CRE 287: In 1920, Native Women sought the vote: Here’s What’s Next

 CRE 287: In 1920, Native Women sought the vote: Here’s What’s Next

1)      Native women highly visible early 20^th century suffrage activism

a.      White suffragist fascinated by Native matriarchal power

b.      Invited Native women to speak at conferences, join parades write for their publications.

c.      Native suffragists took advantage to speak, pressing issues important to their communities

                                                              i.      Native voting, loand loss and treaty rights

                                                             ii.      Their stories largely forgotten

2)      After 19^th Amendment ratified April. 18, 1920 celebrated by millions of women across nation

a.      Indigenous suffragist Gertrude Simmons Bonnin

                                                              i.      Known as Zitkala-Sa

                                                             ii.      Citizen of Yankton Sioux Tribe

                                                           iii.      Reminded white women that the fight was far from over

                                                           iv.      19^th Amendment did not bring the right to vote to all Native women

                                                             v.      Continued to remind audiences that federal assimilation policy had attacked their communities and cultures

                                                           vi.      Despite promises, U.S. dismantled tribal governments, privatized tribally-held land and removed Native children to boarding schools

                                                         vii.      Resulted in massive land loss, poverty, and poor health that can be seen in these communities today.

                                                        viii.      Native suffragists’ activism contributed to Congress passing the Snyner Act of 1924

1.      Extended U.S. citizenship to all Native people

2.      A response to state enacted Jim Crow like policies aimed at disenfranchising them

3.      Native suffragists aided the push for the Wheeler-Howar Act of 1934

a.      Stopped the breakup of tribal lands and emphasized tribal self-governance.

                                                           ix.      Now, 100 years later, call to remember Native women and their full range of political experiences.

                                                             x.      Two scholars Prof. Cathleen D. Cahill, historian specializing in Native suffragists and Prof. Sarah Deer a scholar of Native Law and citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation

b.      Question: Why are Native women especially vulnerable

                                                              i.      Violence against women is extremely high

                                                             ii.      The criminal legal system in Indian Country is broken

                                                           iii.      84 percent of Native women have experience violence in their lifetime

                                                           iv.      Over 56 % have experienced sexual violence

                                                             v.      These states are underestimates

c.      Why- Supreme court in 1978 ruled that tribal nations lack authority to prosecute non-natives -for any crime

d.      This is one of the reasons why Native people experience highest rates of interracial violence in the nation

e.      System doesn’t hold people accountable send two messages..

                                                              i.      To victims don’t bother to report

                                                             ii.      To perpetrators keep victimizing people

f.        Same things were noted in the 1920s by Gertrude Simmons Bonnin the fact that federal policies dismantled tribal governments and made Indian peoples wards

                                                              i.      Without political power

g.       July 9 Supreme Court Ruling in McGirt v Oklahoma -the most important win for tribal government in last 50 years

                                                              i.      History -in 1866 the Muscogee Creek Nation signed a peace treaty with the United States in 1866

1.      Established specific boundaries for reservation -close to 3 million acres

2.      Promised that the reservation would “be forever set apart as a home for said Creek Nation”

3.      Throughout 20^th century -state of Oklahoma consistently ignored the treaty and gradually began exercising criminal and civil authority over reservation, denying its existence

                                                             ii.      Supreme court’s 5-4 decision, written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch determined that the Creek reservation boundaries were never disestablished

                                                           iii.      The reservation promised to the Creek people in 1866 was still in full force

h.      Here Is a joint statement between the State of Oklahoma and the five nations:

"The nations and the state are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws, and regulations that support public safety, our economy, and private property rights. We will continue our work, confident that we can accomplish more together than any of us could alone."^[24

i.        The remarkable thing about this case is that this was an unlikely win

                                                              i.      Tribal issues typically loose 75% of the time

                                                             ii.      Far reaching implications for many different tribes attempting to preserve land and resoucrces.

3)      What role did Native Women play in American suffrage movement

a.      Matriarchal traditions of Native people Inspired White feminist

                                                              i.      Haudenosaunee (Iroquis)

1.      Women had power to appoint male political leadership

2.      Control their property

3.      Have custodial rights over children

4.      All legal rights white women did not have

                                                             ii.      Eg. Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin -citizen of turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa

1.      Put together a float for 1913 suffrage parade in Washington

2.      Portrayed Native women authentically from the past

3.      Wearing buckskin with hair in braids

4.      Baldwin aware of power of imagery in shaping public perceptions of Native Americans

5.      Used images strategically

6.      She decided not to organize the float but instead marched with her classmates and teachers from Washington College of Law

a.      Made a statement that Native women were modern New women who were looking to the future

b.      Thought important for Native people to study law

                                                                                                                                      i.      To protect their land and treaty rights

                                                                                                                                     ii.      First Native woman to graduate from law school in 1914

4.      Legal training of Native Women in the 21^st century

a.      Access to legal education critical step to strengthening tribal sovereignty

b.      Relatively few Native attorneys in the United States, but numbers are increasing

c.      Only a small handful of Native women law professors

d.      Native people still civil litigating important questions of tribal jurisdiction, land rights, and criminal authority

e.      Native women serve on tribal courts

                                                              i.      Some also serve on state benches

1.      Diane Hometewa (Hopi) became the first Native women appointed to the federal bench in 2014

2.      Some Native attorneys focus on legislation like the Violence Against Women Act

a.      Contains significant provisions that directly affect ribal justice systems

5.      Native women have been leading the movements to address the environmental abuses and pipelines.

a.      At standing Rock Sioux Reservation -women were doing most of the organizing and decision making in fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

6.      What does it mean to have Native Womnen in Congress or other elected offices

a.      Native women in state legislatures for many years

b.      Now a critical mass of new Native women politicians

c.      One Native woman in Kansas House

d.      Another campaigning for Kansas house as wsell

e.      Minnosota, White Earth citizen Peggy Flanagan -first Native women ever elected to liutenent governor in U.S. in 2018

7.      When Haaland and Davids elected as first two Native women in Congres a major victory for Native Peiple, now there are 3..

Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Sharice Davids (D Kan) first two ever elected to Congress, they are now being joined by Yvetter Herrell (a republican) won New Mexico’s Second Congressional District.

 

8.      For far too long, congress has been passing laws to limit the power of tribal governments without any tribal input.

a.      Now they have a seat at the table

9.      Getting the right to vote, was the way to change circumstances of native communities a hundred years ago, now it’s time for Indigenous feminism

10.  Political and symbolic disenfranchisement has existed for =far too long, the future of Nativewomen and tribal nations require more Native people, and women be elected at all levels -tribal, state and national.