Are Native Americans represented in the US government? Do they have their own senator? Or were there any US leaders with Native American heritage?

10 comments

1. There are some Native congresspeople, but their districts are almost exclusively in majority native areas (Navajo Nation, Eastern Oklahoma, etc.)

   They are extremely vocal about their rights, but if you take a decent look at the living conditions in many reservations, as well as overall treatment to this day, it’s mostly on deaf ears. As far as I can tell, Native American rights and equality tends to fall to the wayside in favor of other minorities. About the extent of their power is reservation land, and even that’s pretty sucky in some major ways

2. You’re asking several different questions:
   Reservations are not states & are not represented thusly in the Senate. Native Americans can run for office like any other eligible person, though, & sometimes they win, often representing states or districts with a heavy Native population. Many of them are very vocal about their rights.

3. Guam has a [non-voting representative.](https://sannicolas.house.gov/)

4. Tribes themselves have a fair level of sovereignty within the country and if I remember correctly there are several non voting representatives of tribes in congress

   As far as native representatives with voting power, they just have to be elected like every other representative. I saw a news article earlier this month that said for the first time in history we have a native Alaskan, native Hawaiian, and a Native American representative in congress. It’s fair to point out that about 2% of America is native of any type so obviously you’re not going to see significant numbers of native representatives given that there’s so many other groups in the country that deserve representation as well

5. The only prominent leader I know of who claims Native American heritage is Elizabeth Warren

   😐

6. Are you seriously telling me you don’t know about our *greatest* Cherokee leader, Elizabeth Warren?

7. Charles Curtis was vice president in the 30s, he was the first and highest ranking native american in US government in history as far as I know.

   They are very vocal about the injustices that happen to them but frankly they don’t get a lot of mainstream attention to be honest.

8. There’s something like 574 tribes iirc. Some of them have non voting members, but I believe majority of them just have sovereignty, which is what they want.

9. You’re aware that Native Americans are American citizens, right? They have representatives and Senators just like the rest of us. They’re residents of whatever state they live in and thus have the same voting rights.

10. At the state and local level there are a good number. At the federal level there are a few. You have to remember that the percent of native Americans in the US is really small.