Native women achieve historic representation in US elections

At least 75 Native women, along with non-binary and Two Spirit candidates, were elected in the November midterms, according to Advance Native Political Leadership and ICT. Deb Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo and former interior secretary, secured the governorship of New Mexico. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth band of Ojibwe, will represent Minnesota in the US Senate. Crystalyne Curley will become the first woman to lead the Navajo Nation, and Tina Abrams will lead the Seneca Nation of Indians.

Mary Peltola, of the Yup’ik people, could potentially join Flanagan in the Senate, pending the final results of her Alaska race. “This is a seismic shift that is happening in our communities,” stated Jordan James Harvill, strategist with Advance Native Political Leadership.

Native Americans have only been able to vote nationwide since the 1960s. Wilma Mankiller became the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985. In 2018, Haaland and Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, were the first women elected to Congress. Davids was re-elected last week in Kansas.

Angel Charley, a state senator from New Mexico, credited Haaland and Davids for inspiring her to enter politics. In 2020, President Biden appointed Haaland as interior secretary, the first Indigenous cabinet member. That same year, Yvette Herrell, who is Cherokee, became the first Republican Native woman elected to Congress, serving from 2021 to 2023.

A record 363 Indigenous candidates ran for office this election cycle, with at least 180 winning. Claire Valdez, a citizen of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, will join Davids in the US House of Representatives. Flanagan will be the first Native woman in the Senate, joining a history previously held only by Native men.

“I could not run for the US Senate without Native women. I could not exist in the way that I do without Native women,” Flanagan said at her victory party. Haaland acknowledged the historic nature of her election, though she sometimes forgets it amidst the campaign’s demands. “I just hope that I can help folks to see that hard work still means something,” she stated.

New Mexico recently implemented a Native American Voting Rights Act, granting tribes greater input on polling locations and redistricting. Curley’s victory as Navajo Nation leader, following her 2022 appointment as council speaker, is significant for Navajo women. Abrams, the Seneca Nation’s president-elect, expressed hope that her election will inspire future generations of Seneca women.