senate for legislation to be passed.
That’s the governing part. Or in the language of Washington, regular order.
The House leadership would very much like to do something similar.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, said the House could pass several spending bills before that deadline. But, he added, “there will be some bills that don’t pass” and it’s likely a short-term Continuing Resolution will be needed.
One such bill that will be controversial is the House’s plan to spend $5 billion on Homeland Security. The Senate’s version spends far less, only $1.6 billion, as well as requirements that funds only be used to reinforce existing physical barriers. Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont call the House bill a “non-starter.”
This is where the governing part gets confusing. While McConnell and Ryan are championing the regular order and a functioning Congress, the president is saying something else.
President Trump last week said several times that Congress must pass funding for a border wall or the government will be shut down. He said he “may have to do some pretty drastic things.”
No matter what budgets come out of Congress — the House version or the Senate’s plan — the president would still have to sign the legislation into law. Most likely that will be in the form of a compromise bill that includes either spending the president does not like or less money than he would like for his border enforcement.
So it will be up to the president to close the government without help from Congress.
I am Mark Trahant
The Food Bill
Every five years or so Congress enacts a “farm bill.” Those two words are misleading. It’s really a food bill. A trade bill. A jobs bill. An energy bill. An education and research bill. A forest bill. And, a this-is-the-kind-of-legislation-that-shows-why-you-should-elect-me, bill.
This is Trahant Reorts
Regaining our Future a new report by the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative says Native people are this continent’s first agricultural people, deeply involved in complex systems, and domesticating crops that are still eaten today.
Of course Congress won’t be spending much time on that point. But the farm bill will shape how indigenous people are fed.
The most important section of the bill for Indian Country deals with nutrition programs, representing 80 percent of the bill’s costs. JanieHipp, speaking at the Native American Journalists Association earlier this month, said many tribes depend such programs to feed people, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. That was the original Food Stamps program, created in the 1960s as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on hunger. Regaining our Future said nearly 25 percent, and in many communities more than 50 percent, of tribal citizens directly access or rely on federal feeding programs.
There are two versions of the Farm Bill, one in the House, and another in the Senate. The two houses will soon negotiate final language through a conference committee and then that compromise must be enacted again by each body.
The Senate has a bipartisan approach, especially in provisions that deal with Indian Country. While the House version of the Farm bill only has support from Republicans.
***
The Senate version also includes several tribal priorities, according to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. This includes:
— A tribal self-determination project let tribes create their own food distribution programs, serving about 90,000 Native Americans.
— Set up a tribal advisory committee on agriculture and ranching.
— Allow more grants to tribal colleges and universities for food-related research.
— Promote international trade for tribal producers.
— And a study of the impact of foods fraudulently marketed as Native American produced goods.
***
The House bill would cut nutrition funding from SNAP — and some 1.2 million adults would lose benefits because of the proposed stricter work requirements, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The work rules means states and tribes will have to set up an administrative structure to make this happen. And in some tribal communities that will also mean that jobs will have to be created because they do not now exist.
The politics of this massive farm bill remain an open question. Last May members of the House Freedom Caucus tanked their own party’s measure in order to take a stand on immigration. And some of those House members are not keen on any nutrition programs.
There is also a chance that Congress could pass a short-term extension of the farm bill. But that would move the contested issues — especially the fight over food stamps — squarely past the election and the prospect of a Democratic Party controlling the House.
I am Mark Trahant.
The Native Vote
There are a record number of Native American candidates running this year. That’s good, right? But it also begs the question: What would it take to improve voter turnout in Indian Country?
This is Trahant Reports.
There are more than a hundred days until the next election and there remain many questions about the structure and integrity of elections.
This is important because America is governed by those who vote. And those who can easily vote.
Take Nye County, Nevada. If a voter from Duckwater Shoshone Tribe wants to cast a ballot on election day they need to drive to Tonapah. That’s 137 miles and more than 2 hours each way. And that’s when the weather is good.
Nevada’s solution is a vote by mail plan something that many tribal citizens either find impractical or do not trust the process itself. Two years ago Nevada tribes sued the state and two more polling sites were added, but no new polling locations in Nye County because it was considered too expensive.
James Tucker with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) said state laws gives county officials discretion to not provide in person voting opportunities if there are not enough registered voters. And that is a really perverse process because we have instances in which there are plenty of people who are eligible to to vote like in the Duck Valley Reservation in northern Nevada. He said there are upwards of about 800 to 900 people eligible to vote, but at the time 2016, only about 175 were actually registered. Because there was no in-person voting location, it makes it even less likely that people are going to want to register to vote.
Tucker spoke at the Native American Journalists Association conference in Miami last week. NARF and the Native American Voting Rights Coalition had held field hearings across the country collecting data and stories about obstacles to voting.
It’s a particular challenge to improve the structure of elections when several states are making it more difficult. North Dakota continues to press (after losing several legal challenges) for restrictions in a state that once prided itself on easy access to voting. As Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, said recently at a Senate hearing, “Why should we have to sue every year in North Dakota to get voting rights for Native people?”
Then, there is the problem of people not voting anyway. The United States has long been unusual for its low turnout in elections. More than 100 million potential voters do not vote. And Indian Country is at the short end of that measure, too. According to the Native Vote project only 66 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives are eligible to vote, compared to 74 percent of eligible non-Hispanic Whites. That means 34 percent of the total Native population over 18 are not registered.
And it’s that potential of a million voters that could upend the system, especially in states with a significant Native American population.
I am Mark Trahant.
Native Americans on the Courts
What should we think about the justice system, the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh? Or put another way: Why not a Native American on the court?
This is Trahant Reports.
A few weeks ago I was interviewing the attorney and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle about her work. Her amazing plays merge Indian history and law with contemporary Native issues. There is often a character, an attorney and Native woman, who argues before the Supreme Court. But I messed up. Instead I asked her about a character, a young Native woman, who becomes the first Associate Justice serving on the Supreme Court.
“Which play are you talking about?” Nagle responded. Then it hit me: None of her plays had that character. I was projecting beyond her fiction.
“Now I need to write that play,” Nagle quickly said. “I think that would be an amazing play. To write a play where she’s the first Justice. Why not? ’cause then it begs the question, ‘Why not?’ Why not? I mean you look at the whole history of this country and how integral tribal issues have been. Why wouldn’t there have been one by now?”
Why not? That is the question that should be asked when ever there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And for judicial openings in U.S. district courts, U.S. courts of appeals, and U.S. Court of International Trade, as well as the Court of Claims, U.S. Customs Court, and U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Kavanaugh will be the 114th person to serve on the Supreme Court since 1789. The only active Native American on the bench is U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa, Hopi, in Phoenix. She is one of three Native American judges in history. When she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2014, there was a lot of optimism that more Native American judges would follow.
As attorney Chris Stern, Navajo, told Indian Country Today at the time: “Let’s hope Diane’s confirmation is just the start of a slew of Native American federal judges. There is still a massive lack of representation of Indian judges in the federal courts.”
A massive lack of representation remains.
But one route to the bench starts with those who clerk for judges, especially those who serve the Supreme Court. Starting earlier this month, Tobi Merritt Edwards Young, a Chickasaw tribal citizen, is doing just that. She is clerking for Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.
According to a news release from her tribe, “Young is thought to be the first enrolled citizen of a Native American tribe to serve as Supreme Court clerk.” As she says: “I hope that if other Chickasaws read about my experiences, they will recognize that nothing stops them from pursuing any dream that they have too. Somebody from where they are from is going to be working every day at the Supreme Court, and there’s no reason that there shouldn’t be many more to come.”
More to come. Yes.
I am Mark Trahant.
Environmental Protection Agency’s New Lead
Will a change at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency bring about change … or more of the same?
This is Trahant Reports.
Scott Pruitt the controversial agency administrator resigned last week after the White House determined that scandal after scandal was finally too much. The list of allegations and infractions was long, some 14 current investigations ranging from attacks on whistleblowers to special personal favors from the industry he was supposed to regulate.
Pruitt was hostile to climate change science and even the process of government itself.
A columnist for The Guardian newspaper called Pruitt: “The worst. EPA administrator. Ever.”
But will anything change? The acting head of the EPA, Andrew Wheeler is a former lobbyist for the coal industry.
And the acting EPA leader is already involved in a controversy about the cleanup of abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation. Wheeler was once the lobbyist for Energy Fuels International. That Canadian company is now seeking federal contracts to clean up those mines as well as engage in new ones. Energy Fuels was one of the companies pushing to shrink the Bears Ears National Monument.
Energy Fuels chief executive Mark Chalmers was quoted by CNN saying that the 500 abandoned mines – already on the Superfund list – should be cleaned up by his company because the company has the only mill in the area and routinely processes uranium there. “We offer the EPA an established, low-cost option to move material off the Navajo Nation, recycle it into fuel for carbon-free nuclear energy and dispose the remnants in our existing state-of-the-art facilities,” he told CNN.
This contract also fits into a broader scheme for more uranium development in the Four Corners. A blog for The Grand Canyon Trust said: “Wheeler’s name should ring a bell for those following the Bears Ears National Monument issue, and his ascension to EPA chief could be cause for concern.”
Tribes have opposed the return of uranium mining in the Four Corners. Many communities are still living with a toxic past and the failure of the industry to clean up its mess. The 1979 spill of an uranium tailing wastewater pond near Churchrock, in the Navajo Nation, is considered the single largest release of radioactive material in American history, surpassing the crisis at Three Mile Island. Drinking water in the area remains contaminated.
As acting administrator Wheeler will not be subject to Senate confirmation. Should President Donald J. Trump nominate him for the post permanently he would need to get that nod again. Wheeler was confirmed by a vote of 53 to 45 for the Deputy post back in April.
I am Mark Trahant.
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