More likely he's been looking at some poll numbers, and has decided to do what he has to do to keep living in Washington.
FWIW, I came to this realization years ago. So did my Dad. He left the rez mentally even before World War II broke out. He left it for good when he enlisted in the Navy the week after Pearl Harbor. He was disappointed because they sent him home and told him to come back in January. They had more volunteers than they could process.
He came back in January to enlist as instructed and became an officer by the war's end. We knew about his ties to the Reservation, but he would never let us claim them telling us that if we needed to get ahead based on race, we weren't good enough to get ahead. I finally found his tribal registration when the 1940 census went public last year.
Dad hated FDR with a purple passion. But he loved his country even more. Not one of his seven kids grew up to be a bed wetting liberal. In fact, my sister in Texas is so conservative, she makes me look liberal by comparison.