Tony Evers' Victories For Native American Communities

     Under Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin's Native American communities have seen unprecedented progress, with government actions and initiatives spurring private-sector and federal action and a new momentum to help America's oldest citizens.

     In 2019, Governor Evers became the first governor in Wisconsin to proclaim Indigenous Peoples' Day, joining a growing number of states in prioritizing indigenous culture over genocidal conquest in the name of profit and proselytism. President Biden went on to become the first president to proclaim the holiday in 2021. 

     In 2020, Evers directed Attorney General Josh Kaul to launch a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force to address the disproportionate rate of indigenous women and girls being raped, kidnapped, and murdered in Wisconsin and across the nation. Action has been taken in other states as well as at the federal level with the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission.

     In 2021, after the horrific discoveries in Kamloops and other boarding schools in Canada, Governor Tony Evers formally apologized for Wisconsin's role in America's boarding school system. Soon after this announcement, activists called on AG Kaul to investigate clergy abuse at these schools in Wisconsin. That year, UW-Madison raised the flag of the Ho-Chunk nation in a historic first recognizing the state's dark history.

     Also in 2021, Wisconsin's DOT commenced a project to include Native language city and town names on road signs in tribal land.

     Meanwhile, the federal government and private sector have responded. Deb Haaland, appointed by President Joe Biden to be America's first Native American cabinet secretary, launched a comprehensive review of clergy abuse at boarding schools at the federal level. The American Rescue Plan Act and Build Back Better Act included universal broadband, a new Rural Partnership Program of grants, hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Native language preservation, and historic funding and other assistance for TCUs to help tribal communities. Meanwhile, President Biden has appointed more Native American federal judges than any president in history and is currently working on a plan to address the Native American maternal health crisis while Congress works to pass the Native American Voting Rights Act.

     The die has been cast, and, with or without the Wisconsin legislature, Governor Evers had made and, if reelected, will continue to make historic progress for indigenous communities that is inspiring a more rapid push for equality at the national level.