Are Indigenous Americans unique in their voting in US national elections?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indigenous Americans are unique in the American political landscape. They are citizens of sovereign tribal nations as well as the US. The relationship of the tribes and their citizens with the US has a unique and sordid past. This has led many to argue that Indigenous Americans will be unique in their political behaviors. To test this expectation as well as to fill a void in our understanding of the voting rates of Indigenous Americans in US National elections, we compare the voting rates of Indigenous Americans from 2006 through 2016 to other Americans, and compare the correlates of their voting with that of Americans generally. Using Current Population Survey and Cooperative Congressional Election Study data, we find little evidence that the voting rates of Indigenous Americans are particularly unique, their voting rates near that of other racial or ethnic minorities, and the correlates of their voting are not unique.