On a warm summer day in June, Johnny Lehi stands a few steps off U.S. Route 89 under the harsh, northern Arizona sun.
He stares at a windswept expanse of red rocks, cliffs and clay that he hopes he’ll soon be able to officially call his own.
Over two decades ago, Lehi’s tribe — the San Juan Southern Paiute — signed a treaty with the Navajo Nation that set aside parts of Navajo land for the Southern Paiute people, one of 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona, and the only one without a reservation.
“Elders fought for us, and the majority of them are not here no more to see what they pushed for,” says Lehi, the tribe’s vice president.
Though the tribes struck a deal, the treaty has yet to be recognized by Congress — a water rights settlement that will formalize the arrangement awaits a vote in Washington, D.C.
Until then, the Southern Paiute are stuck renting space on the Navajo reservation in nearby Tuba City.
Renting, not owning.
“It’s a big step for us to actually have something of our own,” says Lehi.
Standing next to Lehi is someone’s who’s vote could help the Southern Paiute take that step: U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego. The congressman, running for an open Senate seat in Arizona, says he supports the tribe’s push for a federally recognized homeland.
Gallego, in turn, could use tribal support to win in this swing state, where roughly 6% of the population identifies as American Indian, according to Census data.
And while Native Americans have traditionally voted for Democrats, Gallego says the Democratic Party has often taken them for granted.
“A lot of times, by the time Democrats pay attention to Indian country or tribal votes, it's usually the last two weeks,” he says. “We're like, ‘Oh man, we're down. We need to find more votes.’ Like, let's get out there, right? It's just very disrespectful.”
Gallego, who speaks highly of friendships he made with Native Americans serving alongside him in the Marines, says he sought to change that nearly two years ago, when he first launched his campaign. He purposefully spent part of his first day on the campaign trail on Native land, with members of the Navajo and White Mountain Apache tribes.
And he set a goal for himself: to visit all of Arizona’s federally recognized tribes while running for Senate.
NPR traveled with Gallego on three such trips, to the San Juan Southern Paiute, Hopi and Havasupai tribes.
While campaign stops for Gallego, the trips have also served as a rare opportunity for tribal leaders. Typically, they’re the ones traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with senators and congressmen, not the other way around.
Lehi hopes the visit provided Gallego a tangible sense of what’s at stake for his people.
“He's been here, he's seen it now, and he felt the land, you know,” he says.
The political power of Arizona's tribal leaders
Tribal leaders are well aware of the political power they wield in Arizona.
“In the last election cycle, 2020, it was the native votes in Arizona that overturned, and made this a blue state,” says Alfred Lomahquahu, the Hopi tribal registrar.
The boast is no exaggeration. According to an Associated Press analysis of voter turnout on large swaths of tribal land in Arizona, a surge in 2020 — compared to the 2016 presidential election — helped push Joe Biden to victory in a state where Democrat’s hadn’t won a presidential contest since 1996.
Trips like Gallego’s visit to the Hopi Reservation, where he meets with the tribal council and has lunch in the village of Bacavi, are necessary steps to court native voters, Lomahquahu says.
"Most native tribes are all about actually meeting the person and getting to know them. That really comes down to who they're going to vote for,” he says.
The fight for Native American votes
Gallego’s Republican rival, Kari Lake, has sought to cut into the traditional Democratic advantage among Native Americans. According to her campaign, she’s made multiple trips to the Navajo reservation — the largest reservation in Arizona and the U.S., spanning three states. She has the endorsement of Myron Lizer, a Republican and the former vice president of the Navajo Nation.
But Gallego had a head start, having launched his campaign about 10 months before Lake. He’s also gone out of his way to visit remote tribes that aren’t easy to get to.
That’s why, last month, he embarked on a hike into the depths of the Grand Canyon to visit the Havasupai Reservation — his 20th tribe so far.
There’s two ways to get there: A helicopter ride, or an 8-mile, 2,000 foot descent. Citing a phobia of helicopters from his time in the Marines, Gallego opted to walk.
“After we're done with this, we're gonna have to stretch our shins, because we're not young men anymore,” he quips about halfway through the journey.
The trail starts with a steep descent before leveling out to a gradual decline on a dry wash through towering red rock canyon walls. It’s full of reminders of why Gallego didn’t get here sooner as he planned — shattered trees and debris washed away by a flash flood that briefly shutdown Supai, a world-famous tourist destination for the picturesque waterfalls that turned deadly in August.
The tribe takes pride in clearing the path for the tens of thousands of tourists that visit each year. Bernadine Jones, chair of the Havasupai tribal council, says they’re glad Gallego took the long way to get there.
“Even if you flew in, you don't see, you know, where we're at when you've never made the visit, how deep in a canyon we live, isolation, and I think just hiking in made it a step further,” she says.
“This is what you need to know,” she adds. “This is what it's like.”
The tribe greets Gallego, after four hours of hiking with a handful of campaign staffers and a dozen reporters, with a ceremonial basket dance and lunch — “Supai tacos,” made with the village’s famous fry bread.
They’re quick to point out that, if they support Gallego’s Senate bid, they expect his help in return.
They’re concerned a nearby uranium mine may taint the aquifer that supplies the clear, blue-green waters of Havasu Creek — the water that attracts tourists from around the world, but also sustains life for the tribe.
“We need to keep it alive so we can go swimming, we can grow our crops down here,” says Daley Manakaja, a tribal elder who describes himself as a “leader of children.”
The tribe makes sure Gallego has a chance to see what’s at stake. On UTVs, they drive Gallego and his entourage the extra two miles it takes to get to Havasu Falls, where the creek cascades over a 100-foot cliff, the top of which serves as campsite for tourists staying overnight in the canyon.
There, Gallego takes a hard-earned break after the hike — he wades into the basin at the foot of the falls.
But time is running out to meet his goal of visiting all of Arizona’s federally recognized tribes. With Election Day on Tuesday, the campaign says he’s still got two tribes to go.
Copyright 2024 NPR