In the remote Arizona desert, nestled on a plateau within the vast Navajo Nation reservation, lies the small hamlet of Tuba City.
Here, 77-year-old Nita Mexican, a member of the Navajo Nation, has been observing a shift in political allegiance among her community. "A lot of the younger ones are for him now, including friends of our grandkids," Mexican told AFP, referring to the growing support for Donald Trump among Native American communities, traditionally left-leaning in their political preferences.
According to AFP, Mexican, a Republican voter, was once part of a minority in Tuba City. However, recent years have seen a change in attitudes towards the polarizing US president. The escalating unemployment and drug trade issues plaguing the impoverished reservation have led some residents, like Mexican, to attribute these problems to Latin American immigration.
"Trump is cleaning up America, it's a good thing," said Mexican, a former power plant employee who commended Trump's stringent deportation policy. "America has to come first," she asserted. "Us Natives, we are Americans and we should have the jobs first."
The Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the United States, spans the southwestern states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In this isolated region, where vehicles are indispensable for mobility, rising inflation remains a persistent concern. Mexican and her husband Joe spend $40 a day on gasoline to care for their sheep, housed in a pen some 25 miles away.
The couple also financially supports some of their unemployed grandchildren. "Sometimes we don't have enough to get groceries for the both of us," Mexican confessed, expressing her wish for Trump to "slow down" on his tariffs targeting multiple imported products.
In the 2020 presidential election, Trump made unexpected gains in this region, historically a Democratic stronghold since the 1980s. He won Navajo County by 17.1 points, doubling his margin of victory from four years prior, and lost Apache County by just 19 points, a significant decrease from the 33.6 points in 2020.
This trend was mirrored nationwide, with Native American voters overall backing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, albeit with less fervor than before. Polls indicate that more men than women from this minority group voted for Trump.
However, not all Native Americans share Mexican's enthusiasm for Trump. Gilberta Cortes, a resident of Tuba City, often finds herself at odds with her 21-year-old son, a Trump supporter. "He talks about inflation, he says that cartels are ruining everything for Native Americans," Cortes said. The 42-year-old mother, whose home lacks electricity, is less enamored with the billionaire president. She takes issue with his derision of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's Native American heritage, which he frequently mocks by referring to her as "Pocahontas."
Cortes also remains unconvinced by Trump's first-term laws investigating the disappearance of thousands of Native American women. "It was just favoritism so that he would get our votes," the left-leaning voter claimed. The president's anti-immigration rhetoric and policies have further unsettled her. Several Navajos have reportedly been stopped by immigration agents due to their skin color, according to some reservation officials. "You see a lot of racism... When I go out, I feel like I'm just walking on eggshells," Cortes admitted.
Trump's skepticism towards climate change is another point of contention, particularly for many Native Americans who claim a spiritual connection to the environment. Intensifying heat waves in the Arizona desert have forced Cortes to prohibit her children from playing outside during the summer. "If he drills oil like crazy and he makes cuts to environmental agencies, it's gonna make things worse in the long run," Cortes warned.
Elbert Yazzie, another resident of the reservation, believes some of his friends will soon regret their decision to support Trump. The president's recently passed signature spending bill is anticipated to reduce the federal food assistance program, among other cuts that could impact low-income Americans. "They voted for him because they thought there would be more jobs for us American citizens. But instead, he's cutting off food stamps," Yazzie told AFP from his caravan. "That's going to affect a lot of people around here."
The shifting political landscape within the Navajo Nation reflects a broader trend among Native American communities. While some, like Mexican, see Trump as a champion of American jobs and a bulwark against rising immigration, others, like Cortes and Yazzie, remain skeptical of his policies and rhetoric.
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