FOUR DIRECTIONS is the only national organization that focuses on turning out the Native American vote cycle after cycle – a very loyal voting block that casts its ballots overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.
Because they are one of the primary groups we are looking to support this year, we asked them to participate in a Q & A with us on Balloon Juice.
Joining us today from FOUR DIRECTIONS are Oliver (O.J.) Semans, Co-Executive Director, and Lewis Cohen, Finance Director.
Billboard that is referred to in this discussion
We asked FOUR DIRECTIONS to tell us more about their organization:
Our get-out-the-vote method centers on hiring First Americans in the particular state we are focusing on, who will work on mobilizing both registered and unregistered Natives. At any given time during the course of a political cycle, we can have anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand people working for us, either full-time or part-time, focusing on GOTV issues.
idea of beaurocrats in washington telling them how to manage that land. the president did say that the monument status unfairly restricts grazing and hunting for local people. that is not true. that s all of that is still allowed in this monument. the only thing it prevents is new drilling and mining and frackiing interests, and the biggest push for this monument status came from the five tribes, the navajo, the hopi and the ute mountain nations who came together. they set aside centuries of tribal differences and came together to lobby the government of the seven chapter houses in the utah navajo nation. they voted and took a vote. the vote was 163-3 to keep the monument as it is with 12 abstentions, but of those couple that agree with the president, a few are here today, and joining in on the signing ceremony. this will go maybe to the supreme court because nobody has