A century after Native Americans gained the right to vote, they might put Trump or Harris first.

RED SPRINGS, N.C. (AP) — Native American communities were crucial voting blocs in key states in 2020, and with the 2024 race remaining stubbornly close, both campaigns have tried to mobilize Native voters in the final weeks of the presidential election.

But when it comes to messaging, the two campaigns are vastly different, many Native voters say. It’s been 100 years since Native Americans gained the right to vote with the passage of the Snyder Act in 1924, and whichever campaign is able to wield its power in this election could impact some of the country’s most contested districts.

In swing states such as Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada, candidates — especially Vice President Kamala Harris — are targeting Native Americans with radio ads and events on tribal lands featuring speakers such as Bill Clinton and Donald Trump Jr.

Native American voters tend to favor Democrats, but they are more likely to vote Republican than Hispanic or African American, said Gabriel R. Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He said they are one of the least partisan and youngest voters in the country, often motivated by issues that directly affect their communities, such as land rights and environmental protection.

In 2020, the Biden administration campaigned in several tribal countries in critical states like Wisconsin and Arizona, and polling places on tribal lands there helped a little. swing the election in favor of the Democrats. “Arizona was kind of a textbook example of what it can look like if you make that kind of early investment,” Sanchez said.

Within $370 million advertising campaign Released this month, including several reservations, Harris said the U.S. must respect treaty rights and support tribal sovereignty. Crystal Echo Hawk, CEO of Illuminative, a nonprofit that works to raise the profile of Native Americans, said those commitments, along with the economy and the environment, are the top issues Native voters identified in Illuminative polls.

Echo Hawk said those investments could pay off again for Democrats. “I haven’t seen the same kind of focused messaging and outreach from the Trump campaign,” she said. Harris may also inherit some of the goodwill left from the administration Barack Obama And Joe Bidenshe said.

Obama has stepped up consultations with tribes on issues such as land protection and criminal justice, and Biden has appointed more than 80 Native Americans to top administration positions.

“The minute it was announced that Harris was entering the race, you saw people organize overnight,” Echo Hawk said. And Trump, she said, will have to fight his reduction of Bears Ears National Monument 85% and its revival Keystone XL Pipelineboth are unpopular among the indigenous people. “I think a lot of these people remember it,” she said.

On Friday, Biden formally apologized for the country’s support of residential schools for Native Americans and its legacy of abuse and cultural destruction. Although considered long overdue, it was met with praise from tribal leaders. Vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will campaign on the Navajo Nation on Saturday.

The Trump campaign has not released ads targeting Native Americans, but U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has stymied the former president in Native communities in North Carolina, a swing state that was decided by less than one point in 2020.

On a cool evening earlier this month, Mullin sat next to Donald Trump Jr. and the former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbardthe former Democrat, who recently announced her entry into the Republican Party, took to a small stage in front of a few bales of hay to answer questions from an audience of a couple hundred people. They discussed issues ranging from economics to tribal self-determination.

The event took place on a small farm in Red Springs, North Carolina, which is part of the traditional homeland of Mullin’s ancestors and is currently home to the Lumbee Tribe, a state-recognized tribe with approximately 55,000 members.

Federal recognition of the Lumbees was opposed by several tribal nations, including the nearby Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Mullin’s own tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Lumbee’s quest for federal recognition has become a central theme of both campaigns and a rare issue on which both sides agree. Last month, Trump said he would sign legislation to federally recognize Lumbee. Harris called the Lumbee Tribal Chairman last week to discuss the legislation.

“This is an injustice that needs to be corrected when it comes to Lumbee,” Mullin told the crowd. “This is absolutely absurd. This must be done. I was so proud to hear President Trump say he would sign it.”

But Mullin soon touched on one of the many areas where the two candidates disagree: energy policy. Emphasizing the fact that he believes a second Trump term would mean an improving economy and lower energy costs, Mullin summed up Trump’s policies in one recognizable term that the audience echoed: “Get it, baby, coach it.”

The Biden and Trump administrations have pushed for more oil and gas production than ever before, including energy projects opposed by indigenous peoples. But indigenous leaders have expressed concern that Trump is likely to further weaken protections for tribal lands.

Mullin suggested that if tribal nations were truly sovereign, they should be able to pursue energy extraction without the burden of federal intervention. He said that like the Lumbee’s fight for federal recognition, tribes’ rights to manage their lands have fallen prey to federal bureaucracy.

“Why is tribal land treated as public land?” Mullin asked, questioning why the federal government should have any oversight over tribal nations that extract natural resources from their lands. “You have natural resources coming out of the ground right outside the reservation fence. You have private landowners who are extremely wealthy, and you have people who are literally starving on reservations,” he said, comparing some of them to Third World countries.

He promised that Trump would have a deep understanding of tribal sovereignty.

That message resonated with Robert Chavis Jr., a gym teacher and Army veteran who attended the rally and will vote for Trump. Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, said tribal nations are not just governments, they are businesses, and the United States is no different. “I feel like you don’t need a politician. We need a businessman to run the country the way it should be.”

But other Lumbee voters aren’t so convinced. At her art gallery in Pembroke, a few miles away, Janice Locklear said Trump promised he would recognize Lumbee federally the last time he was in office, and she has no reason to believe. that he could do it this time. But looking beyond her community, she described what Trump did to January 6, 2021poses a nationwide threat to democracy.

“He thought he could really become a dictator and come in there and take power. Even though he lost the election; he knew he had lost the election. And what do you think he will do this time? – she said.

Locklear said that as a woman of color, she believes Harris will have a deeper understanding of the unique challenges facing Native Americans. “I’m sure she had to face the same challenges that we face,” Locklear said. “Discrimination, I’m sure she faced that.”