‘Ignore us at your peril’: Why the Native vote is key in Arizona

Indigenous leaders say Native voters could decide the outcome in a presidential election year also marked by the 100th anniversary of Native Americans gaining U.S. citizenship.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Ojibwe, said Arizona’s 2020 election demonstrates the power of the Native American vote.

“The Native vote is strategically located in swing states all across the country, and so ignore us at your peril,” she said.

Flanagan was in Scottsdale on Tuesday for the 2024 Native Power Building Summit. More than 500 Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and allies attended the event, which aims to uplift Indigenous voices and cultivate political participation.

She credits Native voters with her and Gov. Tim Walz’s victories in Minnesota.

“Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington state, Oregon – Native voters show up over and over and over again and make that margin of difference,” she said.

In Arizona, 319,230 Native Americans and Alaska Natives are of voting age, according to Advance Native Political Leadership, the event’s organizer.

“And so across the country, Native voters are really understanding that their power is important, that their vote is important,” said Jordan James Harvill, Advance Native Political Leadership national program director, Cherokee and Choctaw. “But that also means that we have to protect it, because voting in Indian Country is harder than any other community in the country.”

Tuesday’s summit was organized by Advance Native Political Leadership. It’s a Native-led organization that trains leaders, promotes civic engagement and conducts research to help increase Native American representation in government.

Alumni of the group’s Native American Leadership Institute were among the attendees, including Anthony Tamez, the 17th Police District Council representative in Chicago.

“I think that right now we’re in a time in our nation where we’re seeing, like, a change of the guard, and we're seeing a lot of younger people coming in office.”

Tamez, First Nations Oji-Cree and Black, was elected last year. And he’s not alone.

“Since 2018, we’ve seen an explosion of Native candidates running for office,” Harvill said. “We have a record number running this year – 183.”