Nothing's Easy in San Juan County
October 29, 2018 5:53 AM   Subscribe

Why Is It So Hard For Native Americans To Vote In This Utah County?

In San Juan County, a majority Navajo population has lived for decades with a primarily white, Mormon government. This election could change that — if people can cast their vote.

posted by poffin boffin (12 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
I haven't read the article yet, but I bet the answer is racism.
posted by jeather at 6:52 AM on October 29, 2018 [21 favorites]


america: the answer is always racism
posted by poffin boffin at 7:04 AM on October 29, 2018 [21 favorites]


Betteridge's law addendum: the answer to any "Why" question headline about race is "because white supremacy."
posted by solotoro at 9:20 AM on October 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


Metafilter: care enough to make a snarky joke about racism, but not enough to read the article to understand the details. Details matter, particularly when trying to counter the disenfranchisement of voters.

Unsurprisingly it's not just racism, it's a pro-Republican racism. It's sort of a Utah state-level version of the Unholy Alliance
The problem, then, is that districting ... ensured that there will only be one Navajo county commissioner, always in the minority on county decisions
Read on for details of how they've redistricted to possibly allow a Navajo majority on the county commission, a racist challenge to someone running for election, the lack of Navajo-language voting materials, and the challenges of managing voting registration in a spare, poor, rural area.
posted by Nelson at 9:56 AM on October 29, 2018 [8 favorites]


Note, the bylines here are Graham Lee Brewer, contributing editor at High Country News, and MeFi favorite Anne Helen Peterson, who has been doing yeoman work on Western politics for the last year or so.

Democracy is often referred to as “The Great American Experiment” — an experiment, many often omit, built on the enslavement and extermination of people of color. Historically, the times when the experiment has been most meaningfully tested have corresponded with the times when those same people of color have challenged the status quo, forcing a reconsideration not only of who deserves a voice within the larger experiment, but who deserves to benefit from it. We are, right now, in one of those times. The resistance to the Native vote — like the resistance to the black vote, or the Latino vote — just shows how powerful that vote is, and just how much work has been done to subvert it. Today, the endurance of American democracy doesn’t just hinge on shifting the lines of a district or facilitating the ability to vote. It’s contingent on a willingness to acknowledge — and share — the power that stems from it.

This is excellent, the kind of reporting we need more of.
posted by suelac at 10:52 AM on October 29, 2018 [6 favorites]


Utah. The governor fired the Native American liason from the tribes, for insubordination. Let that sink in. The official thinking on the Native American problem is mainstream them and get them off that horrible reservation, mainstreaming is synonymous with convert them.

The Doctor who committed suicide did so because of emotional issues with regard to a very personal betrayal.

The Navajos had to sue San Juan County to get bigh schools south of Blanding, and elementary schools south of Bluff.

The foreign owned Uranium mill and waste water facility, was not licensed or inspected for a decade. Many of the wells are radioactive.
posted by Oyéah at 11:08 AM on October 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


I did in fact read the article afterwards, thanks. A lot of your election and districting rules are completely incomprehensible to me, and I didn't feel the need to go on about non-partisan election commissions.
posted by jeather at 12:02 PM on October 29, 2018


Unsurprisingly it's not just racism, it's a pro-Republican racism.

As opposed to what?

I'm not sure what details I'm supposed to be missing here. The upshot seems to be that Utah has gone out of its way to disenfranchise Native voters. And that seems pretty racist. That it's the Republicans that are doing it seems to be the least shocking thing about the story.
posted by East14thTaco at 12:02 PM on October 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


I read this article yesterday. What I found particularly interesting are the various obstacles that intrinsically make it incredibly difficult for Native people to vote, regardless of racist efforts to disenfranchise them. Establishing residency by identifying a hogan on Google satellite images; no true written language to print a ballot with, requiring the use of interpreters; post offices so remote from one's home that it might only make sense to collect your mail once a month, if you can even find a ride. Under the best of circumstances the effort to get out the vote is incredibly daunting. That their are people doing their best to destroy these efforts is infuriating.

I tried to find a way to donate to the Rural Utah Project but got nowhere with searches.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:23 PM on October 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


There is a post office at Ojato near Goulding's Trading Post. When I was there for a year I learned that only 20% of Navajos went on the trail of tears. The other 80% hid out around Black Mesa, signed no treaties and like it, that they are hard to find. To get utilities set up, you provide a map to your place, that is standard with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. These things are how they like it. It is totally pleasant getting lost out in the valley.

Corruption is the reason for the treatment of Native Americans and feelings of religious superiority from all the western religions that proselytize there. My first glimmer of the underlying criminality down there was out on the Bears Ears Pass road in 1969, when at sunset 35 miles out with another 30 miles to go, my friend and I came around an ess curve to face the open rear end of a pickup truck. Standing in the bed were three white men with long guns, and the fourth guy was bound and gagged and lying down in the bed. We were in a little open convertible, two girls on the way to hike in Natural Bridges National Minument. We got away met our friends and hid the car miles away from where we camped.

The residents of Blanding have gotten away with their theft of human rights for far too long. There are some nice people down there on both sides, the corruption is the county government in concert with radical fundamental Mormonism, Bundy/Lyman style. The school board uses all their federal money up, paying rich retirements to white people, or sending out 4 man work crews to do one man jobs that could be handled by school custodians. The custodians are Navajos, unbenefitted workers anymore.
posted by Oyéah at 1:21 PM on October 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


I tried to find a way to donate to the Rural Utah Project but got nowhere with searches.

oneirodynia, Rural Utah project is a 501(c)(4), so they're not set up for that.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:23 PM on October 29, 2018


Early reports have Willie Grayeyes winning the race.
posted by Etrigan at 7:34 AM on November 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


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