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Can one family build a Navajo, Republican Party?

This is Trahant Reports.

I remember John McCain speaking at a Window Rock veterans’ event. It must have been about twenty years ago. One of the speakers told McCain that he had recently joined the Republican Party. McCain smiled. Then He talked about why other Navajos should do that, and what it would mean to have representation in both parties.

But not many Navajos made the switch. Apache County, which is mostly Navajos, has some 26,784 active Democrats and only 7,893 Republicans. The numbers are similar in other Arizona counties with large Native American populations.

Now one family is trying to change that.

State Sen. Carlyle Begay switched his affiliation from Democrat to Republican in November.  And in March he announced that he was running for Congress in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.

As I have noted this district has a higher percentage of Native American voters than any other district in the country. Two other Navajo candidates are running for that seat, Republican Shawn Redd and Democrat Kayto Sullivan.

Begay told The Navajo Times “in an exclusive interview” that he wanted to be “a voice for the nation’s ‘overlooked and forgotten’ communities” and liked the idea of more local control over services and resources.

Then, last week, Candace Begody-Begay announced she would run for the Arizona Senate seat that her husband will give up to run for Congress.

What’s interesting about that: She was the editor of the Navajo Times. She had to resign that job because of its conflict with journalistic principles.
Begody-Begay told the Arizona Republic earlier this week that she wanted to run because she has had enough of “mediocre leadership.” She said it’s the Republican Party that fits her upbringing and traditional teachings from her elders.

Can one family build a Republican Party on the Navajo Nation? And will it give tribal communities more clout? An interesting dilemma. And daunting math.

Arizona used to be a reliable Republican state and that’s still true in terms of elective office. But the makeup of voters is changing rapidly. The percentages in Apache County haven’t moved much in a decade, but statewide, well, back then Republicans were about 44 percent of the electorate and Democrats were 41 percent. Independent voters were about 14 percent.

The numbers are reversed today: Independents are the largest voter bloc in the state at about 35 percent; there are slightly fewer Republicans, also at about 35 percent, followed by Democrats at 29 percent.

As a Republican, Begody-Begay will likely face an experienced politician in the fall, veteran and former state Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who was defeated by Carlyle Begay in 2014. But in that race Begay ran as a Democrat. However this time around Peshlakai will own that ballot line.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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What’s in a word? When it comes to a Washington, D.C., NFL team … It’s a loaded debate. But when it comes to federal law, well, there’s a consensus in Congress that it’s time to modernize the language.

This is Trahant Reports.

Last week The Washington Post published a poll that said 9 out of 10 Native Americans were ok with the name of DC’s professional football team.

Whoa! That’s really one-sided — and it’s a so-called scientific poll that does not pass the small test. Why? First it’s a base idea to ask Native people for permission to use a dictionary-defined slur. Wrong is wrong. But getting past that, there is the problem of polling Native Americans. The Post said it surveyed 504 Native Americans nationally with a sampling error of 5.5 percent.

Sorry. That’s not possible. I won’t go into details, but at  one newspaper where I worked we talked about surveying tribal members nationally and to make it demographically sound the sample size would have had to be ginormous in order to work. My publisher’s answer: “Too expensive.”

I know the Post poll is stunningly wrong because I have 40 years of reporting in all parts of the country. Are there Native Americans who don’t care which name the football team uses? Of course. But 9 out of 10? Not even remotely possible.

Speaking of words, President Barack Obama signed into law last week a bill to clean up the language in federal statutes. The measure was introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat, and passed by Congress, get this, unanimously. Gone are the dated words for Asian Americans, African Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Americans.

As the United States becomes more diverse it’s time for the language to evolve, too. As Rep. Meng says it’s time for insulting words to be a thing of the past.

It’s interesting that The Washington Post and the NFL team owner Dan Snyder are digging in on an opposite course. And that has sparked a newspaper civil war, of sorts. Sunday The New York Times asked its readers — especially Native Americans — to weigh in on the debate. The newspaper said it was time to explore the question, “who decides?” about the use of the R word.

Then again when it comes to that word that question still may be decided by the federal judiciary. The Courts have ruled that the team should lose its trademark because the name is a patently offensive. The team is actually hoping the Supreme Court will weigh in sooner rather than later. I have always thought the strategy in this case to be genius because it says, “Go ahead. Keep the name,” you just can’t trademark (and make money from it).

Take away that federal trademark protection — and you can be sure the team will change the name rather quickly.

What’s in a word? I hope the answer is not just more money.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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Bernie Sanders visits Indian Country.

This is Trahant Reports.

You have to give Bernie Sanders a lot of credit for elevating American Indian and Alaska Native issues.

He has traveled across Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and at every stop (as he has been doing for months now) he called for a new relationship between the federal government and tribes.

At Pine Ridge, Sanders said: “There are a lot of problems here. Poverty is much too high. There are not enough decent jobs in the area. The health care system is inadequate. And we need to fundamentally change the relationship between the U.S. government and the Native American community.”

Of course just bringing Native American issues to the surface is a good thing because it forces other candidates to talk about the same issues and come up with possible solutions. Only that’s not what’s happening.

Google tells the story:

Search Bernie Sanders and Native Americans and there are some 771,000 hits, including videos of his speeches and a few news clips, mostly from regional newspapers. When it comes to Native issues, TV networks are more interested in the story about a six-year-old who was removed from a temporary foster home and returned to her family.

Actually the NBC story goes like this: “6-Year-Old Girl Removed From Foster Home Over Native American Heritage. Because Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw Native American, her case falls under the purview of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.”

This is why people hate politics.

Instead of having a serious election discussion about Native American policy most of the campaign news stories focus on the headline grabbing stories. Sure, it’s ok to debate the Indian Child Welfare Act, especially if the news media adds historical context about why it’s a law. But that debate only make sense if we pull back and look at the big issues, the relationship of tribes and the federal government.

Of course the news media has no way of knowing what’s important to American Indians and Alaska Natives. There are no Native American reporters working at any of the television networks and none on the campaign trail. There’s no one there to say, “this is a story, and here’s why …”

This is a story because no president can improve the relationship between tribes and the federal government. It takes a president, the Congress, the courts, the bureaucracy, and, the media, to help people understand the solemn promises they as Americans have made. It’s a story that requires research and history so that reporters can explain complex ideas. It’s a story because tribes are constitutional governments, not special interests. It’s a story because Native Americans deserve a say over what happens on our lands.

I like numbers so here are three:

* Native American representation in Congress; 0.37 percent. *Native Americans on the federal bench; 0.11 percent; *and, the percentage of Native Americans working in the national media, 0.00 percent.

Zero says it all. I am Mark Trahant reporting.

What’s the impact of Donald Trump on the Native American candidates for Congress?

This is Trahant Reports.

One answer to that question can be found in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. Victoria Steele is no longer running against incumbent Representative Martha McSally. Now she’s running against the Trump/McSally agenda.

Steele says her opponent has two options: She can speak out and renounce Trump’s statements about women, Mexicans, immigrants, Muslims. Or she can nothing in which case, Steele says, her silence speaks volumes.

Trump could be a significant problem in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. There are some 528,000 eligible voters in the district and of that number, more than 113,00 are Latino. That’s about 1 out of five voters. And that number could grow. Significantly. According to Pew Research Hispanic Trends report nearly 58 percent of the Latino electorate is eligible to vote. There already is data to suggest that already more Latinos are registering to vote because of the fear of a Trump presidency.

But the extraordinary thing about Trump is that he could also inspire other voters to register and turn out against him. Trump has a range of controversial statements from his call to ban all immigration by Muslims to how he describes women.

One recent Gallup poll shows that seven-out-ten women have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

There are other Native American candidates impacted by Trump.

Joe Pakootas in Washington state is running in the 5th district against Cathy McMorris Rodgers. He, too, has a growing Latino population in his district and his opponent is trying to walk that fine line as a Republican. She told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that she would like to question Trump about some of the statements he has made about women in the past.

The numbers are interesting for the Native American candidates running as Republicans. In Oklahoma, Incumbent Representatives Tom Cole and MaryWayne Mullin are running in districts that are increasingly Latino. Cole’s district now shows 6 percent Latino voters and 9 percent of the district’s population. Cole told The Daily Oklahoman last year that Trump’s problem is “he has very high negative ratings, both among Republicans and more importantly among the general electorate as a whole.”

And Arizona’s 1st Congressional District has almost as many Latino voters as Native American voters, 17 percent to 22 percent. And that’s likely to be an added factor in the November election. Bad news for any Republican, including Shawn Redd or Carlyle Begay.

It will be interesting to see if, and how, the Native American candidates running as Republicans defend or even champion Donald Trump.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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Winona LaDuke – Featured speaker
Winona LaDuke (White Earth Ojibwe) is an internationally renowned activist working on  issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. As Program Director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy, and environmental justice with Indigenous communities. And in her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation based non-profit organizations in the country.

Beth Osnes – Writer, narrator and co-producer
Beth Osnes is a professor of theatre and environmental studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder where she is co-founder of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative to inspire creative climate communication (www.insidethegreenhouse.net). With Adrian Manygoats, she helped found the Navajo Women’s Energy Project. For the last fifteen years she has worked in communities around the world using performance as a tool to help women empower their own voices for positive social change.

 

Adrian Manygoats – Co-producer
Adrian Manygoats (Navajo) was born and raised on the Navajo Nation, in Tuba City, Arizona. She is the Incubator Coordinator for the Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN) at the Grand Canyon Trust.  Prior to working with the Trust, Adrian co-founded the Navajo Women’s Energy Project and helped establish the non-profit organization Elephant Energy on the Navajo Nation. From 2013 to 2015, she operated with a team of organizers and community leaders in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah to make affordable solar technology available to people without grid access.

Tom Wasinger – Editor, composer
Tom Wasinger is a self-educated multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, music producer, music arranger, composer, and educator based in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado. He has received three Grammy Awards for his work as a music producer/arranger/composer: The first in 2003 for Beneath the Raven Moon by  Mary Youngblood, the second in 2007 for Dance With the Wind  by Mary Youngblood, and the third in 2009 as producer/arranger for the compilation Come to Me Great Mystery by various Native American artists. He has also received four A.F.I.M. (American Federation of Independent Music) Indie Awards and six Nammy awards from the Native American Music Association as producer/arranger.

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Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? What do tribal newspapers say?

This is Trahant Reports.

Over the past four decades, I have spent a lot of time on the question of endorsing candidates. At large newspapers, and at small ones, my colleagues and I have taken that task seriously. We invited candidates in, heard them out, read everything possible, and then reached a conclusion of one kind or another.

My favorite memory was in 2004 and an editorial board meeting with Howard Dean. It was clear that he was about to lose the Democratic nomination at that point, but came to see us anyway. He came into the meeting without notes, without staff, and talked at length about what he thought what went right … and what went wrong in that presidential campaign. We learned a lot.

The very idea of “endorsements” seems odd in a democracy.

Why would a newspaper tell anyone how to vote?

But I never looked at it that way. I always saw it as another form of commentary.

Nonetheless it always made readers mad because there are always people on the other side of the question and after an endorsement I’d be answering the phone explaining.

My point here is that endorsements are tricky. It is a form of commentary, but it’s also intense and personal.

Tribal newspapers are less likely to endorse presidential candidates. Over the years I have seen a few … but not often.

Now in South Dakota dueling endorsements.

The Native Sun News and Lakota Country Times both weighed in with their picks for the June 7 Democratic Primary.

The Lakota Country Times went first, picking Bernie Sanders.

Editor Brandon Ecoffey wrote: “In what has turned out to be one of the strangest presidential races of my lifetime, choosing a candidate to endorse has turned out to be a really simple decision.”

He called this election “a tipping point” and said “it is simply time to shake things up.”

He wrote: “I implore all of Lakota Country to #Feelthebern .”

And in Rapid City, the Native Sun News published its endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

“There is so much baloney flying around out there about Hillary Clinton that we wanted to set the record straight.”

The newspaper cited Clinton’s qualifications and her track record in Indian Country.

“We think it is high time to kick the old white men off of the podium and replace them with a strong, highly gifted woman,” the Native Sun News said. “With little fanfare she has visited Indian Country when she was First Lady. She has made a study of the many problems we face as Native Americans and is determined to follow in the footsteps of Obama and do something about it.

We will have to wait until  June 7 to see which editorial wins over its readers.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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A wealth of Native politicians in North Dakota.

This is Trahant Reports.

Over the years several Native American candidates have run and won statewide office. This year that’s happening again … times three.

Byron Mallott is Lt. Gov. in Alaska. Denise Juneau is Montana’s superintendent of public instruction. And Larry EchoHawk was the attorney general of Idaho.

That context is important because it’s a huge challenge to win across an entire state.

This year North Dakota has three Native American candidates running for statewide office.

Chase Iron Eyes is campaigning for North Dakota’s only seat in Congress. Ruth Buffalo is seeking the post of Insurance Commissioner. And Marlo Hunte-Beaubrun is contesting a seat on the three-member Public Services Commission. All are running as Democrats.

Count ’em: Three statewide campaigns.

IronEyes is an attorney, founder of Last Real Indians, and Standing Rock Sioux.

Buffalo is a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes. She is working toward “sustainable solutions to the tough problems that face Native people and nations.” She told local newspapers that there was no special effort to get so many Native Americans on the ballot but we’re “human beings who have a vested interest in our state>’

Hunte-Beaubrun has filed to run against the current chairman of the Public Service Commission, Julie Fedorchak. Hunte-Beaubrun is a Standing Rock Sioux tribal member and has a background in economic development.

The Public Service Commission regulates the oil and gas industry as well as telecommunications, weights and measures, and even pipelines.

Perhaps there is something in that North Dakota water.

In addition to the statewide races, longtime educator David Gipp is running for the North Dakota state Senate. Gipp was president and then chancellor of the United Tribes Technical College and is one of the founders of the school. He is Standing Rock Sioux.

Another Three Affiliated Tribal Member, Cesar Alvarez, is running for the state House of Representatives.

Two more ND legislative candidates who are enrolled members of federally recognized tribes: Are House candidate Cheryl Ann Kary (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe)

and Senate candidate Steve Allard (a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.)

So let’s add up the numbers: That’s three statewide and four district offices in a state that’s just under 6 percent American Indian. At a recent meeting of the Democratic Party, Iron Eyes said the Native American vote would have to be mobilized like never before.

It’s been said that 2016 is an outsider’s election. And you cannot get any more “outsider” than a Native American running as a general-interest candidate. North Dakota voters are putting that idea to the test.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.