Pueblos endorse Clinton.
Endorsement no surprise; Trump’s treatment of Native Americans a turnoff
A group of Pueblo Indian governors across New Mexico endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Friday, adding to mounting support for the Democratic nominee from leaders of Native American communities around the state.
The nod from the All Pueblo Council of Governors was not a surprise. The group endorsed President Barack Obama during his first run for The White House and again for re-election. But the endorsement raised issues central to tribal leaders while omitting one policy point on which Republican nominee Donald Trump has found common ground with some Native American voters.
In announcing the endorsement, Ohkay Ohwingeh Gov. Earl Salazar said Clinton “believes we need to break down all the barriers that hold Native Americans back and build ladders of opportunity for all Native people.”
“She will work tirelessly to remove the obstacles that contribute to addiction, high unemployment and poverty rates in our State,” Salazar said in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign. “We know with Hillary, every child in New Mexico should be able to live up to his or her God-given potential.”
The endorsement follows efforts by the Clinton campaign to shore up support from tribal leaders during the Democratic Party primary election in June.
New Mexico has one of the largest populations of voting-age Native Americans — about 149,000 people, according to the National Congress of American Indians.
Mark Trahant, a faculty member at the University of North Dakota and an independent journalist covering politics in Indian Country, said Native American voters could make the difference in states where Libertarian Gary Johnson is polling well. A few percentage points in a state where Johnson draws votes from Trump could swing a state such as Montana or Arizona, he said.
Trahant said Clinton has drawn on a long involvement with tribal issues and enjoys name recognition that partly stems from the popularity of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, among some Native American communities. “She has a track record,” he said. Trahant said Trump has interacted little with Native Americans “other than as caricatures.”
The Republican nominee has notoriously referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as “Pocahontas” as a jab at her claim to Native American heritage, Trahant said. But Trump has visited Native American communities in North Dakota to campaign on energy issues — though Trahant said Trump did not invite tribal leaders backstage, as was common during campaign stops by other candidates.
Trump’s thin support in Indian Country, he said, is “pretty lopsided, except for the tribes that have a lot of coal.”
The Republican nominee’s platform on energy could win votes in Native American communities with economies reliant on fossil fuels.
“We’re in the Four Corners area. We have coal power plants here. And she is against fossil fuels,” Rep. Sharon Clahchischilliage, R-Kirtland, said of Clinton. “As a Navajo legislator, that is very concerning to me.”
Clahchischilliage blamed regulations imposed by the Obama administration for stifling production at coal power plants in her district as well as hampering an oil and gas industry that has deflated in the Four Corners as energy prices have fallen.
Trump, she argued, would be more supportive of extracting and using the area’s natural resources.
“There are some people who have never voted Republican but are looking at Trump a little differently because of his position on energy,” Clahchischilliage said.
“There’s a lot I don’t like that he’s saying,” she added. “However, just looking at that and where Hillary stands on energy, I definitely would have to go Trump for my community.”