"Put on the saddle and ride 10 miles to vote and let people hear us."
The horizon of the distant brown land, the women and men on horseback came to the dust, they reached the polling place, rolled over from their horses, and cast the ballot boxes one by one...
A woman riding a large black horse and dressed in Indian costume walked in the middle. She is Allie Young, 30, an ethnic Navajo of Arizona, and a co-founder of Protect the Sacred. Since October this year, Ellie Young has led her people many times to vote for the US election by bicycle.
Ellie Young's U.S. state of Arizona, also known as the "State of the Grand Canyon," is home to deep-seated conservative forces. Presidential elections for more than 60 years have been the stronghold of the Republican Party — Democrats have had a hard time winning, with only Clinton winning once in the state in 1996. Four years ago, Republican Trump still won by 4 percentage points.
As the state's demographics change, Biden narrowly beat Trump this year by 0.3 percentage points — 12,000 more popular votes. The data shows that there are 67,000 eligible voters in Navajo, or more than nine adults voting for Biden. It is widely believed that it was the Navajo people who helped biden to defeat Trump in Arizona.
Ellie Young led her people on horseback to vote. Image: Network
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > descendants of the "Wind Whisperers" who were abandoned by Trump</h1>
The dust has settled on the US election, and the Navajo people who helped defeat Trump, the descendants of the legendary World War II soldier "Wind Whisperer", have once again entered the public eye.
As the largest indian branch in the United States, the Navajo people are about 200,000. It lives on the largest Indian reservation in the United States, most of which is within Arizona. The Navajo people resembled East Asians and had their own language, which belonged to the Athabascan language family, which was difficult for outsiders to learn due to its special grammar and pronunciation, and lack of writing.
In June 1993, a group of Navajo Indians crossed the border of their reserved area, which the media was not allowed to cross. Photo: Agence France-Presse
The unique language made the Navajos famous in World War II. Because in the early days of the Pacific Theater, the Japanese army could always use various methods to decipher the Code of the American Army. In order to change the unfavorable situation, the US military learned from the experience of World War I and used obscure indigenous soldiers as ciphers to reduce the risk of leaks. In 1942, the U.S. military recruited hundreds of natives who spoke Navajo and English in Arizona and other places for training. 29 were selected to form the 382nd Field Platoon of the Marine Corps and the first minority intelligence unit of the U.S. Military.
The Navajo language is based on nature, including animal sounds, water sounds, wind sounds, etc., so these soldiers are called "wind whisperers". However, when first assigned to combat units, native soldiers were not trusted. When they began to pass on intelligence and be accurate, the U.S. military began to honor the "Wind Whisperer" as "Chief". Between 1942 and 1945, the Wind Whisperers participated in all offensive operations launched by the Pacific Fleet.
The "Wind Whisperer" has made great achievements in battle and has been discharged from the army after World War II. However, because the military believed that the Navajo code might come in handy again and should not be exposed, it was required to keep the secret strictly confidential. For a long time thereafter, when asked about the class of soldiers he worked in World War II, the "Wind Whisperer" could only answer simply: I am a language clerk.
In 1943, Navajo "Wind Whisperers" with naval signaling devices operated radios in an open space. Photo: Agence France-Presse
It was not until 1968 that the "Wind Whisperer" was officially declassified by the United States. In the 1990s, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush awarded medals to the six surviving Navajo ciphers, praising their contributions during World War II and saying it was "a late glory" that has since become widely known as the "Whisperers."
Hollywood is also based on the Navajo people, directed by Wu Yusen, who filmed the war movie "The Wind Whisperer". In reality, on June 4, 2014, the last "Wind Whisperer" Chester Neez died peacefully in his sleep due to kidney failure at the age of 93. Since then, the first 29 "wind whisperers" in the United States have all withered away.
When the brief glory faded through the long river of history, the Navajo people of the American South fell silent again.
In June 2001, then-U.S. President George W. Bush paid tribute to Navajo "whisperer" Chester Nez, left. Photo: Agence France-Presse
A long history of neglect and abuse affects indigenous peoples' access to health care, education, cheap water and other resources. Today, although they occupy large tracts of land on reserve, one-third of the indigenous population still lives in poverty.
This spring, the Navajo people also became a high-risk area for COVID-19 infection. Despite the tribe's implementation of some of the nation's strictest precautions, the per capita infection rate in the Navajo Autonomous Region in May was still higher than in any U.S. state, including New York, which was at the epicenter of the pandemic at the time.
To help respond to the crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières even sent a medical team to Navahot. It is important to remember that this international organization generally provides assistance to the most severely affected areas of the world that suffer from war, famine and natural disasters.
By early November, Navajo had detected 14,000 COVID-19 infections and more than 600 deaths, mostly elderly.
Allie Young, 30. Image: Network
Ellie Young, a Member of the Navajo people, was one of the victims, and the pandemic not only devastated her family — her uncle contracted COVID-19, several family members also died. Given the enormous role of Indian elders in cultural inheritance and protection, the virus is particularly devastating.
Ellie Young said a Navajo grandmother who had abided by all confinement rules and stayed at home for more than a month, washing her hands frequently and paying attention to social distancing, but when her children and grandchildren came to see her, the elderly man contracted the new crown and eventually died.
Ellie Young works for a nonprofit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, focusing primarily on marginalized historical communities. In march to support her people in their fight against COVID-19, she set up a grassroots organization, the Holy Spirit of Protection, to help preserve tribal culture and provide relief to the elderly who are vulnerable to the virus.
However, when the virus spread like wildfire in Navajo, and even civil society institutions took action, republican officials in Charge of Arizona did little to stop the spread of the virus. In addition to mask authorizations, commercial blockades, and lack of resource scheduling, the Trump administration has slashed funding to Indigenous communities.
Even the federal government's bailout bill, when rolled out nationwide, was delayed in getting relief money to Navajo.
"Many people feel that the delay in federal funding has left us behind. It is also recalled that the Trump administration revoked the reserved status of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in March this year. Ellie Young said the tribe's critical assistance was delayed for weeks, exacerbating the outbreak.
In May, at a COVID-19 testing center in Arizona, nurses tested a Navajo woman. Photo: Agence France-Presse
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > navajo turned to support Biden </h1>
The new crown struck, and the decadence of self-destruction pervaded Navajo.
In October, Biden and campaign partner Kaharis released a comprehensive plan for Native Americans, emphasizing strengthening the relationship between Indigenous tribes and the Federation and addressing issues such as health and resource inequality, giving indigenous communities more hope. At the same time, Biden also met with the Navajo president in Arizona and made some promises.
In addition, the Indians and Trump are not harmonious. In 2017, Trump, who had just come to power, signed an order that offended indigenous people — agreeing to restart a pipeline project from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The 1,900-kilometer-long pipeline runs through the north and south of the United States, as well as through Indian reservations. Fears of environmental damage have been strongly opposed by indigenous peoples. At one point in 2015, Mr. Obama rejected the project. After Trump insisted on restarting, due to many objections, the pipeline construction was still temporarily stranded, but if he was re-elected, it could be resumed at any time.
The Navajo people, dissatisfied with the Republican Party, turned to support the Democratic Party.
Some Navajo people live in very remote locations and it is quite difficult to participate in the polls. Photo: Agence France-Presse
The 2020 presidential election gave indians a chance. The bad news is that Indian voter turnout has been lower than other ethnic groups. According to a recent report by the Native American Rights Fund, only 66 percent of Native Americans in the United States register as voters, and more than 1 million eligible voters, let alone vote.
On Indian reservations, the problem of suppressing votes was also rampant. Scottsdale, Arizona, for example, has 12 post offices in about 296 square miles, but the Navajo Autonomous Region, which covers an area of more than 27,000 square miles, has only 26 post offices. Even some Indian communities do not have a post office at all.
Some Navajo families live in remote locations, miles from their nearest neighbors, where there are no specific street addresses, let alone ballot boxes. Navajo people are said to have commuted 100 miles (about 161 kilometers) to reach the nearest polling station. But U.S. census data shows that more than a quarter of more than 150 Indigenous communities do not have a car.
In Arizona, during the CORONAVIRUS pandemic in May, a nonprofit delivered water to a Navajo family without running water. Photo: Agence France-Presse
For Navajo people, it is difficult to participate in live voting. Mail-in ballots take weeks to arrive – if they can. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is taking place tens of millions of people by mail, Indigenous leaders fear they will generally lose their suffrage.
"Crimson" Arizona, is full of retired white conservatives. People had been convinced that this was still Trump's domain. Yet Ellie Young, who knows the importance of each vote, was furious when she heard pundits describe Arizona as having "Republican genes."
"It annoys me," said Ellie Young, who feels neglected, "that Arizona has Indigenous genes — whether it's our Native community, or the Latino community, it's also the natives of the land... We want to prove them wrong. ”
"We're going to rediscover the way we voted, we're going to get back to Arizona."
The Navajo people took their children and rode to vote. Image: Network
Ellie Young firmly believes that indigenous voters, while often forgotten, are an important force in changing elections. In Arizona in particular, the Navajo people, with 67,000 eligible voters, play a key role.
"If there is an equal opportunity to vote, our (voting) numbers will surge."
Ellie Young, co-founder of Protecting the Sacred, began encouraging Navajo voter registration. And organized indigenous peoples to complete this year's census. "At first our focus was on covid-19 relief, but now we've turned our attention to the most important election of our lives," she said.
For many years Navajo voters were not interested in voting. Image: Network
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > young people, "ride to vote."</h1>
Back in history, it wasn't until 1962 that Indians were given the right to vote in every U.S. state. But since then, the indigenous people's voting path has not been smooth, including in the 2018 mid-term election, and many Navajo voters' identity cards have been found to be invalid.
The Navajo people were blocked from voting and were reluctant to vote. Young indigenous peoples are even less motivated to vote, often complaining about why they wanted to join a "colonial system" that was useless to the tribes, let alone their own "disappointment with the divisions across the country."
So Ellie Young came up with an even newer idea— "Ride to the Polls."
This program is mainly aimed at activating young people. In the Navajo community, horseback riding is common. Horses are a sacred animal in Navajo culture. Horseback voting has a sense of ceremony, young people will feel fresh, and cycling will also allow them to appreciate the cultural traditions of the tribe.
Ari Young (left) led the Navajo people to polling stations several times. Image: Talia Mayden for HUMAN
In early October, the first "horse-riding vote" operation began. Ellie Young leads dozens of members, mostly between the ages of 18 and 30. From Church Rock, Navajo County, to the Kayenta Polling Station in Arizona, a journey of nearly 30 kilometers around canyons and mountains.
Before leaving, before putting on the saddle, Ellie Young's mother also carefully tied her daughter with a tribal traditional belt, which is usually used by women in the tribe during childbirth, and put on a traditional turquoise bead for her. "We're doing this to honor the ancestors who fought for the right to vote, so I wanted to wear traditional clothing." Ellie Young said.
With enthusiasm and mission, dozens of voters rode on horseback for two or three hours before finally reaching the polling station. Ellie Young believes that horseback voting is a way of paying homage to the ancestors of the Navajo people, "which also reminds us that the purpose of the battle is not only to protect our culture, but also to protect our sacred land and Mother Earth." ”
Lucinda Young, a Navajo woman, came to visit and vote with her son while riding a horse to vote. Image: Network
During the trip, some held up Biden-Harris signs. Others whipped forward and headed straight for the polling point. A Navajo woman named Lucinda Young also brought her son to visit her vote.
The Ellie Young team documented all of this and posted it on social media. They appealed to hundreds of thousands of Navajo people, "Put on the saddle and ride 10 miles to vote so that our voices are heard." ”
By the end of October, when Ellie Young was again organizing a team to vote at the polling station, she also encountered a group of indigenous people from other places who came to vote. The men said they had heard about the "ride a horse to vote" plan through social media and word of mouth.
Ellie Young launched the "Ride to Vote" program to inspire young people to vote. Image: Network
The idea for "ride a horse to vote" first came from Ellie Young's father, who, frustrated with the unpromising election, came up with the idea of riding into tribal culture when he went to the polling station.
"Father's vision was that we would ride horses to protect our people," said Ellie Young, who quickly realized that horseback voting was the best way to get Navajo people excited about voting.
Like Ellie Young's father, 58-year-old Frank Young, an old native who was born on an Indian reservation and has always lived here, was not encouraged to vote at first, and he has recently grown tired of driving and voting, but the thought of riding a horse to vote is full of motivation.
On the day of the departure for voting, Frank Young was more ceremonial than his daughter, and he "whispered" in the ear of the horse he was riding, "It gives me strength, and I hope it gives strength to our country." ”
"Bring back a tribal feeling," said Frank Young, the old man in a light-colored cowboy hat looking into the mountains in the distance, "and we went to the polling station with both excitement and pride to see the tribesmen riding behind them on horseback." ”
Frank Young (left) and daughter Ellie Young. Image: Network
<H1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Indians sentenced Trump to "death" in advance</h1>
Since October, Ellie Young has repeatedly organized her people to ride horses to vote.
While the scale of these events is not large, the idea of "riding a horse to vote," especially "going to vote," activates the passions of Native Americans across the United States. Ellie Young had received information from other tribal members who were encouraged.
"They told me that after watching the video, they also went out to vote," Ellie Young said. "People are inspired by our culture, by what we've been fighting for, and that makes me proud."
On November 3, the day of the U.S. presidential election, Ellie Young took another group of her people to vote. Image: Network
The Navajos are not alone, and other Indian tribes tend to support the Democrats. These include the Hopi, white Mountain Apache, Pascua Yaqui, and Tohono O'odham Nation. The Tohono Oedems, in particular, have desecrated their graves to make way for the border wall that Trump has advocated.
More organizations like Ellie Young's are also at play. For example, the Rural Utah Project, in partnership with Google, used GPS targeting to register voter information for 4,000 Native Americans in Arizona. When the COVID-19 lockdown ended in May, they also packed leaflets with voting messages in sealed plastic bags and placed them at the doors of Indigenous homes.
The Apache tribe of arizona's White Mountains danced to vote. Image: Network
It is these grassroots voter mobilization movements that have influenced the direction of the general election. The Navajo Times estimates that Navajo support for Biden is 97 percent, and The Navajo turnout is near an all-time high. The larger cities in Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, are also seen as overwhelmingly supporting Biden.
On November 8, an Arizona reporter shared two maps on Twitter, one of the state's 22 tribes and the other of the 2020 district election results. In contrast, the Aboriginal gathering place, most of which "turned blue", Biden won a great victory among the Indian tribes.
The Arizona reporter shared two maps, and in contrast, most of the state's Indigenous gathering places "turn blue." Image: Network
On the evening of November 3, the night of the US presidential election, the Associated Press and Fox News took the lead in awarding 11 electoral votes in Arizona to Biden while several swing states, including Arizona, were still singing votes.
This has sparked strong dissatisfaction from Trump. There are reports that Mr. Trump personally called Fox boss Murdoch — asking the conservative media outlet, which had always supported it, to retract its decision, but was rejected.
Because Fox News seems to have glimpsed the secret: The Indians sentenced Trump to "death" in advance for re-election.
The Navajos rode to the polls to help Biden defeat Trump. Image: Network
————
Please WeChat search to pay attention to the public account "all now", the world of the circle of friends will be different.