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Tuba City (Arizona), special correspondent
A pick-up hurtles down a red dirt track at full speed to park a few meters from a sheet metal prefab. At the wheel, Helen Maloney has just driven almost an hour to reach her village of Shonto, in the heart of the Nation navajoand Tuba City, the most populated town on the Native American reservation, to the northwest. “This is the closest polling station for me, it was important that I travel to avoid being removed from the electoral rolls and having to re-register for the next election”argues the 64-year-old retiree pragmatically to justify her civic gesture.
Except that it is neither for Kamala Harris nor for Donald Trump that she will speak out today. Her decision for the American presidential election, which she prefers to keep to herself, was made a few days ago by early voting, the ballot sent by post. It was for another election that she used up a quarter of a tank of gas: the inhabitants of the Diné Nation are electing this year those who will represent them at the level of “chapters”, the tribal administrative and political divisions.
Helen Maloney looks at a yellow sign printed with the faces and names of the candidates running this year, listed by constituency. « Yáʼátʼééh » – equivalent of bonjour in Navajo language – she says to an assessor as she enters the prefab, her choice in mind.
