It's National American Indian Heritage Month. One of the exciting developments for that heritage is the election of indigenous women to state and federal office.
In Minnesota, Evan Frost interviewed Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan for MPR in ‘We are changing those systems for the better’: Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor, reflects on what it means to be an Indigenous Minnesotan right now. Flanagan reflected:
. . . I also feel like we're in this moment where you can feel things shifting and changing. Like just the number of Indigenous women who are leading across so many sectors right now, it’s not an accident, right? Like we know that Native women have been leaders since time immemorial. It's just the rest of society that is catching up to us. So I think at this moment, what it means to be Indigenous Minnesotan is complicated, but it's also I think, a really helpful and powerful time. . . .
I also hope that we have leadership that accurately reflects the communities it seeks to represent. I think that every election cycle we get closer and closer. Heather Keeler, who is just elected in Moorhead is going to be an incredible addition to the Minnesota House. We have leaders like Jamie Becker-Finn, who is a state representative who's just an incredible leader. Mary Kunesh-Podein, who's now over in the Senate. . . .
News about all three came across our feed today.
Here's a Facebook post from Heather Keeler--Yankton Sioux--marking her first steps on the Minnesota House floor. We first saw it on Facebook via Roseville DFLer and Leech Lake Ojibwe descendant Jamie Becker-Finn:
In all the election drama, maybe you didn’t notice that the people of Moorhead (yes rural MN) elected a strong, progressive Indigenous woman to serve in the Minnesota House. I’m so excited to serve with you Heather!!
My first step onto the House Floor, I brought many generations of resilience, pride and hope with me. 🦅 This was surreal. I'm beyond humbled by this opportunity to serve 4A.
Posted by Heather Keeler on Thursday, November 19, 2020
Along with Susan Allen and Peggy Flanagan, Becker-Finn formed Something new for the Minnesota Legislature: a caucus of first Minnesotans in 2017, Briana Bierschbach reported in 2017 for MinnPost. Allen, "the first woman who identified as American Indian elected to the Minnesota Legislature," retired in 2018. Flanagan was elected Lt. Governor that year, the first Native American to hold statewide office in Minnesota.
Mary Kunesh-Podein also moved up, winning a Minnesota Senate seat earlier this month. Known for her work on legislation to counter the scourge of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, she's the first indigenous woman to join the Senate. (Native men have served in the Senate since early statehood, including Becker-Finn's father Skip Finn from 1991-1996).
To get a clear picture of Kunesh-Podein, check out the Minnesota Senate Media Services YouTube posted last week:
Want to read more about indigenous women winning office in Minnesota? In Breaking barriers: Native women and the 2020 election, Emma Quinn reports on Audrey Thayer and Liz Jaakola's victories in city council races in Bemidji and Cloquet. At the Bemidji Pioneer, Hannah Olson provides more details on Thayer's win in A pebble in a lake’: Audrey Thayer to be first Indigenous woman on Bemidji City Council.
White Earth Nation member Steve Green serves on the Republican side of the aisle in the Minnesota House, although he has not reported that heritage to the Legislative Reference Library staff.
UPDATE November 22: A couple of hours after we posted this, Briana Bierschbach and C.J. Sinner reported in the Star Tribune article, Native American voters across Minnesota turned out to oust Trump:
. . . In Minnesota, Mary Kunesh-Podein, of Standing Rock Lakota descent, will become the first Native woman to serve in the state Senate in its more than 150-year history. Yankton Sioux Tribe member Heather Keeler of Moorhead will join Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, in the House.
. . . On the local level, Audrey Thayer, a White Earth band member, won a Bemidji City Council seat, and Fond du Lac band member Lyz Jaakola won a seat on the City Council in Cloquet, Minn.
. . .“Every year they kind of stack on each other,” said Keeler, who recently tweeted a picture of her moccasins planted on the floor of the Minnesota House. “A lot of people will stick to tribal government and they’ll step up in those spaces, but we have to blow the door open and say we’re here. We’re on our land, we’re supporting the people in our communities.”
The Bierschbach and Sinner article is worth a read on the larger issue of native voting. Check it out. [end update]
Photo: Heather Keeler's moccasins and ribbon skirt. Via Twitter.
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