DILKON, Ariz. (AP) 鈥 Felix Ashley鈥檚 red Toyota sends a plume of dust billowing along the sloping hills and boulders he traverses hours every week to pump water 鈥 the same roadway voters walk miles every four years to cast their ballots in presidential elections.
Here on this , the largest Native American reservation in the United States, hardship is embedded into day-to-day life.
Nearly a third of homes like Ashley鈥檚 still don鈥檛 have running water. Soaring unemployment and poverty has pushed young Navajos, including most of Ashley鈥檚 children, to leave their sacred lands in search of jobs. Logistical and legal obstacles have long stood in the way of Arizona鈥檚 420,000 Native citizens casting their vote.
鈥淧eople lose trust in the government and they don鈥檛 鈥 you don鈥檛 鈥 care to vote anymore. People don鈥檛 get what they were promised,鈥 said 70-year-old Ashley, whose family offers rides to hitchhikers to polls on Election Day.
Yet it is Native voters like him who could be key to winning Arizona and in November. In 2020, Arizona voted for a Democratic president for the first time in decades, with President Joe Biden winning the race by around 10,500 votes.
Native Americans 鈥 who make up 5.2% of Arizona鈥 saw a surge in turnout, voting in large numbers for the Democratic Party,
The victory turned the heads of politicians from both parties, who now flock to some of the most remote swaths of Arizona as they try to close razor thin margins. Democrats are hoping to repeat the feat, while Republicans see an opportunity to use Native voters鈥 frustration with the economy as a chance to sweep up new votes.
鈥淭he Native vote has power, because they鈥檙e able to decide the next presidential election. Everybody knows that it鈥檚 going to come down to 15,000 or so votes in Arizona,鈥 said Jacqueline De Le贸n, a voting rights attorney with the Native American Rights Fund and member of the Isleta Pueblo.
One Senate candidate hiked down the wall of the northern Havasu Canyon to a tribe accessible only by helicopter, mule or hours-long treks to win over votes. Another, tailed by floats in a local parade in Tuba City, roared 鈥淭his is all in your hands. 鈥 Let鈥檚 show the rest of this state, the rest of this country that the Navajo vote is strong!鈥
Local fairs and flea markets are painted with blue and red campaign signs reading 鈥淭rump low prices鈥 and others written in Native slang 鈥淪toodis Harris鈥 or 鈥淟et鈥檚 do this Harris." Radio ads for both presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ring out on the radio every 30 minutes in homes far from the reach of cellphone signals.
But Native voters in Arizona have a simple question for candidates: What have you ever done for us?
A long history of obstacles
The feeling of being forgotten is one that has long simmered among the 22 federally recognized tribes across Arizona, from rock homes pressed on the edge of high plateaus of the Hopi reservation, to the barren plains where Ashley pumps water to his family.
Dozens of people who spoke to the AP in the final weeks before the election expressed frustration with Democratic-leaning tribal governments, as the most basic development efforts, and politicians in Washington, who they say rarely use their seat at the table to push for them.
That was the feeling for Ashley, a Democrat, as he pumped water into a tank in the back of his truck. The Vietnam Marine veteran struggles to get care for post-traumatic stress disorder due to long distances he has to travel to a veteran鈥檚 hospital. With high inflation, the family must scrape together money for the most basic things like gas to go visit a dying family member.
鈥淵ou are always promised jobs, you鈥檙e promised running water,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut there is nothing out here.鈥
At the same time, some voters face almost insurmountable obstacles to voting.
have to travel up to 285 miles to cast their ballots, according to the Native American Rights Fund. Homes on many reservations don鈥檛 have addresses needed to register to vote, so members of grassroots organizations walk door-to-door, helping people to register by tracking their geolocation and pinpointing it on a map. Some older Navajos don鈥檛 speak much English, and organizers provide them detailed information in their native tongue.
鈥淲e go the extra mile. This is out in the middle of nowhere almost, and this is where people are not being reached,鈥 said 45-year-old Navajo Lacosta Johnson, a volunteer at the non-partisan group Arizona Native Vote, who drove hours one Saturday night to the outskirts of the reservation to mobilize voters.
Compounding logistical hurdles is historic voter suppression and abuses of Native communities. Native people were first 100 years ago, but Arizona prevented them from voting until 1948, arguing they were 鈥渋ncompetent." Many states used to further block voters from casting ballots until the 1970s.
Since then, a mix of voter dilution tactics and burdensome election laws have blocked the Native vote, as recently as 2022. That's when the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature and then-GOP governor passed a law requiring voters to provide proof of residency and an address for presidential voting.
The U.S. Supreme Court later struck down the measure, but Native communities have seen thousands of ballots thrown out in past elections due to similar statutes. Native voters have their ballots rejected at higher rates than other demographics in the state, according to Arizona State University鈥檚 Indian Legal Clinic.
The result: People are highly skeptical of promises made year after year but never fulfilled.
鈥淭hese incredibly slim margins mean that cutting off a community of a thousand voters has a huge substantive impact,鈥 said De Le贸n, the attorney. 鈥淩ight now, many Native Americans don鈥檛 have their full rights of citizenship because it鈥檚 just too hard to vote.鈥
Both parties campaign on Native lands
Democrats have long claimed an advantage in number of votes on reservations like the Navajo Nation. They鈥檝e boasted a heavy presence on Native lands. In the final weeks of the election, Harris met with Native American youth in Arizona, telling them in a campaign video, 鈥測our voice is your vote, and your vote is your power.鈥 President Joe Biden and vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz also .
鈥淭ime and time again, Donald Trump had to do what was right for Indian Country and he chose the opposite,鈥 Walz said, promising to work for Native voters.
But they now face a strong campaign push by Republicans among Native voters in an attempt to peel off votes.
The Republican Party has opened its first campaign headquarters on the Navajo Nation, said Halee Dobbins, Arizona communications director of the Republican 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Committee, and started to set up in local fairs long frequented by Democratic organizers.
鈥淚n 2020, we lost the election by 10,000 votes and we鈥檝e seen that there is such a stronghold of the Native American vote by Democrats for decades, essentially,鈥 Dobbins said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing a huge shift towards the Republican party given the issues that are top of mind for Native American voters 鈥 the economy, inflation, cost of living."
Dozens of Native voters from across the state who spoke to the AP echoed Dobbins in ranking inflation and the economy as their top priorities, though most leaned Democratic or asked why they would bother to vote.
In mid-October, Trump鈥檚 campaign invited a group of Navajo supporters like 61-year-old Francine Bradley-Arthur to sit behind him during a rally, where Trump gave a shout out to a conservative tribal leader.
Bradley-Arthur, a former Democrat, said she began to campaign for Trump, in part, because she felt Native communities often didn鈥檛 feel the payoff of longtime support for Democrats. It鈥檚 a sentiment shared by Latino, Black and other across the U.S., causing a moment of reckoning for the party.
鈥淲e got up at 5 o鈥檆lock this morning to drive down here. We want to show that Native Americans support him,鈥 she said, among roaring crowds of Trump supporters.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego went as far as to trek hours down a canyon to meet with one of the most remote tribes in North America in the weeks before the election, where he鈥檚 locked in a tight race against Republican Kari Lake, who has promoted false claims that Trump won the 2020 election in Arizona.
He hoped to connect with voters in the Havasupai reservation, which has only 156 registered voters, to fulfill a campaign pledge to visit all the Native American tribes in Arizona. The tribe is so rural that election authorities helicopter ballots and election supplies in and out of the canyon.
Gallego said he鈥檚 heard criticism that politicians only visit bigger and more accessible tribes, and that few in Washington know how to work with tribes to provide aid. Lake, his competitor, has also made campaign appearances on the Navajo Nation.
鈥淭hey do feel like they鈥檙e left behind. And a lot of it is because there鈥檚 been negligence by both parties,鈥 Gallego told The Associated Press. 鈥淲e just can鈥檛 take advantage of the vote. We assume that, you know, the same amount of people will come out every year. And that鈥檚 not actually the case.鈥
Speaking with Democratic-leaning Havasupai voters about their fight against a uranium mine they warn could poison their waters, Gallego was met with skepticism from some like Dinolene Caska, a tribal leader.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 whoever is going to support Indigenous issues. It鈥檚 not just Republicans or Democrats,鈥 Caska said. This year she planned to vote for Democrats because Democratic lawmakers have backed the tribe in the fight.
Who will fight for Native rights?
Many other Navajo voters will also stick with the Democrats this year. Ashley, the Marine still plans to vote for Harris, just as he voted for Biden four years ago.
For Ashley, the deciding factor for this election was the fight for long championed by Democratic members of Congress, and social spending he hoped would trickle down to them. He and his family have wrinkled their noses at racist comments made by Trump during the campaign, seeing it as a sign that Republicans don鈥檛 have minority interests at heart.
But for other Navajo, this is the year they are willing to try something new.
Just down the road from Ashley, 68-year-old goat herder Richard Begay awakes at 6 a.m. sharp, flips on conservative radio and sips coffee out of a mug reading 鈥淭RUMP. Best President Ever鈥 as the sun rises over his small wooden home.
Begay鈥檚 fierce loyalty to the Republican Party rests largely in the economy.
He blames Biden for inflation disproportionately affecting Native Americans because of the scarcity of jobs in their communities, which forced him and other family members to leave the reservation for many years. The prices of gas and food for his animals have squeezed his pocketbook.
鈥淚 remember gas was $1.60 here and when Biden came and went up over $3,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the money to buy gas at outrageous prices. We pay more for less.鈥
He hopes Trump鈥檚 push for deregulation could usher in new economic opportunities on his reservation, citing the contentious construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline along tribal lands as a key example. Maybe then, young people would see more of a future in Dilkon. He believes under a Trump presidency, development would increase, which would bring some optimism.
But for now, he guides his goats along the rugged mountains, little changed over the course of generations his family has dwelled there.
Even with his hope for change, he voiced a sentiment that unites both Republican and Democratic-leaning voters on reservations across the state.
鈥淲e鈥檙e being used."
