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emergency order for satellite voting on reservations, arguing that the long distance they must travel to vote early, or register late, puts them at a disadvantage compared with white voters. A federal judge denied their request on Tuesday.
• The NCAI is pushing this year for the "largest Native vote in history," but experts agree achieving a high turnout will be difficult.
• "They require more engagement, more interaction, just to get them to the polls," Montana State University political scientist David Parker. Get-out-the-vote campaigns on reservations are particularly time-consuming, he said, because some homes may have no Internet service -- or even television. There also are cultural barriers and the tribes' tumultuous history with the federal government.
• Still, tribal leaders hope this momentum will energize their people on Election Day. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are locked in a tight battle for the White House, and in some states, a few votes could give either candidate the margin of victory.
• "I think the stakes are high," said Laurie Weahkee, executive director of the Native American Voters Alliance, which has been canvassing pueblos, or tribal communities, in the Albuquerque area and talking to prospective voters on the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
• "I think people are really paying attention," Weahkee said. "They're asking: 'What do these elections mean to us? What does this mean for me as a working person? What does this mean for my family?'"
• Despite the fact that they lack the sheer numbers of other constituencies, such as Latinos and blacks, Pata said, Native Americans can use voting as a tool to protect sovereignty and advance tribal self-determination.
• The issues that resonate most with Indian voters are economic development and improved government-to-government recognition of tribal sovereignty, said Holly Cook Macarro, a Democratic political consultant in Washington and member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in northern Minnesota. Turning out votes in bad economic times is always a struggle, Macarro said, since unemployment is in the double digits on many reservations and 60 percent or higher on some.
• Native Americans are about 1 percent of the electorate, and in 2008 Obama garnered 69 percent support among Native voters over Republican John McCain, according to estimates by The Associated Press. The margin of error is plus or minus 11 percentage points because of the small number of voters.
• American Indians and Alaska Natives have made critical strides under the Obama administration. Work has been done to bolster crime fighting and chip away at high sexual assault rates on reservations, to improve access to health care that

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