Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, discusses his views on voting in U.S. government elections.
Even though Minnesota has one of the best voter turnout records in the United States political pundits are predicting fewer voters will go to the polls for this Presidential election than in 1998, when Jesse Ventura won the Minnesota governorship. For the weeks leading up to the election, MPR talks to a variety of Minnesotans about their thoughts on voting.
SPEAKER 1: Well, it's a big push this year to get voter turnout. Of course, I don't adhere to that. I'm not excited about it or anything. It doesn't make no difference to me, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. It's still the legislature of the Congress that sets the rules and regulates everything that's going on in this country, and most of that is controlled by corporate America. So I don't participate in that election.
SPEAKER 2: Do you feel like American Indians have a choice, though, in Ralph Nader because Winona LaDuke is his running mate in this presidential election?
SPEAKER 1: Well, no, I don't know if they have a choice. I mean, some people, they kind of feel, well, we want to vote for Ralph Nader. My wife talks about that. I want to vote for Ralph Nader, but it's a wasted vote. The lesser of the two evils, of course, is Gore. So she's kind of a Gore person.
Me, I don't support any of them. I don't think any of them could make any change. I appreciate some of the things that Ralph Nader is doing. And of course, I'm in total support of what Winona is trying to do to educate the non-Indian world here in America about Indian people. But I don't think it's going to have that much of an impact.
SPEAKER 2: So do you think it's a waste of time for most American Indians to vote? Do you think that a vote is basically conceding the white man's way?
SPEAKER 1: Well, I think it is. I think it's a violation of our sovereignty to get involved in another election. I think we're selling out. That's my own personal thoughts and my own personal feelings about it. I personally think it's a waste of time that we have to exercise our rights and maybe we have to go to court to do that.
But we have sovereign rights, we have treaty rights, we have to stand on them and quit depending on the Ronald Reagan's and the George Bush's and people like that to change things. That's not going to happen.
SPEAKER 2: Do you think that most American Indians in Minnesota agree with you?
SPEAKER 1: I think probably the majority of them could care less who got in because they have seen it from both sides.
SPEAKER 2: What do you think the solution is if American Indians don't voice their concerns through the ballot box? How else do they do it?
SPEAKER 1: Well, the only way it works for us, the American Movement, is we vote with our bodies instead with our mouths. We start going to the boat landings in Wisconsin. And there were thousands of rednecks groups out there that call themselves PARR, Protect American Rights and Resources. STA, Stop Treaty Abuse, sounds like Indian organization.
But there are super right wing forces that were out there attacking two or three little Indian women out in a boat trying to spear fish and make and subside-- gain a living. And they were out there, thousands of them. And we started going to the boat landings and confronting them. And it was a very scary situation. But before that week was up, we were successful and we had thousands. We had over 2,500 people show up by that weekend from all over the Midwest.
I wish we could have done it through legislation. I wish we could have gotten some congressional delegation to support us. But it doesn't work that way for Indian people. We have to get out, and we have to demonstrate, and we have to stand up for what is rightfully ours and insert-- and exert-- expect our treaty rights to carry us through.
SPEAKER 2: Have you talked to Winona LaDuke about your ideas? Do you two spar about this whether people should vote?
SPEAKER 1: Well, I catch Winona a lot when I see her at ceremonies or powwows or concerts or different opportunities that I have with her. And I think she understands how I feel. Winona is a relative of mine. She's from my home reservation, White Earth.
SPEAKER 2: But does she feel like you're frustrating her effort to get people out to vote? Because you're saying they shouldn't.
SPEAKER 1: I think I shake hands and embrace her and kiss her and all the other things that cousins do and wish her well. I don't go out and speak out against her and say, hey, you shouldn't vote for anybody. If you feel like you want to vote for the Green Party, go ahead and vote for it. I'm not voting for anybody. I don't want to turn around two years from now and say, why did I vote for that and so on so.
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