Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye was discussing his disappointment with President Obama when he suggested something radical.
“A Navajo Tea Party?”
Probably not, since the 300,000-strong nation regularly votes Democratic, but Begaye said years of being ignored is starting to impact how Navajos vote, especially after the slow reaction to the Environmental Protection Agency’s spill of toxins into the Animas River in Colorado that flows through the nation.
President of Navajo Nation Russell Begaye talks with the Washington Examiner. Begaye says Navajo Nation is going to sue Gold King Mine and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over an accidental spill of contaminated wastewater which was released into the Animas and San Juan rivers, while the EPA were investigating contamination at the Gold King Mine in Southwest Colorado, in August. Photo: Graeme Jennings
But Republicans could find a sympathetic block of voters, he suggested in an interview.
“What happened to the guys that we get behind and vote for, what’s up with the Democrats? It seems like Republicans are really coming forward and making statements and helping us,” said Begaye.
The secret is simple respect. “We’re just looking for justice, for people to treat us like human beings, that we do matter, that we do count, and to be treated like they always treated Native people over the years is just wrong,” he said.
Including Obama. Asked if relations were better under Obama, Begaye said, “It doesn’t matter who the president is,” adding: “We don’t have the voice that other communities have, plus our skin is brown.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
