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Tomorrow afternoon, President Donald Trump will appear in Lumberton, North Carolina, his eighth visit to the purple state since August. It’s one place where the stakes are high in the pivotal U.S. Senate race. The contest is also casting light on a little-known but critical Native swing vote in the region: the Lumbees of Robeson County — one of the most diverse electorates predictably voting Democrat for years , but in 2016, went red in favor of Trump. Across Indian Country, Native voters have been known to pack a powerful punch at the ballot box — and not with any particular party loyalty. For tribal citizens, elections aren’t determined by values that run red or blue, but rather those that run sovereign — Indigenously, so. From Montana to Maine, across key battleground states that could flip the U.S. Senate from Republican to Democratic control, it may be the little-understood, rarely paid attention to Native voters in rural America who could determine this vitally important race. You can take in what’s at stake and more in this week’s essay, which features a radio ad for Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly speaking Navajo. On my Sunday Reading List: How a Puerto Rican environmentalist is holding up in his first days as the Sierra Club’s first Latino president, and also this Twitter thread posted by Alaska Native youth demanding their elders be more forward-thinking about our biggest emergency, climate change. I’ll also be taking in this 1984 film by the amazing Alanis Obomsawin about the last fish wars imposed on the Mi’kimaq. Back then it was over salmon. Today, it’s lobster. As I sign off, as many as 53.5 million Americans have cast ballots according to the U.S. Elections Project. They say the best thing you can do for yourself ahead of Nov. 3 is have a plan, vote early. Just two more Tuesdays. Jenni Monet
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