Making Voting Friendly, the Alaska Native Way

This article appeared on Indian Country Media Network in 2014. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle....

Beaming with pleasure, Arline Franklin addressed an October 31 village council meeting in Manokotak, in southwestern Alaska. Speaking in Yup’ik, Franklin, the local absentee voting official, or AVO, is seen here far right. She exhorted friends and relatives to early vote. Cheering her on were Rose Wassillie, AVO of nearby Togiak and a village resource specialist for Bristol Bay Native Corporation (center), and Grace Mulipola, of Koliganek, now a BBNC legal assistant in Anchorage (left).

It had taken 18 hours and several flights to get from Anchorage to the isolated village. We were turned back by a blizzard and diverted because of a slushy runway before our five-seater plane finally touched down in a forested river valley surrounded by craggy, snow-dusted mountains.

At one point during their presentation to the council meeting, the three early-voting cheerleaders led the approximately 75 people present in a chorus of “Every. Vote. Counts!” Said Wassillie, “We want voting to be a good experience.” In the past, badly translated ballots, referendum language that was more legalese than plain English, uncooperative election workers and more conspired to make voting a difficult, unhappy and even humiliating process for Alaska Native people. For decades, the state was under special Department of Justice scrutiny for the poor education offered to Native people, resulting in depressed election turnout.

Since this past spring, the state’s Native leadership has worked to fix the problems. They’ve set up early voting sites in villages, most for the first time, and appointed lively and caring AVOs like Franklin and Wassillie. They’ve sued the state to improve language assistance for voters who aren’t proficient in English. Lead plaintiff in the suit, Mike Toyukak, is a Manokotak elder.

The trio’s enthusiastic sales pitch worked, and Manokotak villagers lined up to cast early ballots. Elders said they were grateful for the women’s encouragement.

Franklin explained that early voting is critical in a subsistence community like Manokotak, because hunters and gatherers can’t necessarily drop everything to go to the polls on Election Day. She described the demanding yearly round of fishing, berry picking and bird hunting in spring, summer and fall, then seal, moose and walrus hunting as winter sets in. “As we speak, my son is headed for the lake to fish and to see if there are any ducks,” said Franklin. “Our hunters go out several times a week, and the rest of the time we’re processing what they bring in. Our freezers are filled with our Native foods.”

Interest in the 2014 election is high, and anecdotal reports indicate more Alaska Natives than ever have already voted this year, said Mulipola. The hot issue for them is subsistence hunting rights and turning out for candidates who support them, notably Senate candidate Mark Begich. The influential Alaska Federation of Natives recently endorsed him, and he was the first candidate mentioned by any voter. “If we don’t hunt, we starve,” said Franklin.

Dana Bartman, assistant principal of Manokotak’s pre-K–12 school, organized the appearance of the early-voting coordinators at the council meeting. She recalled Alaska Natives turning out to support Lisa Murkowski in her successful write-in Senate campaign. “We proved the power of our vote,” said Bartman (shown receiving a ballot from Franklin).

People in Manokotak may not be rich by certain fiscal measures, but their life is one of great abundance. Their water is pure, their air is clear, and their land and rivers are teeming with game. They and Natives throughout rural Alaska are determined that this world will endure.

Text and photographs c. Stephanie Woodard.

Popular Posts

Wham! Pow! The CDC goes to Comic-Con

Image
P ublis hed by the Huffington Post in 2010.  For more on topics like this, see my book,  American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.... C hances are, disease control was not top-of-mind for the tens of thousands of wildly costumed attendees at the coolest event in the universe last week —  Comic-Con 's 3-day New York City extravaganza. Nevertheless, many visitors, garbed as superheroes, Manga figures, Star Wars characters, and more, stopped by the  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 's booth there for a look at the agency's cheerful exhibit of diabetes-prevention  books and other health-education products  for Native American children.           "Patrick got us into this. Most of us are boring scientists," laughed writer Teresa Lofton over the din. A public-health specialist, she collaborates on the books — part of the CDC's Eagle Books brand — with artist Patrick Rolo, from the  Bad River Band of Ojibway . A longtime penciller (the per
Keep reading

Dancing from the Heart: A Rehearsal at Zuni Pueblo

Image
Published in  Indian Country Today  in 2013.  For more on topics like this, please see my book,  American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.. .  T he late afternoon sun slanted through puffy clouds and played over the surface of Zuni Pueblo’s sacred Corn Mountain. Small golden heads of wild sunflowers dappled the field at the base of the mesa, which rises 1,000 feet over the pueblo’s western New Mexico village. Against this imposing high-desert backdrop, a dance rehearsal got underway. Seven-member Soaring Eagle, the first of two groups to run through their paces that day, adjusted their headdresses and other regalia. Meanwhile, Tammy Weebothee, a dancer and organizer of the rehearsal, pointed out a tall spire, nearly the height of the mesa and just south of it. It appeared to represent two figures, one taller than the other, wrapped in a blanket. “They’re a brother and sister who died to save the community when flood waters rose.” She noted pale striations across the
Keep reading

Create a Medicine-Wheel Garden

Image
Published in Indian Country Today in 2005.  For more Native  gardening  ideas, go to  Enhance Your Food Supply  on this blog .  For more on topics like this, look for my book,  American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion.  M edicine-wheel gardens build on the radiating energy of circles — ever on the move,” said E. Barrie Kavasch, ethnobotanist, herbalist and author of many books on plants and healing. Kavasch, who has Cherokee, Creek and Powhatan ancestry, has visited ancient medicine wheels around the world and made gardens inspired by their patterns for more than a decade. On the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota this summer, Aubrey Skye, Lakota, will consult Kavasch’s informative book — “The Medicine Wheel Garden: Creating Sacred Space for Healing, Celebration, and Tranquility” (Bantam Books, 2002) — to create one that will serve as a nursery for endangered prairie plants. Whether you’re growing rare or common plan
Keep reading