Over the course of 2024, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is releasing Native Voice, Native Vote, a series of videos explaining the fight to protect Native Americans’ right to vote. The campaign’s goal is to support and highlight Native voters and raise awareness about the obstacles that they face. The videos will feature stories from across Indian Country, speaking with Native voters and tribal leaders affected by discriminatory laws and policies.
The campaign’s second video, which focuses on Native American voters in Arizona, is being released July 31 across NARF channels. Follow along with this campaign and learn more at vote.narf.org.
Across America, it is altogether too hard for Native Americans to vote. Too often, Native Americans must go off-reservation to reach voting services. They lack vehicles, face poor roads, and are forced to travel outrageous distances just to reach a registration opportunity and ballot box. Many Native Americans do not have addresses on their homes and they do not get mail delivered, making registering and receiving a ballot difficult—if not impossible. Native Americans still face racial discrimination and hostilities when trying to cast their ballots. NARF, in collaboration with Native American advocates across the country, have extensively documented these barriers and are fighting every day against this discrimination.
The obstacles faced by Native voters are unreasonable and unfair. In fact, they are the tragic result of decades without representation and the subsequent policies that underserve Native communities and ignore basic needs. A fully enfranchised Native electorate is powerful. Native Americans are poised to sway local, state, and federal elections. They make up key voting blocks in states like Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to name a few. Yet, discrimination robs Native Americans of this political capital.
The fundamental promise of American democracy is that everyone can participate. By having access to the vote and being able to obtain proper representation, Native Americans can make change and demand long overdue respect for their communities.
Democracy is a Native American concept. As a Native-led organization, NARF will fight to protect it. We are committed to correcting the injustices faced by Native Americans trying to exercise their fundamental right to vote. To fix relations and heal wounds, Native Americans must be able to participate in the American democratic systems, protect tribal sovereignty, and be heard on our own terms.
Prior to the Arizona video, the Native Voices, Native Vote kick-off video, Protecting Native Voting Rights at the Native American Rights Fund, was released in January 2024 and featured NARF’s work to protect voting rights. The next video in the series will be released later this summer and focus on Native American voters and Tribal Nations in North Dakota.
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