Native voting is pretty new, actually.

This weekend is the annual Indian Market in Santa Fe. It's huge -- there were 1,000 artists displaying their work this year -- and it was hot and crowded when I went yesterday afternoon. Collectors come from all over the country to see the best in Native American art. The artists come from all over the country, too; I met one who's a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi (which, coincidentally, is Darrell Warren's tribe). (I wish I'd grabbed his business card so I could tell you his name. He tattoos his art onto buffalo skins, which you've got to admit is pretty cool.)

Along with the art, this poster caught my eye: 

Lynne Cantwell 2024

(The phrase is from Reservation Dogs, which ran on FX until last year. The photo is of Zahn McClarnon, who played a cop on the show. He also plays a cop on Dark Winds on AMC.)

It wasn't surprising to see a get-out-the-vote effort at Indian Market; we are in an election year, after all. But then I ducked into the Palace of the Governors in an effort to beat the heat, and I found an exhibit that explained why voting is a really big deal for Native Americans.

Here's the thing: Even though Native tribes were here first, the U.S. government treated their members as foreigners for legal purposes (along with treating them as stupid savages and less than human, but I digress). Birthright citizenship was not extended to Indians. They were allowed to enlist in the armed forces and fight for the United States, but they weren't citizens until Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. In that legislation, Congress left it up to individual states to decide whether to allow Native Americans to vote. Here in New Mexico, it took a court ruling to grant them suffrage. 

The case, Trujillo v. Garley, centered on Miguel Trujillo (Isleta Pueblo), a World War II veteran. After returning home from the war, Trujillo tried to register to vote in Valencia County, NM, but the county registrar, Eloy Garley, refused his request because he was an "Indian not taxed" -- a provision in state law that took advantage of a loophole in the U.S. Constitution. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Congress of American Indians, Trujillo sued Garley in federal court in 1948, disputing the state's contention that he did not pay taxes -- and providing receipts. A panel of three U.S. district court judges agreed with Trujillo and ordered the county to register him to vote. For the panel, Judge Orie Phillips wrote: 

[The constitution of New Mexico] says that "Indians not taxed" may not vote, although they possess every other qualification. We are unable to escape the conclusion that, under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, that constitutes a discrimination on the ground of race. Any other citizen, regardless of race, in the State of New Mexico who has not paid one cent of tax of any kind or character, if he possesses the other qualification, may vote. An Indian, and only an Indian, in order to meet the qualifications to vote must have paid a tax. How you can escape the conclusion that makes a requirement with respect to an Indian as a qualification to exercise the elective franchise and does not make that requirement with respect to the member of any race is beyond me.

Two weeks earlier, the Arizona Supreme Court had overturned the law in that state that prohibited Native Americans there from registering to vote. 

You'd think that would have been the end of it, but no -- Utah didn't extend the franchise to Native Americans until 1957. And all of these actions only allowed Native men to vote; Native women weren't allowed to register until 1965, when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.

(Contrast that with the 15th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1870, that enfranchised Black men. But I digress.)

Barriers remain, of course. Many reservations are vast, and people have to travel long distances to get to a polling place. In addition, some states require those who register to vote to have a street address, which disenfranchises folks on reservations whose homes don't have street addresses. The New Mexico legislature enacted a law last year that, among other things, allows tribes to designate their tribal offices as a legal street address for members who don't have one.

The issue, as always, is control. The powers-that-be have never been comfortable with granting rights to large groups of people who they have mistreated and who might just vote to turn them out of power. There's evidence that it actually happened in Arizona in the 2020 election: turnout was high on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, and President Biden won the state by about 10,500 votes. 

White folks have had the right to vote in this country for a long, long time. We shouldn't take it for granted. We've recently had a federal right taken away from us and left up to state legislatures to decide whether to grant. (You know which one I mean.) And there's that Project 2025 thing looming. So don't be a shitass -- vote!

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These moments of historical blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Check your voter registration early and often!