An Indigenous Activist’s Message for Biden: Prioritize Us.

Protesters march for Black and Indigenous lives on President Biden's Inauguration Day in Denver, Jan. 20, 2021 [Reuters/Alyson McClaran]

By Samantha Grasso

President Biden has spent his first few weeks in office rolling out new initiatives. But what should he focus on next?

For Allie Young, director of grassroots initiative Protect the Sacred, the answer is clear: helping tribal communities nationwide. Protect the Sacred focuses on preserving Indigenous culture and language, and protecting the elders who hold the ancestral knowledge. Young, who is Diné, meaning “the people” in Navajo, founded the group in March as a social media campaign, as a way to engage Navajo youth to help educate their families about COVID-19 and slow the spread of the virus as it tore through Navajo Nation.

“We should always be prioritized because we are the first peoples of this land,” Young told AJ+. “And when it comes to COVID-19, our elders and our cultures are at risk. And we've done work over the decades to preserve that knowledge, which is knowledge that is essential to the fight against climate change ... we have a lot to offer to this country.”

Senior producer Raji Ramanathan spoke with Young about what Biden could do for Native communities. Here are the main takeaways.

Three demands for the Biden administration

Young said that Protect the Sacred expects Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan to address Indigenous communities.

She said those anticipated plans include:

• Improving the fraught relationship between the federal government and tribal communities – especially after the damage done by the Trump administration

• Refocusing on the social movement for the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which has stalled out in the Senate

• Protecting Mother Earth through climate change initiatives, especially through work with Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), who Biden has nominated for interior secretary

Getting Native communities their due

“The Trump administration didn't want to include tribal communities in the initial stimulus package. And if it weren't for women like Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, who fought for our inclusion, we wouldn't have gotten the CARES Act funding that has helped us,” Young said. “The pandemic has exposed a lot of broken infrastructures within our communities that should have been dealt with through our relationship with the federal government in our treaties. And so I expect the Biden-Harris administration to turn attention to that.”

Fixing a rocky relationship

Young criticized the lack of Native leadership throughout the existence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, founded in 1824. This has resulted in a weak relationship between the bureau and the people it ostensibly serves.

She notes that Biden’s inauguration did not include a land acknowledgement, which highlighted a relationship between the federal government and tribal communities fraught with ignorance and misunderstanding.

Prioritizing progress regardless of party

Having a Democrat in the Oval Office doesn’t guarantee that tribal communities will get the attention they need. Obama delayed making a decision on whether to stop the expansion of the pipeline through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Army Corps of Engineers delayed construction in December 2016, after months of protests led by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Young said Native activists will continue to pressure the federal government, just as they did at Standing Rock, and now during the pandemic.

Young also emphasized that amid the start of a new administration, calls for unity cannot proceed without accountability, including holding responsible the politicians who contributed to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

“I want to speak as not only a Native American in this country, but as a person of color. I want this country to unite and I want us to begin the journey towards healing, but we cannot heal unless there's accountability,” Young said. Accountability is an important step toward ending social injustices, “and we can't let folks who are opposed to that win.”

Watch Ramanathan’s interview with Young:

This Indigenous activist wants the Biden administration to prioritize providing aid to those impacted by COVID-19 in tribal nations.@allieyoung13 hopes the administration will also focus on missing and murdered Indigenous women and address the climate crisis. pic.twitter.com/JPqlIoP25f

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 26, 2021

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