The constant clip-clop clattering of hooves hitting the pavement echoes as eight Navajos on horseback hug the shoulder along State Route 264, heading east through the Navajo Nation Forest.
Every now and then, a passing vehicle honks its horn. The group is on the last leg of a scenic six-day trail ride across the 27,000-square-mile-reservation.
“I’m kind of their pacemaker,” said Frank Young, who has been leading from the front. He’s been around horses pretty much his entire life. “My fifth birthday, my present was a little pony, and I’ve had horses ever since. The gray one is Once-in-a-Blue-Moon, and the black one is Lady Night. This is my brother’s horse we borrowed. I don’t know what his name is, but he’s a good horse, too.”
His daughter, Allie Redhorse Young, is the mind behind Saddle Up for Change. This voter initiative is among several get-out-the-vote strategies she’s organized through her Protect the Sacred nonprofit ahead of the 2024 general election.
It’s part of her ‘Ride to the Polls’ campaign, a series of pop-up events aiming to entice Indigenous youth, particularly Navajos, to get engaged in the democratic process.
But she admittedly encountered some pushback.
“I came up against a very hard question from our brilliant youth that asked, ‘Why are you asking our community to participate in a system that was not designed for us and has never worked for us?’” she explained. “And I felt it deeply, because that is true, but also in 2020, that wasn’t an election to sit out, and I had to get creative.”
That's when her father suggested leaning on horses as a solution.
“Why don’t we ride horses as a way to honor our ancestors and also our elders who had to do it this way?” she said. “I wanted them to ride to the polls in a balanced head space to really think about how important this decision is and what that vote means.”
The father-daughter duo has guided Diné to precincts and polling stations across Diné Bikéyah since the 2020 presidential election, amid a global pandemic. But ahead of this cycle, they also decided to help register voters before the Oct. 7th deadline in Arizona.
So the group of no more than 20 riders averaged 9 miles each day on horseback through remote, rural areas to set up voter registration sites from Kayenta to St. Michaels — just outside the capital of Window Rock.
They registered a hundred new voters in the first week of October while reaching 550 Navajos with help from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Arizona Native Vote.
President Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 by less than 11,000 votes in a swing state where Native Americans make up 5% of the population. Four years later, at least a hundred Navajos plan on getting to the polls come Election Day by using this sacred mode of transportation.
“To be honest, it’s a natural connection to have all of these different pieces of our stories come together. They’re having fun, they’re amplifying all the messages, and it’s bringing community together really,” said Jaynie Parrish, executive director of Arizona Native Vote. “Horses, horse medicine, the people speaking up, the prayers and the blessings along the route, all of it just fits.”
Parrish has shared stories from elders about how her Diné people had no other choice but to travel far distances to trading posts and post offices to vote in-person. Without horses in the American West, Navajos may not have gotten to the ballot box.
“They didn’t necessarily always have paper forms like we do now,” she elaborated. “They would physically vote with their bodies, like move from one side to another. They would sign an X or a thumbprint to their name when they would vote, and that fight still continues today.”
Frank Young added that their horses symbolize freedom and their right to franchise.
“They see it, then it brings them back some life, hope, faith that, you know, we’re still here. They’re my inspiration,” he shared. “When I come back, I’m tired, I’m bushed, but they’re there; feeding, watering and being around them, energizes me, relaxes me.”
He and his daughter rely on horse medicine, but it doesn’t come cheap.
“Horse medicine reconnects us to our way of life and Hózhǫ́, in the Navajo culture, beauty and balance, because we believe that the horse represents strength and resiliency,” Allie Redhorse Young said. “We have a lot of folks who are interested in riding with us and say, ‘Do you guys have extra horses?’ And unfortunately, we don’t.”
Although there’s an abundance of free-roaming horses on Navajoland – with the Nation’s Department of Agriculture recently estimating the feral population has more than doubled to 80,000 animals since 2017 – caring for them adds up, from veterinary bills to buying feed.
“Eight dollars for three-wire alfalfa was high,” said Kristy Kinlicheenie, a Navajo agent with the Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program at the University of Arizona. “And now you compare it to today where it’s, you know, $17 to $24, it definitely is becoming really hard to own any type of animal, especially horses.”
In the Navajo language, they’re called łįį’ and considered deities that carry messages.
“There’s a lot of great traditional teachings that stand behind the horse,” Kinlicheenie added. “And people can use horses, whether it be therapeutic or just recreational. Horses are a staple that’s always been around.”
There are traditional songs and ceremonies that celebrate them. Arrowheads can often be found underneath their hooves and are supposed to serve as protection tools for the horse and rider.
In July, Navajo Nation Council delegates rode on horseback to Window Rock from their different agencies to reenact how how leaders would come together and meet. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension collaborated with the council, offering trainings and demonstrations on farrier and dental care as well as vaccinations.
“We understand that horses are a fundamental part of the culture here,” Kinlicheenie said. “We tried to preserve our heritage as much as we can, and so we still try to incorporate the horse within modern times.”
But some traditionalists, like Navajo horse gentler Leland Grass, think politics and spirituality should be kept apart, and are worried that these sacred animals may be used for impure purposes.
“I will never, never, ever saddle a horse, and then go rally for Donald Trump, Harris or even these chapter houses,” Grass said. “I’ve seen with my naked eye that our ceremonies have been used by the government. And sooner or later, they dissipate.”
But Allie Redhorse Young doesn’t see it that way.
“There’s a strong cowboy culture, especially in the Navajo Nation, and so, I don’t see it going away,” she said. “We continue riding our horses even in some of our ceremonies. I think that will live on.”
Once the riders reached their final destination – the St. Michaels chapter house, one of 110 local chapters – Young stressed her 60-mile trip across the largest reservation in the U.S. was still worth it.
“I’m sore for sure. My knees hurt a little bit, but also sad,” she admitted. “I didn’t wanna get off the horse, but I feel accomplished. We did a good deed for the community and that’s really what this is about.”
To her, riding to the polls isn’t rude.
“Because when one mounts the horse, and is in rhythm and sync, it reconnects us to Mother Earth, reminds us of what we’re fighting for,” Young added. “I was talking to some of our riders, and I said, ‘Why did you come out?’ … ‘Because of this,’ and they pointed out to our land… ‘I want to protect this.’ And I thought that was so beautiful.”
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