This story was published in collaboration with Buffalo’s Fire.
On Election Day, three people in white hats sat under an elm tree and watched a steady stream of people park their cars then head into the Laguna Pueblo administrative building to vote in state and tribal elections. The three were University of New Mexico law students unfamiliar to every single person who drove by but they became quick friends with those they met and jumped at the opportunity to explain why the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) sent them to the tribal voting site.
“We are here just to make sure that the polls are running — I wouldn’t say smoothly — but abiding by rules that all polls are supposed to have,” Grant Navakuku said. “So, making sure that, like, if a voter comes here only with a tribal ID, that they’re able to still vote.”
Navakuku, from the Hopi-Tewa Tribe in Arizona, a first-year law student, is one of 260 poll watchers trained by NARF and sent to report any election integrity issues across eight states — Alaska, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, Montana and New Mexico.
Navakuku’s morning started at the To’Hajiilee Chapter House on the Navajo Nation, where he observed no irregularities, before he joined fellow students Taressia Garcia and Darren Malanik at the Laguna polling site.
There, the trio mostly observed traffic and found more kinship than the election interference that drew fear ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. That outcome was consistent in the states where NARF sent volunteers trained to write a report on any election issues they encountered. Last week, no major reports of potential Voting Rights Act violations were sent to NARF lawyers. Despite a recent statement without evidence from President Donald Trump that revives misinformation about voting machine irregularities, many American voters cast their ballots last week in a safe and secure way.
“We talked to some folks, and they haven’t had any issues with same-day registration or just being able to cast their vote. Everything went well…,” said Garcia, a third-year law student from the Fort Mohave Tribe in California.
In fact, some Indigenous voters were more determined than ever to get out and vote.
Just over an hour away at the Casamero Lake Chapter Community, Navajo voter Tom McDonald insisted he vote on Election Day, despite recent flooding that damaged his livestock grounds and forced his typical polling site to close and consolidate into one that was not damaged by floods. He said early-vote options, either in-person or by mail, don’t give him the satisfaction of being with community.
John Echohawk, a Pawnee citizen, started NARF in 1970 with a goal to establish tribal sovereignty principles for practicing attorneys. The nonprofit, nonpartisan group advocates for tribal sovereignty rights in the United States and partners with legal allies to pressure governments to meet trust and treaty obligations. In 2016, NARF did an initial survey that identified barriers for Native American voters, including inconsistent polling hours, voter ID laws and election rolls that purged without voter notice. That eventually led to on-the-ground data collection on tribal voting issues and the creation of the election protection program that has trained hundreds of lawyers on legal protections for Native American voters. With data from 2020, 2022 and 2024 elections, NARF issued a report that stated barriers to voting decreases Native American voter turnout and overall civic participation in their local governments.
“Geographic isolation, unreliable mail service, nonstandard addressing systems, limited internet access, and inadequate polling resources all combine to make voting harder in heavily Native American counties than anywhere else in the country,” the report states. “The consequences are measurable.”
NARF’s election protection program partners with national groups like Common Cause and local Native vote organizations in places like Arizona, North Dakota, New Mexico and Alaska. Some of that work happens on the ground during get-out-the-vote campaigns, and much of that occurs in the courtroom with legal guidance or support on cases involving voter-right access in Indian Country. For instance, NARF lawyers are representing Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe and other voters in North Dakota before a U.S. District Court that alleges a 2021 redistricting map is discriminatory and violates constitutional protections for Native voters in the state.
On Election Day, NARF got a free speech win in a case before the U.S. District Court in South Dakota on behalf of a Yankton Sioux Tribe member who was denied his right to vote in 2024 for wearing a shirt at the polls that read, “NATIVES Vote.” Judge Karen Schreier called the messaging nonpartisan, allowing voters to wear shirts that read “Native Vote,” “Natives Vote,” or “Get Out the Native Vote.”
Northern Cheyenne Tribe voters took part in state elections at the Little Wolf Tribal Building in Lame Deer, Montana, where a rogue tribal election was held by an ousted president who occupied the capitol while seeking constitutional authority of the tribe’s government. Voters experienced no issues with their state ballots.
Malanik, one of the NARF volunteers, said he felt a responsibility to uphold legal protections for voters. He is on track to work as a public defender in New Mexico.
“I wasn’t too familiar with Native communities,” Malanik, who is non-Native and originally from Long Island, said. “Because I’m also not native to New Mexico, I think it’s also important for me to come out here and get to know the community members I may be representing and interacting with as a future lawyer.”
Non-Native American volunteers are paramount for the NARF program to work. According to the American Bar Association, less than 1%of the 1.3 million active lawyers are Native American. This leads to an outcome where Native people are subject to the U.S. justice system but hardly see Native judges and lawyers.
Native scholars and future lawyers like Garcia and Navakuku are the exception, and they both said that election monitors for Native voters could boost visibility that remind people they have voting rights like every other U.S. citizen, and things like tribal identification are allowable forms of ID to vote.
“It’s not such a complicated topic,” Garcia said. “One of the barriers to voting is just not understanding the process and making them aware of that.”
“One of the barriers to voting is just not understanding the process and making them aware of that.”
Navakuku said he was greeted in To’Hajiilee with skepticism by other poll workers and people who set up tents to support candidates running for Navajo Nation president.
“They were kind of caught off guard when I showed up, and I had to explain what the mission was,” said Navakuku, who is an Army National Guard veteran attending school on the G.I. Bill.
Locals had every right to be skeptical of the young poll watchers.
On Election Day, the U.S. Department of Justice said it sent more than 1,000 federal employees to monitor elections in every state, including at least 10 to Bernalillo County, New Mexico, where To’Hajiilee is located. At the chapter house in front of a frybread stand, New Mexico state representative Javier Martinez said the local group chat that typically sends alerts about immigration actions, shifted to notify people of any federal agents seen at polling sites. He had just heard the news that before election day a judge ruled that no armed federal agents would be allowed to poll watch, and that the Justice Department was sending people from local attorney general’s offices and the Office of Personnel Management. “So, bureaucrats,” he said with a sigh of relief.
Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Justice Department poll-watching effort, resigned on Nov. 5 as the head of the department’s civil rights division, ending an 18-month stint that led to numerous courtroom losses to reform voting ahead of the midterm elections. It’s unclear exactly how the federal government will operate with poll watchers, if at all, in the future.
This environment ahead of the midterm elections was exactly why NARF expanded its outreach in 2026 to more tribal precincts in more states.
NARF is expected to maintain its role collecting data on elections in tribal communities that can identify where barriers exist and potential solutions to get complete compliance with the Native American Voting Rights Act.
During their training NARF tells volunteers that major election violations at polling sites are rare. Navakuku said he understood that he’d be more likely to get invitations to eat with locals than encounter incidents that would require a legal team convoy.
Like many tribal precincts on the Navajo Nation, To’Hajiilee had a festival-type voting environment outside the polling site. Supporters for the tribal presidential election candidates had tents serving mutton stew, blue corn mush and frybread to anyone that wanted a meal. Country music blasted as people showed off their voting stickers. The mood was contrary to conversations in the weeks leading up to Election Day that focused on voter fears while casting their votes.
Before he drove back to Albuquerque to prepare for his next day at school, Navakuku reflected that acts of service are inherent to his life as a Hopi-Tewa person.
“I understand that I am a part of something bigger than myself, but the reason why I came out here is because I saw that there was a need,” he said. “I saw the organization, and what they were putting on, the mission that they were trying to fulfill. I thought I could lend a helping hand.”
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