Archives for April 2017
Trahant Reports – She Represents. A survey of Native American women in elected offices
Former Montana Sen. Carol Juneau once said that she considered state office because that’s where she could make a difference.
This is Trahant Reports.
The year was 1998. She was first appointed to the legislature to replace a man who left office to take up a seat on the Blackfeet Tribal Council. Then she became one of two Native Americans serving in the Montana House of Representatives.
Juneau said that Montana’s American Indians ought to have better representation, because tribal people “are citizens of the state of Montana, the same as any other citizens. I’d like to see that Indian people and Indian tribes in Montana aren’t left outside of everything,” she said.
Today Native Montanans are not left out.
The state has the most Native Americans elected as legislators in the country, three members of the Senate and six members of the House. More than that: Montana has elected more women than any other state: Four of the nine legislators.
The Montana story has a national application, too. A higher percentage of Native American women serve in state legislatures than do women nationally.
Women make up about 25 percent of state legislatures. But a little more than 40 percent of all American Indian and Alaska Native legislators are female. The numbers break down this way: There are at least 67 Native American legislators out of 7,383 seats in 50 states or nearly one percent. (If you think that’s bad: Congress only has Native representation pegged at one-third of one percent.) Of those 67 seats, at least 25 of them are held by Native American women. So another way to look at the data: There are 1,800 legislative seats held by women and that works out to a Native representation of 1.4 percent.
There is still a long way to go to reach parity with the population, but it’s much better than just about any other category in the body politic.
A recent report by the Bureau of Indian Affairs shows more than 570 elected tribal leaders and, in that group, just under 25 percent are women.
Debora Juarez, Blackfeet, currently represents more citizens than any Native woman in America (more than 90,000 people live in her North Seattle district). She was elected to Seattle’s City Council in November of 2015. In an interview with the Tacoma Art Museum she talked about her idea about the role of women: “While men were in charge of external power, women had interior, spiritual, and domestic power. They were the centers of the community.” That’s exactly how she’s approached her job on the council. She’s argued for community services from sidewalks to child care.
It’s so long past we should be using the phrase, “ever” or for that matter, “the first.” We need more Native American women in office.
I am Mark Trahant.
The enduring Pocahontas myth
NAC: April 3 – 7
Monday, April 3, 2017 – The enduring Pocahontas myth
The lingering American perception of Pocahontas is some form of the Disney film version: a tribal chief’s daughter bravely steps in to save Jamestown settler John Smith from a grisly execution by his Indigenous captors. There is little to no evidence any of that happened. Pocahontas is currently making headlines because England is devoting a considerable amount of attention to the 400th anniversary of her death. Will the general public ever really learn the truth about Pocahontas? Historians and tribal members help us update our portrait of Pocahontas’ life.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 – Internet for everyone
A report for the FCC in 2015 found nearly two million people living on tribal land lack access to the internet. Even more than that can’t sign onto broadband. That digital divide makes it harder for Alaska Natives and Native Americans living in rural areas to complete tasks online that the rest of us take for granted: paying bills, looking for a job, and communicating with each other.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 — Getting your affairs in order
The average funeral costs more than $7,000, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. That’s a hefty sum, especially when a family doesn’t plan ahead. Families face additional confusion when there’s no will for valuables, homes or land left behind. We will go over some basic, appropriate ways to prepare for the inevitable.
Thursday, April 6, 2017 — Native perspectives in public schools
The governor of Wyoming recently signed the Indian Education For All bill, which requires educators to create Native curricula for public schools statewide. The bill mandates organizers work with Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes to come up with the lesson plans. Wyoming is one of a handful of states putting an emphasis on teaching Native viewpoints.
Friday, April 7, 2017 — Go ahead, boycott Hawaii!
When a federal judge in Hawaii put a halt on President Trump’s travel restrictions, supporters of the policy vowed to boycott Hawaii. The boycott appears to have fizzled, but not before Native Hawaiians actually expressed support of the boycott. They were expressing their frustration over losing more and more control of their culture and island homeland. The news comes on the heels of a legal tussle involving an island purchased by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. We’ll get an update from Native Hawaiians.