Montana News
Indigenous effort aims to get out the vote
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- Category: Montana News
By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - As part of nationwide Voter Registration Day, Western Native Voice is holding an all-day drive-through registration event in Billings. Advocates encourage American Indians to register and stay involved in the democratic process. Comments from Adam Beaves-Fisher (BEEVES, rhymes with "leaves"), deputy director, government and political relations, Western Native Voice.
Mark Moran
September 19, 2023 - Today is National Voter Registration Day, and in Montana, Indigenous advocates are working to register people and get out the vote.
As part of its civic engagement initiative, Western Native Voice is encouraging Indigenous Americans to register to vote and cast a ballot in the next election ... and they are doing it via a drive-through voter registration effort in Billings.
Adam Beaves-Fisher, deputy director of government and political relations for Western Native Voice, is strongly encouraging Indigenous people to register, get involved in the democratic process, and continue to be engaged, contrary to what has happened in the past.
"Native Americans have been disenfranchised from the process historically, as well as voting in lower rates," Beaves-Fisher explained. "We're really making sure that we're creating that tradition across our communities: not only voting but being engaged in the civic process."
The event takes place in the Western Native Voice office parking lots on 25th Street West in Billings. It starts at 11 a.m. and runs until 7 p.m.
Beaves-Fisher pointed out that staying involved in the process is important for every American voter, but especially so for Indigenous people who face unique barriers when it comes to casting a ballot. He added it has become increasingly important for Native Americans to have a louder voice in the democratic process because of the barriers they have faced in the past.
"Some of the real barriers are just life in rural Montana," Beaves-Fisher observed. "When you have consolidated polling locations, uneven registration hours or voting hours, changing laws about the process creates a lot of confusion for every voter."
Today's drive-through event will feature a variety of voter-related activities, including updating voter registration information, signing up for mail-in voting, and first-time voter registration.
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Following our democracy for Tuesday, September 19, 2023
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PNS - Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejects a short-term House plan to fund the government and Democrats move to suspend Senate rules to speed their funding bills. Meanwhile, California Democrats want to take Trump off the ballot.
News update for Monday, September 18, 2023
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PNS - Monday, September 18, 2023 - NM saw lasting consequences from Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall; Trump had a sharp exchange on Meet the Press when pressed about his response on January 6; Akron is the latest Ohio city to retire medical debt.
Washington invests $5 million in tribal land bison restoration
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By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - As part of the Biden administration's American the Beautiful initiative, the U.S. Interior Department has invested $5 million in getting buffalo back onto Tribal lands. It is part of a larger program that aims to do even more. Comments from Chamois (SHAM-ee) Andersen, senior field representative for Defenders of Wildlife's Rockies and Plains program. (Additional pronouncer: Haaland, "HOLL-und.")
Mark Moran
September 18, 2023 - The U.S. Interior Department has invested $5 million in reintroducing bison to Native American Tribal lands across the country. Montana's iconic Yellowstone buffalo are playing a big part.
As part of the Biden administration's "America the Beautiful" initiative, the money will support Tribal-led efforts to bolster bison conservation efforts - and to help return bison to their ancestral roots in Indigenous areas across the country.
Chamois Andersen - senior field representative for Defenders of Wildlife's Rockies and Plains program - said the animals being reintroduced contain DNA from the iconic Yellowstone bison, the buffalo that originally roamed the Plains.
"These are the descendants of those animals - really, the wildest of the wild," said Andersen. "These animals tend to have big heads. They can withstand cold winters - selecting a mate, and how they forage in large herds and migrate. So, having this be sort of the source population, Yellowstone bison, for tribes is really helpful."
The Bison Conservation Transfer Program and Defenders of Wildlife have partnered with Yellowstone National Park, Fort Peck Tribes, and InterTribal Buffalo Council on the relocation of 284 bison on Tribal lands in Plains states - but also as far north as Alaska, where pilots flew four bison to relocate in a project known as "Operation Buffalo Wings."
Beyond the ecological and environmental impacts of restoring bison to grasslands and Plains, Andersen said there are important cultural and ceremonial reasons for Indigenous people to have bison reintroduced to tribal lands, too - especially for elders.
"For them to bring back their buffalo on their land and have them utilize these animals as a wildlife resource," said Andersen, "for their ceremony, for their songs, for the elders to provide that oral history. You know, it's been more than a hundred years since our Native nations have had buffalo on the ground."
While the $5 million is critical to the bison reintroduction program, it is part of a larger, $25 million measure introduced by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to do even more. That legislation is pending in Congress.
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