October 14th 2008—Native American/American Indian Voter Participation Disregarded by the Census!

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About JacquicloseAuthor: Jacqui Name: Jacqui Patterson
Email: jpatters1@yahoo.com
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October 16, 2008

Today was another regrouping day. I continued to work with the ever-valiant Cyber Abolitionist Monica Dillon, the webmaster for this site, as we slogged through figuring out how to match my non-technically savvy dreaming with the realities and practicalities of building a website. J

I also got a great ticket to Denver for $175, even though I’m leaving tomorrow!

As I was working on materials for the website, I was trying to fill in voter participation stats for Native American/American Indian women and spent a good hour and a half chasing in conclusive ribbons of hope by trolling countless websites and documents. Finally, recognizing the limitations of relying on the web for everything as I tend to do, I decided to go to the source and called Native Vote www.nativevote.org and spoke with Loren Birdrattler. I needed to speak with the folks at Native Vote anyway to get a blurb from them for our website featuring the civic engagement work of communities of color and also wanted to touch base with them about our Western States visits. What a gift to find him and his desk and willing to talk!  He proceeded to tell me that, sad to say, the reason I wasn’t finding the information on Native American/American Indian women is because it’s not available! The census doesn’t collect this information because “the population is too small” even though the Native vote accounts for 3-20% of voters in various western states! Loren Birdrattler was also gracious enough to send me a document which is a guide on protocol for outsiders entering Indian nations as preparation for my upcoming visits in the western states. Thank you, Loren!

As the day draws to a close I have no voice.  Since around 4pm my voice began to fade to such an extent that my own mother didn’t understand what I was saying when I called her. She thought I was crying!  Anyway, I hope it becomes properly operational again tomorrow as I head to Denver.