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Voting – Stamp of Approval?

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How many American Indians and Alaska Natives should serve in the United States Congress?
This is Trahant Reports.

 

Over the course of this country’s history there have been several Native Americans serving in the US House and the US Senate. But it’s a hit or miss. One or two. Then none. Three and now four … including the first two Native American women ever elected to either House.

But the numbers should be higher. There should be at least seven Native Americans serving in the House and one or two more in the United States Senate.

Perhaps that time is growing near.

Paulette Jordan, Coeur d’Alene,  is now the Democratic Party’s nominee for the US Senate in Idaho. She would be the first Native woman ever elected to that body. 
Indeed, across the country there at least 90 Indigenous candidates are seeking election to local, state and federal offices in some 15 states. 

Montana is a great story.

There are now 15 candidates as party nominees from offices ranging from state auditor to the legislature. This is building on an impressive base, because there are currently a dozen members of the American Indian caucus in that state’s legislature, and there is a higher percentage of legislators than the state’s 6.7 percent Native population. 

Montana leads the nation when it comes to participatory democracy. And yet there are so many other states where that should be so from Alaska to Arizona to the Dakotas to Oklahoma. This country is better and stronger when every citizen has a voice.

Then, this is a difficult time for any campaign.

As my colleague Kolby KickingWoman reported last week in Indian Country Today: “The global pandemic has upended life for a lot of people … KickingWoman found politicians from Montana to Oklahoma who now use Facebook and virtual town halls to try and reach voters. Instead of going door to door or traditional campaigns.

One upside, according to Rudy Soto, Shoshone-Bannock, who is running for Congress in Idaho is that more voters are aware of the importance of government. He says he sees more people determined to register to vote and to participate.

That’s an important idea when the process itself is being changed by the pandemic. More states are open to the idea of shifting ballots to polling stations to the mails.

That’s already an area of promise in at least four of the states that held primaries last week, turnout surpassed 2016 levels. And, most of those votes were cast by mail.

Clearly people are voting with their feet. Or better … voting with their stamps. 

 

I am Mark Trahant

Indigenous in Music with Joni Buffalohead of Bluedog in our Spotlight Interview (Blues)

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Welcome to Indigenous in Music! This week Larry welcomes from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is the lead singer of the Rock and Roll Blues band “’Bluedog”. Joni Buffalohead will be in the house to tell us about the release of their 5th album “Take a Chance. Hear their album on Spotify Bluedog: Take A Chance

Music from Bluedog, Mike Bern, Tracy Lee Nelson, Angus Vincent, The Cody Blackbird Band, The Spiritual Warriors, David Huchfelt, B-Side Players, Irv Lyons Jr., Alan Syliboy & The Thundermakers, nehiyawak, Soda Stereo, iskwe, Wayne Lavalee, Tribalistas, Artson, MC Redcloud, Q052, Def-i, QVLN, Aterciopelados, Elastic Bond, Julian Taylor Band, Indian City, Shauit, Pura Fe, Cary Morin and much much more.

The New Normal

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The corona virus pandemic is like nothing we have experienced before. The virus is new — and something we humans have no protection against — and so governments around the world including tribal governments are still trying to figure out how to respond.

This is Trahant Reports.

Why don’t people believe? Why the business as usual? And what will it take to change behavior?

Consider this math: California has a model that projects 25 million of its citizens will be infected by the virus over the next 8 weeks. That works out to 62.5 percent of the population.

And if California is a bellwether — as it often is — that means that out of 3 million people some 1.8 million people in Indian Country.

The World Health Organization and the CDC say mild cases account for 75-to-80 percent of the total. This is harsh, but that model means that about 500,000 people in Indian Country will get seriously ill or will die.

“It’s unfortunate that people are not taking this serious. Maybe it would be mass casualties that would really open people’s eyes,” Dean Seneca, executive director of Seneca Scientific Solutions. He told Indian Country Today and worked for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Office for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support for more than 18 years.

Seneca knew the U.S. was going to face a pandemic, and especially when China had more than 20,000 cases.

It is a hard thing to do to shut down everything. No visiting. No shopping. Just sit and wait.

And here’s the thing. We may have to do this for weeks if not months.

In California normally congested freeways are wide open and city streets are mostly empty.

Clearly life is not normal. Yet a lot of people still are living in denial.

Sunday night Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth, announced on her Instagram page that she lost her brother to the pandemic.

“Almost exactly two months after we buried our dad, my brother Ron passed on Saturday,” she wrote. “To many, he’ll be a statistic: Tennessee’s second COVID-related death. But to me, I’ll remember a loving, older brother, uncle, father, and husband.”

Flanagan said several weeks ago her brother was diagnosed with cancer. “His immune system was compromised and he contracted COVID-19,” she wrote. “He fought as hard as he could but it was simply too much for his body. THIS is why we must #StayHomeMN.”

She wrote that someone feeling well could still be carrying the virus … “then you walk past the next Ron, my big brother, in public.

The new normal. I am Mark Trahant.

Entire Bands Died – Breaking the Chain of Contagion

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One reason why the coronavirus — or COVID-19 — is frightening is that Indian Country has experience with infectious diseases.

This is Trahant Reports.

In her book, Pox Americana, Elizabeth Fenn writes about how fast smallpox spread across the continent. Fenn looked at Spanish burial records to trace the spread from Mexico City to missions in New Mexico. She found out how the disease made its way via trade routes from the fur country of Hudson Bay to the Pacific Coast.

The disease raced ahead of Lewis and Clark, so much so that when the captains made their way across the the Bitterroot Mountains, they were witnessing the tribes that had already been deeply impacted by the epidemic. One phrase that has stuck with me came from an Assiniboine scholar who wrote: Entire bands died.

And so it was about a hundred years ago when a violent strain of the flu went global. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 500 million people, or more than a quarter of the world’s population, were infected with the virus. And some 50 million worldwide died with about 675,000 deaths in the United States.

As my colleague Joaqlin Estus wrote in Indian Country Today:

The village of Brevig Mission, in northwest Alaska, lost nearly every resident, 72 of the 80 Inupiaq people died within five days. The village of Wales buried 172 people. Influenza devastated people in their 20s and 30s, productive hunters and food gatherers. Some survivors in isolated villages ended up starving to death in the aftermath of epidemics.

And this new virus, COVID 19 already has significant implications globally. Its effect on the world economy is alarming. And regions of the planet, from China to Iran, are in shutdown mode as people are staying home trying to limit its spread.

Many cases have been relatively mild, and some of those infected are believed to show no symptoms at all. But that is the ideal for the way an infectious disease to spread.

On Facebook there is a renewed interest, at least from my friends, in ending the practice of shaking hands. That’s an old tradition. One of the earliest references is found in a ninth century which shows an Assyrian leader sealing an alliance. Pairs of clasped hands even appeared on Roman coins. And Lewis and Clark handed out dozens of Peace and Friendship coins as they journeyed across the West.

But when you shake hands you pick up germs. So as this virus spreads … perhaps the handshake is a tradition that is coming to an end.

I am Mark Trahant.

Mike Bern in our Spotlight Interview (Folk, Rock)

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Welcome to Indigenous in Music! This week Larry welcomes from the Tobique First Nation Mr. Mike Bern. He is a singer, songwriter and performer. He’s has given us a taste with a few singles, and his new album is soon to come. Find out all about Mike on his homepage www.mikebern.com.

Music from Mike Bern, Indian City, Kaeley Jade, Shauit, Gerardo Frisina, QVLN, STOiK, CHANCES, Darren Geffre, Bluedog, Nortec Collective, Gina Loring, Stolen Identity, Sandra Sutter, Tracy Bone, Conrad Bigknife, Leanne Goose, Leela Gilday, Shon Denay, Q052, Rellik, Ozomatli, Soda Stereo, Hour Eleven, District Avenue and much much more

Budget Proposal

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The federal budget for next year is out today. May it rest in peace.

This is Trahant Reports.

Every winter the White House releases a budget for the federal government. The document outlines the president’s priorities in the year ahead. Then Congress pretty much ignores that document and enacts a budget of its own. (And that is true no matter which party runs is in control.)

But even if the budget does not become law, it does open a window into the thinking of any presidential administration.

This budget follows a familiar pattern. It will spend $4.8 trillion and carries a promise to balance the budget within 15 years. But to get there it carries deep spending cuts to domestic programs, an idea that Congress has rejected. It also would spend more money on the military and leave Social Security and Medicare benefits the same.

An election year document. Republicans will like the increase in military spending and Democrats are unhappy with the spending cuts.

Last year it was pretty much the same proposal. Then Congress said no until a deal was reached between the White House and House Democrats. This plan erases that deal by imposing an immediate 5 percent cut to all non-defense spending. Agencies that would be hard hit include a 27 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, fewer dollars for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and 9 percent cut to the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection.  (The agencies charged with figuring out how to treat the coronavirus).

A special concern to Indian Country: The proposal to take $700 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. One way the Trump administration hopes to accomplish that goal is by creating waivers for states to swap program flexibility for less funding. The idea is then states could design programs that would better serve citizens. That’s the theory anyway.

** Extra: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says: “The proposed waivers are a lose-lose proposition for people with Medicaid and for states. Far from promoting better health outcomes, as the administration has claimed, the waivers would worsen people’s health by taking away coverage and reducing access to care. For states, they would mean greater financial risk, with federal funding cuts most likely to occur during recessions, public health emergencies, and other times when states face high demand for coverage and strain on other parts of their budgets. States taking up the proposed waivers should also expect to face litigation, since the waivers appear to violate federal law in several respects.” **

In recent years the Indian Health Service has been dramatically reshaped by Medicaid spending; it now accounts for funding for one out of four patients. And that’s a conservative figure. It’s likely higher.

In the State of Indian Nations, National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp called the federal budget “incompetent.”

Nothing in the document released today will change that perception.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

The Brown Girls Guide to Politics

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The Brown Girls Guide to Politics is the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. Host A’shanti Gholar leads conversations with women changing the face of politics. Episodes include interviews with politicians, candidates, and influencers. Get ready for roundtables, analyzing current events, and more!

Host A’shanti Gholar

Peggy Flanagan and Tashia Arnold: “Our ancestors believed in this day.”

Welcome to The Brown Girls Guide to Politics — the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. On this episode, A’shanti talks to Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, and Tashia Arnold, Program Associate at the Center for Native American Youth. They talk about stepping into politics as Native women and creating space for other Native people to take a seat at the table. Peggy is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Tashia is an enrolled member of the Quinault Indian Nation and grew up on the reservation located in Washington State.

 

Paulette Jordan: “It is our right to be here.”

On this episode, A’shanti talks to Paulette Jordan, former state representative of Idaho and the 2018 Democratic nominee for Governor of Idaho. She talks about how an attack on tribal sovereignty motivated her to take action, and what it took to flip a seat. Paulette is an enrolled citizen of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. She also has Sinkiuse, Nez Perce, and Yakama-Palus ancestry.

 

Rachael Lorenzo: “Take up space.”

On this episode, A’shanti talks to Rachael Lorenzo, BGG contributor and the Co-Founder of Indigenous Women Rising. They talk about working in politics as an Indigenous young parent, and how they take up space in and around political structures that were not built for people of color. Rachael is from the Pueblo of Laguna, a descendant of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and a Chicana, born and raised in New Mexico.

Rachael Lorenzo: “Take up space.”

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Welcome to The Brown Girls Guide to Politics — the one stop shop for Women of Color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. On this episode, A’shanti talks to Rachael Lorenzo, BGG contributor and the Co-Founder of Indigenous Women Rising. They talk about working in politics as an Indigenous young parent, and how they take up space in and around political structures that were not built for people of color. Rachael is from the Pueblo of Laguna, a descendant of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and a Chicana, born and raised in New Mexico.

Peggy Flanagan and Tashia Arnold: “Our ancestors believed in this day.”

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Welcome to The Brown Girls Guide to Politics — the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. On this episode, A’shanti talks to Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, and Tashia Arnold, Program Associate at the Center for Native American Youth. They talk about stepping into politics as Native women and creating space for other Native people to take a seat at the table. Peggy is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Tashia is an enrolled member of the Quinault Indian Nation and grew up on the reservation located in Washington State.

Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Day 10

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The 10th round of the 61st Annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo concluded Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 14, 2019. This is the 35th time that the WNFR has been in the city of lights and it has sold out 350 performances since 1985. We have results of round number 10, the best on 10 and our 2019 world champions in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Thank you very much Wrangler Jeans and Shirts for support of this program on Native Voice One Radio Network.

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