Indigenous Peoples Day event in Minneapolis encourages voter registration, education
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Indigenous communities across the country are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. In Minneapolis, the community is marking the holiday by making sure people are registered to vote and know about the issues.
That’s why the Native Community Development Institute (NACDI) and American Indian OIC are holding rallies before the 2024 presidential elections. On Indigenous Peoples Day, the event included games, music, a DJ, speeches from candidates, food and lots of swag, like a T-shirt featuring Zahn McClarnon’s character Officer Big from the FX series Reservation Dogs telling people to vote.
Volunteers from NACDI were busy on Indigenous People’s Day handing out voter registration forms, stickers and buttons as people approached the table wanting to register or pledge that they would vote. Native Americans make up about 1.2 percent of Minnesota’s population, according to the U.S. Census.
White Earth Citizen Heather Michaelsen already voted in this year’s election but took the day off work to join the Make Voting a Tradition rally and celebrate the day.
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Some of the issues she’s concerned about are the economy and women’s rights.
“I just think it’s really important that even if a woman doesn’t believe in abortion, that women’s health care is an important issue,” Michaelson said. “Because even if a woman has a healthy pregnancy, you never know if a complication comes up that she might still need some kind of a service that would be covered under abortion care.”
Make Voting a Tradition is a non-partisan culturally centered initiative that’s been around since 2015. The program doesn’t just hold events leading up to the presidential elections — but all year round. So far, they said they’ve been able to register more than 900 people.
Paul Bearheart, Jr. lives nearby and came with his partner and his daughter Amira. This is the third time he’s voted.
“If you want to have things better for your community and loved ones, you got to have your voice heard, and that’s by voting,” he said.
Native people’s right to vote was contested more than 40 years after the Indian Citizenship Act was passed in 1924. Even with the passage of this act, Native people were prevented from participating because the Constitution left it up to the states. It wasn’t addressed at the federal level until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Historically, we mistrust government,” said John Williams, who works for NACDI. “So it’s a lot of education about your vote is your voice, that you’ve got a choice. Also transportation, all the regular stuff that goes into any barriers across cultures.”
Ryan Neadeau, a Red Lake citizen, said Native people still face other barriers — like being unhoused or not knowing they can vote, even if they have a felony on their record. That’s what drove him to volunteer at the rally.
“I work with a lot of recovering addicts that don’t know these facts about voting, so we run into a lot with felonies, homelessness, not having an address,” Neadeau said.
Williams said that he’s heard from voters who are engaged in the issue of climate change, natural resources and protecting cultural traditions like ricing.
Joe Hobot, the CEO of American Indian OIC, said events like Make Voting a Tradition aren’t just about getting people registered.
“We also do educational services, like showing what a ballot may look like for first time voters, trying to walk through the process of casting a ballot, so they have some familiarity. And then, of course, exposure to candidates,” Hobot said.
