DECOLONIZING YOUR NEWSFEED
 
 

SOMETHING ELSE | 11.6.20
 

You may recall three newsletters ago how I ranted about the challenges of reporting from Indian Country, at least where disparate data is concerned. My election coverage team and I were exhausted that week after our search for Native voter turnout statistics turned up empty, and disappointingly, so. Every major ethnic group was represented in the midterm 2018 breakdown- but not us. As we’ve since learned, the US Census surveyors seemed to think we were not a sizeable enough group to include in that count.

That was seemingly the mindset of CNN producers on election night when they chose to corral us into the “other” category, as we have become so familiar with. Except this time, they literally called us “something else.” It’s hilarious and infuriating all at once. Having worked in these corporate newsrooms, I cringe at understanding all too well how such daffy decisions get made. More than anything, it’s reinforcement for why I started this newsletter - to cast light on the decolonization that needs to happen in my industry.

All one has to do to understand the power of the Native vote, data or no data, is to look at this pair of maps from Arizona. It’s extraordinary.

Tweeted out by Navajo journalist Shondin Silversmith of the Arizona Republic, these maps represent the first real look we have at Native voting populations and its impact on the ground - in this case, possibly flipping a state that has been red longer than Natives have even had the right to vote. Let that sink in when calling us “something else.”

As we all linger with anxiety over this cliffhanger of an election, my little team and I are working hard to detect the data disparities that exist among Native voters. Where headlines are easily written about Black and Latinx electorates, they draw envy from Indian Country where organizers understand the power of a number; the visibility it brings. And yet, despite this dearth of data—a metaphor for our Indigenous struggle to work three times as hard for parity—it is this tenacity that we saw across Indian Country; what literally brought Native voters dancing at the polls.

On my Sunday reading list: just this—more deep-diving into data. Please follow us on social as we post more of our election coverage as it happens.

Jenni Monet
 

THE INDIGENOUS INTERNET
 
 

INDIGENOUSLY INDEX
 

Total times Arizona voters have elected a Democrat for president since 1952: 1

Total number of counties in Arizona: 15

Number of counties in Arizona that could flip from red to blue: 3

Total number of federally-recognized tribes in Arizona: 22

Total number of Arizona tribes that do not have any registered voters: 1

Total number of tribal nations within Navajo County, AZ: 3

Percentage of voter turnout in Navajo County: 73.7%

Estimated votes reported: 90%

Approximate Native voting-age population in Navajo County: 33,145

Record-breaking number of Native Americans elected to Congress: 6

Percentage of votes cast for Donald Trump in Robeson, Co, North Carolina: 58.6%

Exact number of Native American registered voters in Robeson Co.: 26,792

Number of openly gay Native mayors elected in San Diego: 1

Number of states to pass marijuana legalization measures: 5

Percentage of votes approving Oglala Nation’s Marijuana legalization law: 74%
 

THE CRISIS
 

CNN’s exit poll about race and voters was not the only data set to frustrate Indian Country, this week. The AP VoteCast stirred consternation, if not confusion, from many people curious as to how the survey resulted in a mostly Republican demography of Native voters. Despite a lack of data, we know that Indian Country has historically voted blue.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that the Associated Press conducts the poll weeks in advance of Election Day. It then becomes available to media companies who pay the news agency for their election coverage. I wouldn’t be surprised if CNN’s “something else” stats were drawn from the AP VoteCast. Nevertheless, the methodology is clearly stated on its website and suggests that poll takers probably didn’t venture too deep into Indian Country, but also that Native voters - skeptical of strangers asking questions - didn’t trust the process, either.

 

ENDORSEMENT
 

Our Fellow Has a Winning Film!

Tsanavi Spoonhunter’s Crow Country: The Right to Food Sovereignty just won Best Doc Short at this week’s American Indian Film Fest! I”m so proud. Screen it today thru Nov. 14.

 

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QUOTE
 

The story @Indigenous_ly | The quote @YazzieSays
 

The Indigenously newsletter is produced by Jenni Monet (Laguna Pueblo), Tsanavi Spoonhunter (Northern Arapaho) and Miacel Spotted Elk (Diné)

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