On Indigenous Peoples Day, Scripps News spoke with Jesalyn Keziah, a member of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina and the executive director of the Triangle Native American Society, about the importance of the indigenous vote in the upcoming election.
"Our Native American community is a swing vote here in North Carolina," Keziah said. "We are a swing vote in a state. So we know that the native vote is very important and we're seeing lots of attention on the native vote these days."
"Being indigenous people, we are tied to the land," Keziah said. "So I find that environmental issues are often a bipartisan calling card to get folks involved. Health, education, inclusion in policy access, tribal sovereignty, respecting the government-to-government relationship between tribal nations and the federal government, state government, local government — all of these are issues that are critical to native communities no matter what side of the aisle you're on."
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"I'm representing a non-partisan organization. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We're focused on getting out the native vote here in our local area and also statewide, sharing resources with all eight of our tribal nations that are here in North Carolina, as well as our three other urban Indian organizations," Keziah said.
"We know that about 77% of native people do live in urban areas. And so our votes are very important here in that area. So we're just making sure that folks have the correct information, know how to get their polls, know how to get to their polling location, know what's on the ballot and are able to get involved," Keziah said
Watch the full interview with Keziah in the video above.
