So, instead of telling you metrics and numbers, I want to share a quick story with you about my experience on Election Day:
I was working as a poll observer at three different polling locations, so I drove to the Town of Russell at 7 a.m. to start my day. Early on, I heard someone mention my name. When I looked up, I saw one of our beautiful Native Vote t-shirts being worn by a voter!
I recognized that voter to be Chief Buffalo (Robert Buffalo, Ojibwe), the hereditary chief of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Chief Buffalo was talking about his new t-shirt to the poll worker, and how excited he was about voting after hearing a presentation I gave at Chippewa Treaty Days in September.
This was a significant moment and here’s why: Chief Robert Buffalo is the great-great-great grandson to Kechewaishke, or the principal Chief Buffalo – the one who, at age 95, began his trip to D.C. in a birchbark canoe to have a sit-down with President Fillmore. This historic meeting was an unforgettable one for Wisconsin. That meeting led to the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe, signed by the United States and the Ojibwe (or Chippewa) people, which established reservations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Chief Buffalo would pass away a year later.
