In February, the Navajo Nation sued San Juan County, New Mexico over its new redistricting plan. San Juan County, which stretches across a large swath of the Navajo reservation, has enough Indigenous voters to be a majority in two voting districts. The Navajo Nation's lawsuit, however, argues that the county's redistricting plan packs those voters into a single voting district, diluting the power of Indigenous people at the polls and violating the Voting Rights Act.
For Leonard Gorman, executive director of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC), the stakes couldn't be higher. Indigenous voters often have different priorities at the polls than their non-Indigenous counterparts, and less voting power means they are less likely to be represented by lawmakers on issues they care about. In particular, Gorman says, redistricting could impact Navajo people's ability to deal with resource allocations, water quality and access, and land use – environmental issues important to Indigenous people in the area. "Redistricting affects every aspect of our lives," he said.
