More than 600 Native Americans tailgated a Brewers game in an effort to get the vote out and make their voices heard in the coming presidential election.
On Aug. 15, the Wisconsin Conservation Voices and Wisconsin Native Vote teamed up to tailgate the Brewers game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at American Family Field.
The efforts mark the first time in 23 years that Wisconsin Native American communities were invited out to American Family Field since its opening in 2001. Attendees said the tailgate is an important milestone with this year’s election occurring 100 years since Native Americans gained the right to vote in 1924.
“The recognition that this is where most Native American people live in the state of Wisconsin is so vitally important,” said Mark Denning of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin. “When we have a gathering like this of Native people to celebrate each other, for politicians, for journalists, for the general public at large, to see us gathering together and hear us talking about how voting matters. It’s huge.”
Denning, who MC’d the tailgate, noted that the majority of Native Americans do not live on reservations. Over 70% live off of reservations and in more urban areas like Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay, according to the Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Intergovernmental Relations.
The tailgate was held at the Uecker Lot at American Family Field, just yards away from Menomonee River, which Denning calls a “very special place.” Dennings has Menomonee heritage, and the tailgate featured Menomonee singers.
One component of the tailgate was centered on the importance of people’s votes despite notions such as the belief that their vote doesn’t matter.
“Look at what’s happening to us, who’s paying attention to us,” Denning said. “People hear us. They hear us when we gather together, and they hear us when we speak in our collective voice. So yes, we’re a smaller minority, but we have a powerful collective voice in this country.”
He said that every voice matters and especially those who think their vote isn’t important.
“One of the things I think when I hear somebody say, ‘my vote doesn’t matter,’ be they Native or not, the first thing in my head is to say, ‘I need to listen closely to this person, because they might just be saying I don’t matter,’” Denning said. “It’s more than that… it’s about our past, and it’s also about what’s in our future.”
Dennings is passionate about the importance of voting. Dennings is old enough to have family members in his life who didn’t have the ability to vote. He recounted a story of his mother and grandmother taking him out to vote for the first time where they told him, “We couldn’t do this before. We want you to do it.”
Voter registration tables were set up and Dennings said he was happy to overhear many at tables saying that they were already registered and encouraged others to do so.
After the tailgate, attendees took to the game where veterans from each of Wisconsin’s 11 Native tribes and the Gerald Ignace Indian Health Center walked the field with flags. Additionally, a performance from Smokey Town, a Native Menomonee band, performed before the game started.
