Indigenous vote 2024. IllumiNative, an Indigenous women-led social justice organization committed to building power for Indigenous peoples, and Native Organizers Alliance (NOA), the largest Indigenous women-led network of grassroots voice organizers in the country, the Natives announced Vote Campaign 2024, a national, Indigenous-led voter engagement and mobilization effort aimed at achieving new historic Indigenous voter turnout in the upcoming presidential election.
Focusing on 12 key states with significant Native populations, including Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Alaska, this year’s initiative will leverage both digital and grassroots organizing strategies to overcome the barriers Native people face in access to election resources.
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The two organizations previously collaborated for the 2020 edition of the Natives Vote campaign. Crystal Echohawk (Pawnee Nation), Founder and CEO of IllumiNative, explains that they are applying what they learned from that year to their efforts for this election.
“One of the first things we learned is this; community research was very important to understand what is important to our people. What are the things we care most about when we vote for a system that hasn’t always treated us well? What are the motivations and what are the barriers?” Echohawk explained. “Now that we understand what’s important to people, that’s going to drive our messaging in a way that we want to go out and talk to our fellow Indigenous voters or potential Indigenous voters, so we’re not just spouting slogans and stuff at them . .”
IllumiNative and NOA have launched a new website that will serve as an organizing hub for Indigenous peoples. The site provides tools for checking voter registration status, understanding state-specific voter requirements, and creating a voting plan. It also provides information on local elections and issues most important to Indigenous communities, based on the latest Indigenous Futures Survey – the most comprehensive Indigenous-led research initiative in the country.
The top issues Illuminative and Native Organizers Alliance hears from Native voters through campaigns and through the survey are the economy, tribal sovereignty and health. For indigenous women, protecting reproductive health is paramount.
As part of the Natives Vote campaign, IllumiNative will provide grants between $50,000 and $75,000 to Indigenous organizations committed to voter engagement and mobilization. Selected grantees include: Native Movement (Alaska), Protect the Sacred (Arizona), Arizona Native Vote (Arizona), Miigwech (Michigan), Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) (Minnesota), Nevada Civic Engagement Task Force (Nevada).
Through a partnership with the Center for Social and Media Impact’s Good Laugh Project, the campaign will produce more than 100 GOTV comedy content that will be distributed via text banking and social media. This is in addition to its partnership with Native Public Media to run GOTV radio ads on major Tribal radio stations in target states, and its partnership with Amplifier to produce GOTV artwork that will be used for posters, social media and swag with designs that reflect the values and identity of each respective community and state.
Organizing voters alone is only part of the battle to get Indigenous people to vote. There are also many voter suppression efforts that create barriers for Indigenous voters.
“We’re seeing a lot of voter suppression and attacks on Indigenous voting rights. Things they do, like making voting locations very, very far away from our people who live on reservations, or strict voter ID laws,” Echohawk said. “I think everyone is starting to feel some fear on some level as this gets closer, but we have a goal of registering at least 20,000 new voters this year. We have provided grants to these organizations not only to get people registered, but also to help people make a voting plan for Election Day.”
Illuminative will also have rapid response funding available to communities to help organize things like mass transit to polling places, gas, feeding volunteers to really support people and communities in coming together and ensuring Indigenous voices are heard. Every Wednesday night, Illuminative does phone and text banking and trains people on how to do it.
Judith LeBlanc, executive director of Native Organizers Alliance, explains that this election is not just about choosing the president, but about protecting tribal sovereignty.
“Mobilizing the Indigenous voice this year is about protecting democracy for all. When we cast the Indigenous vote, we demonstrate our community power and political significance,” said LeBlanc. “We have 200 Moccasins on the ground working with 24 Indigenous organizations and 13 Tribal Nations to register voters, increase awareness and encourage Indigenous voter turnout. NOA and IllumiNative know that involving more indigenous people in the political process helps create better conditions for our communities and prepare structural reforms for greater self-determination to realize our ancestors’ dreams of sovereignty.”
About the Author: “Neely Bardwell (descendant of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indian) is a staff reporter for Native News Online. Bardwell is also a student at Michigan State University, where she is majoring in policy and minoring in Native American Studies .”
Contact: neely@nativenewsonline.net
