Delivery Diné-ed

Vote by Mail vs The Navajo Nation

Introduction

 To vote by mail is not a new phenomenon , but with the COVID-19 pandemic changing our world the voting method was used  by almost half of all voters in the 2020 presidential election.  The resulting conflict amongst political parties over the merits of mailing in ballots has led to larger discussions of its potential for expansion or deduction.

Often absent from these discussions are minority groups that face side effects unseen by the privileged who supposedly want to increase voter turnout and access. Native Americans,  who have the lowest turnout rate by group , have had their rights violated for centuries- and it is continuing with vote by mail. This group, so often pushed to the side as minor in size and worth,  is a huge voting bloc- one capable of deciding elections . For this Story Map, I look specifically at the legacy of voter suppression of the  Diné (the preferred name of the Navajo , used going forward).

Billboard urging Natives to vote  Photo by Isaiah Murtaugh 

The biggest problem faced for Diné and all Natives, when it comes to voting by mail, is not having access to regular postal services. Pushed to the edges of the continent by Manifest Destiny, most Indians on reservations live in rural settings on isolated country roads. Many of these homes have no traditional addresses, and therefore rely on the contextual directions of locals.

Without the ability to turn the mailbox flag up, Indians rely on post offices.  P.O. boxes are used at an extra expense to Reservation residents , meaning that some will share one box. In this scenario, where post offices effectively replace polling locations, there are huge issues of access, with many Indians having to make day long trips to the nearest office.

This issue is further exacerbated when it comes to language.  51% still speak some form of Diné on the Navajo Nation . While many now know English as well, there are still a high amount of elders that only speak their native tongue. This has led to election days that are community events, with the young helping the old decipher their ballots (Diné as a written language is relatively new, and translated ballots are not understood by some elders).

The expansion of mail-in voting highlights the many inequities faced by Diné and other American Indians. For this Story Map, I will first look at how voting rights came to be historically on reservations. Then I will analyze a map looking at post office accessibility as a means for ballot accessibility. And finally, I will critically evaluate potential solutions to the problem at hand with the end goal of expanding understandings and opening the door for answers.

History

Occupation

Native lands were originally considered sovereign lands, but with the advent of Manifest Destiny and the need for more land for colonizers, Natives were deemed occupied.

A depiction of the Long Walk at the Bosque Redondo Memorial  Mural by Shonto Begay 

The Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment confirmed that American  Indians were not citizens  and could not vote. At the time there were still many Natives in the West, and the U.S. government feared being outnumbered in the new territories at the hands of the savages.

At the same time, removal policies drastically reduced the number of Indians as well as their amount of land.  For the Diné, this is seen in the Long Walk , where they were forced out of their ancestral home and to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The cruel conditions of the walk and the reservation led to the deaths of over 2,000 Diné- only to be reversed four years later.

By pushing Natives to the edges of the country it increased reliances on the U.S. government for services.

Dawes Act (1887)

 The Dawes Act  allowed the United States to destroy reservations under the guise of Native suffrage. In order to vote in U.S. elections, tribes could break up their communally held land into private allotments. Doing so not only transferred Indians into a capitalist system of property, it also opened up frontier land for Whites to invade (as each Native was only permitted so much land).

Citizenship was forced upon Natives while tribal leadership and culture was disintegrated. The   intentional   result [1] was to create economic reliance on the U.S. and force assimilation upon natives. Reservations also allowed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to control and splinter land, further dividing an already divided people.

 The Navajo Nation shrunk  from 138,000,000 acres to just 48,000,000 in about 50 years due to the allotment process.

Using the slider below, one can see how Diné lands have changed drastically over time.  Dinétah , the historic homeland surrounded by four cardinal mountains, was reduced after the Long Walk in the form of the  original Navajo Reservation .

Left: Dinétah (Navajo Historic Homeland), Right: Original Navajo Reservation (1868)

Assimilation

If Natives were not being annihilated by European invaders, they were being forcibly assimilated in a cultural genocide.

The most common weapon of assimilation were Indian boarding schools, which forcibly "civilized" Natives by teaching them the " importance of private property, material wealth and monogamous nuclear families. "

"Kill the Indian, save the man." - Col. Richard Henry Pratt, Headmaster of the Carlisle Indian School

This "re-education" under the guise of religious zeal and the White savior had the effect of killing Indian culture and instilling an individualism on Natives that would divide tribal lands, thus destroying a once threatening future voting bloc.

Navajo Code Talkers Statue in Window Rock, AZ Photo by  @chefjoseandres on Twitter 

Another form of assimilation was through military service. Fighting for the United States in both World Wars was  seen as an act of patriotism and denial of Indian culture . In World War I, service was often traded for citizenship, while in World War II, many veterans were upset to find that their bravery had no consequence on their ability to vote.

Native veterans were largely taken advantage of in this regard.  Their image as "warriors" led them to be sent into more dangerous scenarios , and die at a much higher rate. The Navajo language of  Diné was used in World War II by "code talkers"  to outsmart Japanese code breakers. They were unable to do so because the United States had already eradicated the language in Boarding Schools among most of its original speakers.

While voting was denied to these soldiers as they were "Indians", they were anything but during war time. We can see the fluidity of race here as Natives were described as  Aryans by the Germans  and  everything from Mongolians to Negros to Caucasians by Americans. 

Indian Citizenship Act (1924)

This act stated that all Natives born within the United States should be citizens. However, it left many holes for states to interpret it so American Indians could not vote. These included [1]:

  • Residency - Those living on reservations were not living within the state.
  • Self Termination - To be a U.S. citizen an Indian must fully abandon their heritage.
  • Taxation - If Natives do not pay taxes they can not vote.
  • Guardianship - Indians are incompetent and under U.S. control, therefore they are not capable of voting.
  • Language - Many Natives do not speak English and thus shouldn't be able to vote.

The states that held out the longest tended to be those in the West. This was because American expansion had pushed Natives toward Indian Country, and they now made up a substantial voting bloc that threatened White settlers [2].

The states that the Navajo Nation lies in were the last to allow the Diné to vote- up to 33 years after they were deemed citizens by the federal government.

Loss of Soverignty

The fight for voting rights in the United States has led to issues when it comes to voting on reservations. As Natives have been forced to assimilate, they have had to given up autonomy when it comes to their land and decisions made on it.

One such case in the Navajo Nation is that of the  Navajo-Churro Sheep . This rare breed arrived centuries ago and has become a staple of the region. Their yarn is used to make various textiles and their meat, milk and yogurt for food. Despite this, the American government felt the Diné flocks were growing too large and would cause a drought. Thus, they slaughtered thousands of sheep and horses, rarely paying Natives for their loss or removing the corpses. This loss of a revenue and sustenance source would cripple the Diné for years to come.

The government attempted to solve what they deemed an issue by introducing and crossbreeding other types of sheep, only to find that none could adapt to the South West environment. Only by co-opting the USDA's Southwestern Sheep Breeding Laboratory for the  Navajo-Churro Sheep Association  (a combination of Diné farmers and outside researchers) was the sheep population able to rise to approximately 4,500.

Modern Problems

While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 solidified the right to vote for Natives ten years later, they still face many obstacles when going to the polls.

Map

For this Story Map a map was created in ArcGIS Pro cataloguing the various post offices and drive times on the Navajo Nation.

Solutions

Vote by Phone

One of the newest methods by which people can vote is on their smart phone. Several states and counties have begun to  implement the service  in special cases.

Internet Accessibility Map Map Source:  Urban Observatory by Esri 

While utopian in theory, vote by phone has many of the same issues that vote by mail does when it comes to inequality.  Natives are the least likely to have broadband access - just 53% compared to a national average of 82%. Because of this, many rely on wifi from local institutions. This leads to the same problem as post offices in terms of mobility and accessibility.

The map to the left looks at internet access in and around the Navajo Nation. Darker colors, like those in Phoenix and Albuquerque, as well as other non-tribal, rural areas, represent a lower percentage of people without internet access (the darkest being less than 3%). Meanwhile, the light colors, like that which covers the entirety of the Navajo Nation, represent high levels of internet inaccessibility (the highest being greater than 25%).

 The American Rescue Plan  incorporates billions of dollars to combat COVID-19 on reservations, including with expanded broadband networks. There is still concern over the needed electricity for such projects, which  65,000 Diné do not have .

Mobile Voting Units

An example of a mobile voting unit in Georgia Image by  @FultonCountyGeorgia on Twitter 

Another form of mobile voting is that which comes in an automobile. This form of voting has been popularized due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though is still rather limited.  The RVs come with  multiple voting booths and ballots for all districts within the county. In other cases it has driven between predetermined points throughout an area. While there are still some accessibility issues, they are minimized by the mobility of the units. If they were also staffed by Diné, they would offer a solution to the language barrier of vote by mail.

There are some other issues one most consider with mobile voting that may negatively affect it and other methods of voting.

One is that only  one-fifth of roads  on the Reservation are paved. With many not even covered with gravel, it makes the long distances that must be traveled take even longer. If muddy roads mean that  emergency vehicles can not reach their destinations in time , and that  school buses are regularly delayed , it does not speak well for the future of mobile voting units. Surprising to some, mud is more of a menace than expected in the desert climate, with substantial rains and even snow in the voting season of November. In order to solve this issue, billions of dollars would need to be poured in to just putting down gravel. Even if the money were available, it is up to the foreign  Bureau of Indian Affairs to decide the fate of half the dirt roads , rather than the people and nations that actually use them.

(Left) A sampling of road conditions on the Navajo Nation shows the dominance of dirt (or "earth") roads [3] (Right) Precipitation data on the Navajo Nation during the voting month of November  Map  by  Navajo Nation Water Management Branch 

Increased public transportation, and thus increased mobility and freedom, offer similar issues when it comes to voting. In addition,  the current Navajo Transit System is mismanaged , leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing out of the system, rather than into its broken down vehicles.

Traditional Addresses

 50,000 buildings  on the Navajo Nation are without a traditional address. While locals can get around this with their own place names, it makes receiving ballots in the mail impossible. By identifying and labeling these buildings, residents would not only be one step closer to getting mail, but ballots could also be sent for the correct voting districts. This burden has largely been placed on  underfunded Native offices  and  non-profits . A new option is the  Google Plus Code , which assigns six digits to every place on Earth. "2R4C+2R" is far from a tradition address, but it is a good step that can take advantage of new technologies.

A field organizer hangs a Google Plus Code on a Diné home Photo by the  Rural Utah Project 

American Rescue Plan Act

As discussed earlier, Congress plans on  allocating $1.75 billion to Indian Country  as a post-pandemic relief for one of the hardest hit populations by COVID-19, in addition to $5.4 billion for health services. While the money will be administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, some more autonomy will be given to individual tribes to decide its spending.

Still, the amount is very small when considering the number of Tribes and the number of Indians that need large investments (remember that paving dirt roads with gravel on the Navajo Nation would cost $2 billion alone). Rather than being a small subsection of a much larger act, Indian Country would benefit from a specialized capital injection that could improve road and broadband conditions and transit and postal services.

Conclusion

After analyzing the seemingly small issue of post office access on the Navajo Nation, it is clear that many steps must be taken in order to enfranchise Native Americans in the United States.

The history of Indian, and more specifically Diné, citizenship and voting shows that mail-in voting is a symptom of a greater issue. The genocides, cultural warfare, decimation of traditional lands and denial of guaranteed rights make up a series of obstacles, with this being the next.

The map of post office access shows that the ability to mail letters and ballots alike is severely hindered when crossing the border into a reservation. This, in combination with all of the typical problems faced with voting- such as voter I.D.s, ballot rejection or the villainization of ballot collections- reveals a conspiracy to deny the Native voting bloc of their constitutional rights.

While many solutions present themselves, many problems arise when they are considered critically. When it comes down to it, the two biggest issues appear to be autonomy and money. In order to fix the issues the United States has created in Indian Country, that have disastrous effects on voting, it needs to fund projects and services which Natives find necessary that will expand access and freedom. This includes a better road network that can support a wider public transport network. An increase in internet access would allow for mobile voting or, more realistically, more information regarding elections and reservation services. On top of this is the funding of postal service projects and services, such as the creation of more offices, traditional addresses and a regular postal service network that reaches more people.

By taking these steps, Natives like the Diné could access the ballots and the rights that they have been promised.

 Allie Young , voting organizer on the Nation, votes by mail  Photo by Talia Mayden 

Credits

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Dr. Giorgio H. Curti for his expertise based on personal experiences on the Navajo Nation.

This Story Map is an expansion upon my  final project  for GEOG 380: Map Investigation at San Diego State University with Professor Cynthia Paloma.

Citations:

[1] Wolfley, Jeanette. "Jim Crow, Indian Style: The Disenfranchisement of Native Americans." American Indian Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1991, pp. 167-202.

[2] U.S. Census Bureau. "No. 28 Population in 1920." Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1921, pp. 46-47, https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1921-02.pdf.

[3] (GAO) Government Accountability Office. "Tribal Transportation: Better Data Could Improve Road Management and Inform Indian Student Attendance Strategies." Report to the Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, GAO-17-423, 2017, https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-17-423.pdf.

Billboard urging Natives to vote  Photo by Isaiah Murtaugh 

A depiction of the Long Walk at the Bosque Redondo Memorial  Mural by Shonto Begay 

Navajo Code Talkers Statue in Window Rock, AZ Photo by  @chefjoseandres on Twitter 

An example of a mobile voting unit in Georgia Image by  @FultonCountyGeorgia on Twitter 

A field organizer hangs a Google Plus Code on a Diné home Photo by the  Rural Utah Project 

 Allie Young , voting organizer on the Nation, votes by mail  Photo by Talia Mayden