August 28 at 12:00 pm Central/1:00 pm Eastern
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The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is pleased to announce the launch of a coordinated non-partisan national Native Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Campaign. While several valuable efforts championed by Tribal Nations and Native organizations are already occurring across Indian Country, NCAI is interested in culling together these efforts by sharing GOTV tool kits, resources, and financial support to Tribal Nations to ensure active engagement in the upcoming federal elections.

Our GOTV work is intentionally non-partisan.  As former NCAI President Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw) used to say, “The work we do is not ‘D’ for Democrat or ‘R’ for Republican but ‘I’ for Indian.”  Our goal is to excite our fellow American Indian and Alaska Native people to vote and to support a “Sovereignty Ticket” of key issues critical to Tribal Nations and their citizens.

NCAI will concentrate efforts across three distinct phases:

1. Launch activities to encourage election participation;
2. Plan additional mobilization and engagement exercises leading up to election day; and,
3. Provide technical support for the incoming administration, whomever that may be.

Key actions will include:

• Producing a short video to excite and encourage people to vote;
• Holding a series of webinars across the NCAI regions;
• Creating trusted messenger videos with American Indian and Alaska Native celebrities and federal legislators; and
• Sharing short 30-second video testimonials to urge Native voter participation.

Please, plan to join one of our webinars during the week of August 19. These sessions will be co-hosted by myself, regional NCAI vice presidents, and alternates. The theme for these webinars is: Recognizing the Snyder Act 100th Anniversary—Honoring the Past; Preparing for Our Future.

The agenda for the webinars is as follows:

1. Introductions
2. Importance of Exercising Our Right to Vote
3. Be the Margin of Victory
4. Establishing a “Tribal Sovereignty Ticket” and Federal Indian Policy Agenda
5. Mobilize/Activate Your Tribal Nation and Tribal Citizens
6. Tribal Leader Discussion