Last week, over 20 women gathered in Minneapolis for an intensive 1-day training on civic engagement skills. These women, hailing from White Earth, Mille Lacs, Leech Lake, and the twin cities metro area, were inaugural participants in Wellstone Action Fund's new Native American Leadership Program which is set to do 25 trainings next year in tribal communities in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This new program will provide leadership and civic engagement skills training, culturally-specific training curricula, and highly-skilled Native American trainers to create a pipeline of Native leaders who are ready to step into key leadership positions in their communities.
For the majority of participants, the December 19th training was an introduction to grassroots organizing for civic engagement, though most have been actively involved in their tribal communities for years. The training focused specifically on the skills necessary to implement a program of nonpartisan voter mobilization in tribal communities and included hands-on exercises on door-to-door canvassing and writing an action plan. In addition, presentations were made on the new Safe at Home legislation, which allows victims of domestic violence to vote without endangering themselves and their families by making their location public and therefore available to their abusers. This program is now being implemented by the Minnesota Secretary of State Office, but Lonna Stevens (Tlingit/ Dakota), Director of the Sheila Wellstone Institute, envisions greater opportunities.
"With the high incidence of domestic violence in our communities, it's critical that we educate on the issues of safety and voting. We are training people to advocate to their tribal leaders to implement Safe at Home safe voting strategies in tribal elections and take the steps necessary for Native women to raise their voice without putting themselves in harm's way," Stevens said.
The training ended its jam-packed day with a session on strategic leadership development in Native communities.
"A big part of this program is making the case for voter engagement as a model for identifying and developing new leaders in our communities," said Peggy Flanagan (Ojibwe), Coordinator of the Native American Leadership Program. "As Native people, the strength of our community is founded in relationships. It's time we built the leadership necessary to translate that organizing we do every day into electoral power."
For too long, people from outside our tribal communities have come in and tried to find solutions to our challenges. It's time for us to gain the skills necessary to make change in our communities."
Participants in this inaugural training will now become part of this leadership pipeline. Three women registered to vote for the first time at the training, and several participants from White Earth will be attending a 3-day Camp Wellstone training in January to learn the skills necessary to run for elected office themselves.