A century after Native Americans got the right to vote, they could put Donald Trump or Kamala Harris over the top

Rep. Debra Haaland is the first Native American member of Congress.

On a crisp evening earlier this month, Mullin sat alongside Donald Trump Jr. and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat who recently announced she is joining the Republican Party, on a small stage in front of several bales of hay to take questions from an audience of a couple hundred people. They discussed issues ranging from the economy to tribal self-determination.

The event took place on a small farm in Red Springs, North Carolina, part of the traditional homelands of Mullin’s ancestors and current home to the Lumbee Tribe, a state-recognized tribe with about 55,000 members.

Several tribal nations, including the nearby Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Mullin’s own tribe, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, have opposed the Lumbee’s federal recognition. The Lumbee’s push for federal recognition has become a focal point for both campaigns and a rare issue on which both parties agree. Last month, Trump said he would sign legislation granting federal recognition to the Lumbee. Harris called the Lumbee’s tribal chairman last week to discuss the legislation.

“This is an injustice that needs to be fixed when it comes to Lumbees,” Mullin told the crowd. “This is absolutely absurd. It needs to be done. I was so proud to hear President Trump say that he would sign it.”

But Mullin soon touched on one of the many areas where the two candidates differ: energy policy. Highlighting that he believed a second Trump term would mean a better economy and lower energy costs, Mullin laid out Trump’s policy in one recognizable term that was echoed by the audience, “Drill, baby, drill.”

Both the Biden and Trump administrations pushed to produce more oil and gas than ever, including extractive energy projects that Indigenous peoples opposed. However, Native leaders have expressed concern that Trump is more likely to erode protections for tribal lands further.

Mullin suggested that if tribal nations are truly sovereign, they should be able to conduct energy extraction without the burden of federal intervention. He said that just like the Lumbees’ fight for federal recognition, tribes’ rights to govern their own lands are victims of federal bureaucracy.

“Why is tribal land treated like public land?” Mullin asked, questioning why the federal government should have any oversight on tribal nations that extract natural resources on their own lands. “You have natural resources being pulled out of the ground right across the fence from reservations. You have private land owners that are extremely wealthy and you have people that are literally starving inside reservations,” he said, comparing some to third-world countries.

He promised Trump would have a deep understanding of tribal sovereignty.

That message resonated with Robert Chavis Jr., a physical education teacher and Army veteran who was at the rally and will be voting for Trump. Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, said tribal nations aren’t just governments; they’re businesses, and the U.S. is no different. “I feel like you don’t need a politician in there. We need a businessman to run the country like it should be.”

But other Lumbee voters aren’t as convinced. At her art gallery a few miles away in Pembroke, Janice Locklear said Trump promised he would federally recognize the Lumbee last time he was in office, and she had no reason to believe he could accomplish it this time. But looking broader than her community, she said what Trump did on Jan. 6, 2021, represents a nationwide threat to democracy.

“He thought he could actually be a dictator, go in there and take over. Even though he had lost the election, he knew he had lost the election. So what do you think he’ll do this time,” she said.

Locklear said that, as a woman of color, she trusts that Harris will have a deeper understanding of the unique challenges facing Native Americans. “I’m sure she’s had to face the same problems we face,” Locklear said. “Discrimination, I’m sure she’s faced it.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.