As a voter registration effort aimed at Native Americans continues in Wisconsin, tribal members are talking about some of the issues they hope candidates will address this fall. And, about some of the ongoing barriers to voting.
A couple hundred Native people from around Wisconsin attended a tailgate party ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers game on Thursday. The nonpartisan group, Wisconsin Native Vote, sponsored the event, saying it wanted to do something fun to promote its ongoing get out the vote effort.
The Menominee Nation’s Smokey Town drum and singing group performed at the party.
Also on hand was Shannon Holsey, who is president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indian and chair of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. Holsey said the tribes have had an interesting and complex relationship with the U.S. government, and she hopes candidates for federal office this fall will address some key issues.
“There are things —from being able to provide our citizens with affordable health care, access to good education, making sure we have stewarding of Mother Earth and making sure that those systematic barriers that exist with our federal government , we continue with tribal nations, as sovereigns, we continue to envelop those relationships and build those relationships," Holsey told WUWM.
Clean water is a key issue for a member of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, Gloria Waabigwan-Wiggins. She also hopes to hear from state political candidates between now and November.
“We would like the state to collaborate with the tribal leaders to make sure that our sovereignty is being recognized and we’re brought to the table of discussion," said Waabigwan-Wiggins, who is also northern tribal organizer for Wisconsin Native Vote.
The call for collaboration comes during the 100 year anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act, which began the process of giving Native Americans the right to vote — though some states blocked that as late as 1957.
Holsey said that law passed after many tribal members fought for the U.S. in World War I. The National Archives Museum states 12,000 Native Americans served in the military during the war, and tens of thousands more supported the war effort at home.
Holsey said exercising that voting right is critical for everyone, including Native people. “We have to understand that the only way we can institute change and be broadly representative is by casting our votes and being inclusive of our process," Holsey said.
But Mark Denning, a Waukesha County resident who is a descendant of several tribes, told the tailgate party that he’s often shuttled around at polling places as poll workers make mistakes or possibly view him suspiciously.
Denning’s advice to new, and continuing Native voters this year: “Use those tribal ID’s when you vote. Get those poll workers used to them. It is the law. Use your tribal ID!" Denning emphasized.
Somewhere between 1-2% of the nearly six million people in Wisconsin are Native American. That’s enough to make a difference in our battleground state where contests are sometimes decided by less than one percent of the vote.
Wisconsin Native Vote says it gave out 1,000 tickets for the Brewers game. The home team defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4.
