Article 42188 'They're playing dirty': Can Navajos win power after racial exclusion?

'They're playing dirty': Can Navajos win power after racial exclusion?

by
Jeremy Miller in Oljato, Utah
from on (#42188)

Republican-drawn voting districts left Native Americans voiceless despite their majorities. This election could bring sweeping change

The community gathering took place in the northern reaches of the Navajo Nation. Hundreds of people lined up in view of Monument Valley's towering red mesas to enjoy traditional singing and dancing but also to register to vote - and end the legacy of racial gerrymandering that, for decades, has blocked Native Americans from power in this isolated corner of the American west.

Here in southern Utah's red rock country, as in other rural reaches of the US, Democrats are working hard to make the so-called blue wave a reality. But the history of disenfranchisement has cast a long shadow over the Navajo Nation, one they hope they can throw off in the election.

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