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Winona LaDuke – Featured speaker
Winona LaDuke (White Earth Ojibwe) is an internationally renowned activist working on  issues of sustainable development, renewable energy, and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. As Program Director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy, and environmental justice with Indigenous communities. And in her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation based non-profit organizations in the country.

Beth Osnes – Writer, narrator and co-producer
Beth Osnes is a professor of theatre and environmental studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder where she is co-founder of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative to inspire creative climate communication (www.insidethegreenhouse.net). With Adrian Manygoats, she helped found the Navajo Women’s Energy Project. For the last fifteen years she has worked in communities around the world using performance as a tool to help women empower their own voices for positive social change.

 

Adrian Manygoats – Co-producer
Adrian Manygoats (Navajo) was born and raised on the Navajo Nation, in Tuba City, Arizona. She is the Incubator Coordinator for the Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN) at the Grand Canyon Trust.  Prior to working with the Trust, Adrian co-founded the Navajo Women’s Energy Project and helped establish the non-profit organization Elephant Energy on the Navajo Nation. From 2013 to 2015, she operated with a team of organizers and community leaders in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah to make affordable solar technology available to people without grid access.

Tom Wasinger – Editor, composer
Tom Wasinger is a self-educated multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, music producer, music arranger, composer, and educator based in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado. He has received three Grammy Awards for his work as a music producer/arranger/composer: The first in 2003 for Beneath the Raven Moon by  Mary Youngblood, the second in 2007 for Dance With the Wind  by Mary Youngblood, and the third in 2009 as producer/arranger for the compilation Come to Me Great Mystery by various Native American artists. He has also received four A.F.I.M. (American Federation of Independent Music) Indie Awards and six Nammy awards from the Native American Music Association as producer/arranger.

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Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? What do tribal newspapers say?

This is Trahant Reports.

Over the past four decades, I have spent a lot of time on the question of endorsing candidates. At large newspapers, and at small ones, my colleagues and I have taken that task seriously. We invited candidates in, heard them out, read everything possible, and then reached a conclusion of one kind or another.

My favorite memory was in 2004 and an editorial board meeting with Howard Dean. It was clear that he was about to lose the Democratic nomination at that point, but came to see us anyway. He came into the meeting without notes, without staff, and talked at length about what he thought what went right … and what went wrong in that presidential campaign. We learned a lot.

The very idea of “endorsements” seems odd in a democracy.

Why would a newspaper tell anyone how to vote?

But I never looked at it that way. I always saw it as another form of commentary.

Nonetheless it always made readers mad because there are always people on the other side of the question and after an endorsement I’d be answering the phone explaining.

My point here is that endorsements are tricky. It is a form of commentary, but it’s also intense and personal.

Tribal newspapers are less likely to endorse presidential candidates. Over the years I have seen a few … but not often.

Now in South Dakota dueling endorsements.

The Native Sun News and Lakota Country Times both weighed in with their picks for the June 7 Democratic Primary.

The Lakota Country Times went first, picking Bernie Sanders.

Editor Brandon Ecoffey wrote: “In what has turned out to be one of the strangest presidential races of my lifetime, choosing a candidate to endorse has turned out to be a really simple decision.”

He called this election “a tipping point” and said “it is simply time to shake things up.”

He wrote: “I implore all of Lakota Country to #Feelthebern .”

And in Rapid City, the Native Sun News published its endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

“There is so much baloney flying around out there about Hillary Clinton that we wanted to set the record straight.”

The newspaper cited Clinton’s qualifications and her track record in Indian Country.

“We think it is high time to kick the old white men off of the podium and replace them with a strong, highly gifted woman,” the Native Sun News said. “With little fanfare she has visited Indian Country when she was First Lady. She has made a study of the many problems we face as Native Americans and is determined to follow in the footsteps of Obama and do something about it.

We will have to wait until  June 7 to see which editorial wins over its readers.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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A wealth of Native politicians in North Dakota.

This is Trahant Reports.

Over the years several Native American candidates have run and won statewide office. This year that’s happening again … times three.

Byron Mallott is Lt. Gov. in Alaska. Denise Juneau is Montana’s superintendent of public instruction. And Larry EchoHawk was the attorney general of Idaho.

That context is important because it’s a huge challenge to win across an entire state.

This year North Dakota has three Native American candidates running for statewide office.

Chase Iron Eyes is campaigning for North Dakota’s only seat in Congress. Ruth Buffalo is seeking the post of Insurance Commissioner. And Marlo Hunte-Beaubrun is contesting a seat on the three-member Public Services Commission. All are running as Democrats.

Count ’em: Three statewide campaigns.

IronEyes is an attorney, founder of Last Real Indians, and Standing Rock Sioux.

Buffalo is a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes. She is working toward “sustainable solutions to the tough problems that face Native people and nations.” She told local newspapers that there was no special effort to get so many Native Americans on the ballot but we’re “human beings who have a vested interest in our state>’

Hunte-Beaubrun has filed to run against the current chairman of the Public Service Commission, Julie Fedorchak. Hunte-Beaubrun is a Standing Rock Sioux tribal member and has a background in economic development.

The Public Service Commission regulates the oil and gas industry as well as telecommunications, weights and measures, and even pipelines.

Perhaps there is something in that North Dakota water.

In addition to the statewide races, longtime educator David Gipp is running for the North Dakota state Senate. Gipp was president and then chancellor of the United Tribes Technical College and is one of the founders of the school. He is Standing Rock Sioux.

Another Three Affiliated Tribal Member, Cesar Alvarez, is running for the state House of Representatives.

Two more ND legislative candidates who are enrolled members of federally recognized tribes: Are House candidate Cheryl Ann Kary (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe)

and Senate candidate Steve Allard (a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.)

So let’s add up the numbers: That’s three statewide and four district offices in a state that’s just under 6 percent American Indian. At a recent meeting of the Democratic Party, Iron Eyes said the Native American vote would have to be mobilized like never before.

It’s been said that 2016 is an outsider’s election. And you cannot get any more “outsider” than a Native American running as a general-interest candidate. North Dakota voters are putting that idea to the test.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, tells C-SPAN that a Paul Ryan candidacy remains a possibility even if unlikely.

I am often asked: Who is winning the votes from Indian Country this presidential election season?

This is Trahant Reports.

On social media it’s an intense debate. Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters point to Iowa, Oklahoma, Michigan, Nevada, and, after this weekend, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska, as evidence that Natives are “feeling the Bern.” But Hillary Clinton backers can look at results from Nevada and Arizona and make a case for the former Secretary of State. (Yes, you can argue Nevada either way. There is just not enough evidence for a definitive answer.)

But one thing is certain: Indian Country is voting for Democrats. In Arizona’s Apache County, for example, which is mostly Navajo, Clinton had more votes than the entire GOP field; and Sanders nearly doubled the vote tally of first-place Donald Trump.

There are distinct policy differences between the two parties at the presidential level.

Sanders has incorporated Native American issues into his stump speech, including full-funding of the Indian Health Service. Unprecedented. Clinton has a track record in Indian Country that goes back a long ways, even before she was a political figure, and her administration would build on the successes of the Obama years.

And the Republican alternative? Chaos. Imagine a government as crazy as the primaries.

We don’t know much about any of the Republican plans for Indian Country. Except these shared themes: Government is bad, Keystone XL pipeline is good, and there would be a new military emphasis on defeating Daeish in Syria and Iraq.

But what if the Republican nominee is not Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or even John Kasich?

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who is a member of the Chickasaw Tribe, raised the possibility of a Paul Ryan candidacy last week. He said it’s far more likely that one of the three remaining presidential candidates will be nominated, but if there is no consensus, then he said Ryan would be the logical choice because he has already received millions of votes from across the country.

So the only way he could win the nomination would be in Cleveland after the first ballot, delegates are free to wheel-and-deal.

Over his career, Ryan has proposed a radical rethinking of federal programs, including those that serve American Indians and Alaska Natives. In 2014 as House Budget Chairman, Ryan published a  full review of federal programs that address poverty, including lumping the Indian Health Service in with other “federal initiatives.” As I wrote at the time, what Ryan calls a “federal initiative,” I call a treaty obligation. A Ryan presidency would likely mean substantially less federal spending.

But Cole says Indian Country will be OK.  He told Indian Country Today Media Network: “This idea that a Ryan budget means cuts in Indian programs is simply not true. We have a lot of people on both sides of the aisle who recognize the Indian country has been historically underfunded.”

Ryan also has a track record for reaching across the aisle and making a deal. The 2013 budget agreement with Washington Sen. Patty Murray provided at least some relief to the harsh budget measures found in the sequester.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.

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When someone tells you that your vote doesn’t matter, quietly say, “Montana.” Or if someone says that politicians don’t listen and that nothing will change, smile, and then say “Montana.” And, when you want proof that the Native vote works, well, there is evidence to be found in Montana.

This is Trahant Reports.

American Indian voters are registered to vote in Montana at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. And, more important, especially during presidential years, Native American voters are more likely to turnout and vote.

Montana Democrats have figured this out and acknowledge that the Native vote is the key to their success s a party, in recent elections winning five of the six statewide offices. There are eight American Indians serving in the state Legislature, a number that’s nearly equal in percentage terms to the population.

In Helena, At theMontana Democratic Party’s Mansfield-Metcalf dinner, several state officials, legislators, and party activists referenced the importance of Native people to the state’s future. The Democrat’s message in Montana is clear: Native votes matter.

Gov. Steve Bullock pointed out that the expansion of Medicaid in Montana never would have happened without the Native vote. Seventy-thousand people are now eligible for Medicaid insurance, including some 15,000 Native Americans. That’s important because Native patients with insurance have access to medical care that would not be immediately available through Indian Health Service funding alone. He also cited the success of a new water compact with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He said he has appointed more Native Americans to state jobs, boards and commissions, and praised the idea of regular, government-to-government communications between tribes and the state of Montana.

But it was clear that the star was Denise Juneau. She is Mandan Hidatsa and of Blackfeet descent. She grew up in Browning. She currently is the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction and has won two statewide offices. In that post, her initiative, Graduation Matters, has helped raise the state’s high school graduation rate from 80 percent to 86 percent.

Denise Juneau she would be the only American Indian Woman to be elected to Congress. Ever.

“Audio Clip”

Perhaps Juneau will be the first Native woman in Congress. And if that happens it’s because Native voters are being courted like never before. Just say “Montana.”

I am Mark Trahant reporting

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A community forum on the LacCourte Oreilles Reservation was designed to hear from the people about what’s important to voters. (Photo by Jaynie Parrish)

There is so much about this presidential election that appeals to voters’ base instincts: Ugly threats involving immigrants or Muslims; school-yard shouting matches that replaced Republican debates and, especially concerning, the threats and violence, found at Donald Trump’s campaign rallies.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

This is Trahant Reports.

One alternative presented itself on a beautiful pre-Spring day in the northern woods of Wisconsin. Instead of enjoying that first sunny break from winter, citizens, activists and politicians, spent the day inside the Lac Courte Oreilles Bingo Hall for “You Talk, We Listen!” This was a classic exchange of ideas, democracy in action.

The event was on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Reservation and the tribe was clearly the host. A welcome by Tribal Chairman Mic Isham, and a drum and a flag song, made it clear that that was in Indian Country. But the discussion was about the whole neighborhood: Rural Wisconsin. It was about health of lakes, water, schools, state government, and even the presidency. The day was long and punctuated by respect.

As the Rev. John Stanley put it when he had his chance to talk: “Where ever there is a venom, there is a serum. People are the remedy for the sickness.” Or as Rita Pachal said, “We need to fix our democracy first.”

What does it mean to fix democracy? For speakers at LacCourte Oreilles it was a call to action. A call to organize. And a repeated, emphatic, call to vote.

Wisconsin is a new battleground over piping Canada’s Tar Sands oil to markets. “We fought the Keystone (XL pipeline) and we won,” said Carl Whiting, co-founder of Wisconsin Safe Energy Alliance. But now the company is set to build a pipeline across Wisconsin that will carry the millions of barrels of the “dirtiest oil.” He described a farmer whose house is near the current line and his foundation rumbles from the a pipeline only a few hundred feet away. He’d like to sell out, but the company doesn’t want to spend that much money.

There is common-ground in the pipeline issue, the idea that private property rights are being trampled on as fast as the environment. The company can also use eminent domain laws that require landowners to sell a strip of their land for the pipeline.

Korey Northrup said these pipelines will have an impact on traditional activists such as tapping trees for syrup. “We shouldn’t have to worry that a pipeline will ‘rain’ oil,” she said.

Any community forum, of course, is just the beginning of a conversation. Here in Wisconsin, there were many voices missing. We need to hear from people who did not or could not make the event. We need to hear more from young people. And there needs to be more of a conversation with conservatives.

One of the great stories from American history is the feud between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. These two men did not like each other or their politics. They were as far apart as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Yet late in life, Adams wrote to Jefferson, “You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.”

There remains a lot of explaining required in this country.

I am Mark Trahant reporting.