Building Grassroots Indigenous Power
Indigenous communities are among the most marginalized in the United States, with staggeringly high poverty and unemployment rates, abysmal access to health care, scant political representation, and too many other barriers and challenges to name. The horrifying mistreatment of Native Americans is not a legacy or settled history. This treatment is perpetual and is sure to persist until Indigenous people gain the political power to shape their own destinies.
While high-profile elected and appointed officials like Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan are inspiring examples of progress, the reality is that obstacles against building political power in Indigenous communities remain immense. As a consequence, fewer than .03% of elected officials are Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian, while they make up 3.4% of the U.S. population. Until that disparity is addressed, Indigenous communities will never be able to secure essential investments and policy changes to build better schools and hospitals, protect the environment, preserve culturally significant sites, and hold back projects that existentially imperil the safety of reservations.
Indigenous candidates rarely run, and struggle to win when they do: Laws and policies make voting and running for office complicated and expensive; racism makes others less likely to vote for Indigenous candidates; census practices persistently undercount Indigenous people; a national infrastructure connecting Indigenous candidates and organizations to learn from each other is lacking – and countless other obstacles prevent Native candidates from running and winning.
Advance Native Political Leadership is working to change that. Their Native Leadership Institute (NLI) works to develop the power to create change that Native American communities need. The organization trains leaders to run for office and to strengthen their political networks. These efforts promote the election of a new generation of Indigenous leaders and give their communities a say in the policies and processes that affect their lives. Leaders trained through the Institute are ready to run and win at the federal, state, and local level, to secure real gains for their communities, and to, at long last, put Indigenous issues on the agenda in the halls of power.
The candidates NLI trains represent the diversity of Indigenous communities today. The most recent class of 14 candidates included:
men, women, and two-spirit people
more than 20% LGBTQ+ leaders
representatives from 12 states and more than 20 tribes
a number of multiracial candidates
candidates across generations
people from professional backgrounds ranging from educators to business owners and community organizers
Recognizing that Native candidates face unique challenges, the Native Leadership Institute’s trainings are led by experts like Prairie Rose Seminole (Three Affiliated Tribes of ND, Northern Cheyenne, and Lakota) and Theresa Sheldon (Tulalip Tribe) who come from and understand these communities.
In January, the first class of the Native Leadership Institute (NLI) completed two weeks of their inaugural training program.
Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) lead the entire field organizing component of the curriculum. They are now working to update and refine the curriculum based on their experience and feedback from their first class. Below is a short video testimonial from one of their graduates, Tasha Fridia (Wichita and Affiliated Tribes), about what sets the NLI apart from other training programs.
So few other institutional donors fund powerbuilding among Native Americans, but WDN Action supports Advance Native and their Native Leadership Institute because it is Native-led and is deeply connected with Indigenous communities across the country. An early project funded by WDN’s Reflective Democracy Campaign, Advance Native has now grown to be the first and only national Native American-led organization working to address the unique barriers that exist for Indigenous peoples in U.S. politics. They have practical expertise on how to help Native candidates win. Building enduring power through leadership development and political education is a critical strategy and one that WDN Action is proud to invest in.