Full name so that we can say it
correctly.
It's Anne, Egan,
Waka.
and Egenwaka, and
what tribe are you?
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
I was born and raised there.
Daughter of Edith and Hilary
Sparkiwaka.
My dad was an environmental activist
leader.
He's in the DNR Conservation
Hall of Fame.
I love it.
Wow. Can you pronounce your last
name again for me, please?
Egan, Waka.
Egan Waka.
Waka, like wasa with a K.
Waka. Wasa.
Waha. Does that help?
Yes, thank you.
my name so fast that people call me
Annie Egan, Annie Waka, so I say
Annie Egen Waka and they're like hi
Annie. I'm like well my friends call
me Annie. It's cool, I'm okay,
Waka's a good name so I'll keep that
one.
Nice.
But you prefer Anne.
You know what, whatever you want to
call me is fine.
You can call me Ann or Annie.
I kind of feel I think Annie would
be okay because I think it's kind of
such a personal interview,
you know.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
But when we have our anchor Rita
on the desk, would you
prefer Anne at
that point?
Yeah, that probably would be better.
And you know what you're talking
about.
I visited Menominee back in January.
You did! What was going on?
just some meet and greets to meet
people ahead of going back
for some reporting.
So I met with Medicine
Fish, the youth driven
group that's focusing with the
youth on revitalizing the land
and learning natural techniques
to preserve the environment.
Oh, that's excellent.
Yes, I also met with the language
school.
Yep. The language school is awesome
as well.
I have a lot of family up there.
Nice, it's a beautiful place,
absolutely beautiful. Thank you for saying
that. Yeah, so let's get into
it.
Tell me, let's start with first,
tell me about the work that you do
with the Wisconsin Native Vote.
Okay, first of all, I do want to
say that we are a 501c3
non-profit, so we are non-partisan.
So we make sure that when we
go out that we don't talk political
candidates. Our goal is to get our
people, our Native people to the
polls. So we work on combating
historic voter
disenfranchisement.
Also, we work on contemporary
barriers that people may face,
educating our voters.
and registering people to vote and
improve policies that impact our
native community access to the
polls.
And the key is that we do a lot of
one-on-one and that's how I think
we're successful.
So tell me about historically some
of the challenges of
getting Wisconsin natives the
messaging to vote and then actually
out to vote.
Well, that's kind of changed a
little bit here and there.
So we've had voter
disenfranchisement where people are
actually faced some
challenges where maybe
their tribal ID won't
be accepted, or they're
turned away, or
the local election commission just
gives them the incorrect
information.
And I can give you an example that
I experienced about.
It was in 2014.
I actually moved to a Milwaukee
suburb.
And I went to vote and
I was registering and had all my
information. And she was, I was real
excited.
And, um, she was
asking me all the questions, you
know, name, date, uh,
where you live now age.
And then she wanted to know, um
where I was born.
And I told her I was on the
Menominee reservation.
And she said, you're Indian.
And I said, yes, ma'am, I am.
And she says, you can't vote.
Indians aren't allowed to vote.
And I just looked at her and I was
having one of those days, you know,
where it rained when I got out of my
car, kind of every little thing.
And I looked at, I said, ma'am, I
can't vote.
We are allowed to vote.
I'm Native American. I was born in
Wisconsin.
I'm a nominee county, which is a
reservation. I voted before.
And she was a guest that I said I
voted for.
And I Just looked at it and I said
ma'ame, I could vote.
I voted it before.
And she said, Indians can't, vote
you're not allowed.
And I think
She was really confused.
So she went to the head of the poll
and I could see she got a little
talking to and she came back and she
was quite elderly.
And she said, ma'am, I just
want to tell you I was following
policy procedure.
This wasn't racist.
And then I voted.
She finally let me vote.
I had the right ID and et cetera.
But you know, that story I tell
because people take voting for
granted and we shouldn't.
But also we have people that may
face this and I want them to know,
I don't care how old you are.
If you're just turned 18 or if
you're 90, if people treat you like
that, you have the right to vote.
You make sure you let people know
that you're not gonna leave until
you vote.
Right, and she gave you
misinformation.
Yes, she did.
She was misinformed.
She was she was so elderly, I
think she may have remembered when
we didn't have the right to vote.
So we got it 100 years ago, it was
101 years ago.
And it took
some states longer to get
the tribes to vote like I think the
last was in the 70s.
And there was in, I want to say
out east, it wasn't coming out
east state out east.
That was one of the last to give the
native people the right vote.
But she was misinformed.
And then the happy story as I went
back.
I voted like three years ago, I
voted every year, but I voted at the
three years ago, when I went to
vote, I had my tribal ID and
she took it without question.
And I was just using my license to
vote at the first time.
And she said, oh, that's acceptable.
And then I told her my story real
quick. And she says, can you come
back? I said, sure.
And I went and voted and I came back
and she said I wanted to tell you
that a high school kid was here.
He just turned 18.
He was so excited and he wanted to
vote. And he said, how much does it
cost to vote?
I was like, are you kidding me?
So that tells me we have to educate
all people, our Native people, but
all people about voting.
And we actually have gone into some
high schools on our reservations.
And I've got some in Milwaukee area
to tell our people about voting and
encouraging them. And that's
something we'll continue to do.
We need to educate our people
throughout the year.
And actually, as they go through the
school system, and I'll be working
with another group in Milwaukee that
works in the MPS that will
work at getting people to vote.
So there's many things that came up
because of what you experienced and
if we move it to you know some
of the things that are happening now
tell me about current
challenges with IDs as
it relates to voting and even that
could come up next week with the
Supreme Court vote.
Yeah, well, you know, the lot
of these are anecdotal,
so personally experienced.
So that's why I shared my
experience.
But what we've had in the past where
people went to vote and they told
them weren't registered and they
were, and they insisted and they
weren't, they were told they weren'
t registered.
This happened on my reservation a
while back and she was
adamant. Eventually they let her
vote because she was so adamant
and she said, I'm not re-registering
because I've registered to vote and
I know I'm on your list.
They finally found it.
But it depends, there's a lot
of different ways
that have oppressed our
people in voting.
So I'd have to say that the one
thing I could speak to is my
incident, because with that,
I literally,
it was horrible, but I know
people have had that before.
Are tribal IDs a
valid form of ID for voting?
Yes, they are.
Isn't that great?
I love it.
Tribal IDs are valid form.
And so when we're registering
people, a lot of people want to use
their tribal ID and that's just
awesome. I love doing that.
It's just also.
I love that.
when you're out in the community and
you're telling people you can use
your tribal ID, are people saying
they have it already or is
it now something that they're
more eager to get?
Most people have it.
They get it from their respective
enrollment offices, so they have
to go to their enrollment office to
get it. But also it's used for
IDs for certain services as well.
So like health services or community
events or something.
So it's really important to have
that tribal ID.
But you know it's kind of wild that
we are the only culture that have to
prove who we are through a piece
of plastic.
But it's accepted which is really
awesome. That's great.
And bring it also out in the
community on the flip side,
are people when they're going to
vote, it's that they
know that they have that tribal ID.
When the counters,
the elderly woman that you had an
unfortunate experience with, do they
know you can use this?
This is a valid ID.
They do know, we work with the
tribes to get this the word out.
So it's kind of a common knowledge
it seems like when you turn 18, but
we have to educate people too.
We are in the community 365
days a year, well except
holidays, but um we are
out.
We want to make sure people are
educated, have received the proper
education, that they're aware that
they can use their tribal ID, what
other forms are available.
So, it's up to us and
the tribes to educate our people and
I think everyone's doing a pretty
good job because I get to
encounter someone who has
a tribal ID
who doesn't know they can't use it.
They know they could use that to
vote.
I also want to ask you this about
tribal IDs in terms of
accessing them.
I've heard somewhere that having
an address or not having an address
on the reservation can be
a challenge to getting the tribal ID
or any ID if you've been going to
your Can you speak to that a little
bit?
Well, I that I really
can tell you that I know the tribes
work with the people to get their
tribal ID.
There's various ways they can do it
by like, for
example, if someone wanted to go to
the tribe can send out
a letter to someone using
the tribal address and
the tribal office address
to them at that address, and then
they can use that as their address
for voting.
So other and other times, it just.
We just keep working towards getting
the people the right to vote with
them who have PO boxes.
Problematic and it's something we're
working on. We need better policies
for that.
Do you have an estimate of the
current number of how many
registered Native voters we have
in Wisconsin?
I do know that the voter count is
usually, we say about 70,000
possible Native votes.
That's a number that it's
hard to calculate, but that's pretty
much what we use.
The U.S.
census is how that number is based
on it, but the census isn't exactly
correct either.
I can give you an example of why.
For example, in Milwaukee, I talked
to someone who worked on the census,
she's in Milwaukee for 20
some years.
And when she sees the number come
out, she said, we're higher,
you know, they say we're about
8,000, etc.
But she said a
director also from an organization
said it's more around 15 to 20,000.
Everyone pretty much goes with 20,00
Native Americans in
the Milwaukee area.
So that vote.
that vote, that are registered to
vote.
vote. That could vote.
We can't track all
the registered voters.
It's something, it's hard to
do that with
current systems.
So we use it by going to the tribes
and finding out, but we'd
have to go to the election commission,
then we have to, it involves a lot
that I really don't, I'm
Right, that there's, if we said that
there is an estimate of
70,000 possible
voters, that would
sound, that would
That's actually accurate.
Yes, 70,000 possible voters in
the state of Wisconsin.
And that's about 1% of the
population, which can really have an
impact on some, some votes, some
races.
And we have reservations throughout
the state, and we also have Native
voters everywhere also off
reservations.
Where are you seeing where people
are really coming out to vote,
whether it's local elections or
on the federal level?
Well, I could give you an example
for the 2023
spring race,
spring election, compared
to 2019 spring
election.
On the Red Cliff Band of the Lake
Superior Chippewa,
the voter turnout was
increased by 130%.
And that's where we're
working hard.
My reservation, I was on the
reservation working on increasing
voter turnout during that 2019
in the 2023 span.
and we increased voter turnout by
75% on
the Menominee Reservation.
I'm really proud of that because we
put a lot of work into it.
So let me bring it back to we
have an important collection
election coming up next week.
What are some issues that
are pertinent to that you
feel when you're out in the
community that are pertinant to
Wisconsin natives that would make
them want to come out for this
very unique Wisconsin
Supreme Court election?
Exactly, I think one of the key
is the
protecting our
environment is one, protecting the
water quality
from Lake Superior to,
for example, the
Wolf River, the pristine Wolf River
on my reservation.
That's one issue.
Sovereignty, tribal sovereignty,
protecting our rights to
govern ourselves, protecting your
culture.
And what goes with the water
protection is our
wild rice beds.
Our sturgeon and walleye,
ancient spawning, fishing areas.
That's also up, that it's
a big concern for our people.
I think that the
Wisconsin Indian
Child Welfare Act is
another issue where native children
are placed with fit and
willing indigenous relatives to
help them preserve their culture
stability in preventing trauma,
because before they were normally
placed with non-native families.
So again, one of the key is
the that we keep hearing is Mother
Earth is ill and we
need to take care of her.
We need to sustain our wild rice
beds. We need to sustain their
ancient wildlife spawning grounds.
We need you protect our waterways.
We need clean and drink drinking
water.
And we've had
people that I've had people
tell me that Mother
Earth is sick. She's throwing up.
An elder came up and told me that
she said we have to vote to protect
her.
And then I had another person
tell me Mother Earth is
ill. She has a fever.
She doesn't know what she's doing.
And then another elder told me in
Milwaukee, Mother Earth isn't
menopause. She doesn' know what he
wants to do.
So we use humor a lot to get our
message across.
Right, right.
Whatever it takes and then to come
out and actually vote.
Now when we talk about tribal
sovereignty, sovereignty in
the government to government
relationship,
do you think that there's sometimes
confusion on that
government to government relationship
if it's between the tribes and the
state or tribes at the
federal level, in the federal level.
Well, I can't speak to the tribal
federal level because that's not
what we're talking about now, but
with the state, I don't
think there's confusion.
I think that we have fought for our
rights, hard to have our sovereignty
on our reservations and
it's respected.
And we have our governor is very
respective of our tribal
sovereignty.
And like I said, it's not something
that was just given to us.
We fought hard for it.
Right, right, absolutely.
How's the youth vote when you go out
and speak to the community?
You know, that's interesting because
we are going out now and going to
the community and talking to the
youth and I think that's
something that we're going to have
to make sure we keep working on
because.
As they grow, as they become 18,
some aren't aware of how to vote
yet, and so I've
had people say, what do I do?
How do I register?
So we help them register, but
we go into like the tribal schools.
I know they've done that.
They've gone into the high schools
near the reservations.
I've gone in to MPS and talked to
several groups about the importance
of voting and registering, and we
had quite a bit of success with
that. So I think it's not
only the Native people who need to
educate our kids, but all people
because Our children aren't all
on the reservation either.
Some are in like the urban Milwaukee
areas.
But I had hope, especially
because that kid wanted to pay the
vote, you know?
It was sad that he thought that, but
you know, yeah.
And with next week,
between now and then,
what are you and your organization
going to be doing to
get out the vote?
What we're doing is we are
actually going to be doing
a lot of visits
throughout our communities,
doing a lot on one-on-ones, which is
the best way to get our
people to talk to us and
understand the importance of voting
if they don't know it.
But now we're having people come to
us when we're out tabling at events,
say like at a powwow or
at a community event where
they're like, you know, scavote
them, that was a slang we use, let's
go vote, scavate them.
and they said I'm registered or
you know one person I went to a
powwow and he said I''m not going to
vote it doesn't matter talk for 20
minutes and I told him why it's
important and you
know again we are in 501c3
so we're very careful we maintain
that which actually makes it easier
because we talk about issues
and we had an
event on March 11th in Milwaukee
which was part of a food for
thought type event we had in
Milwaukee Bad River
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and
the Menominee Indian Tribal,
Wisconsin.
I can speak to my event and I know
the other two are successful, but we
all had Native American Rights Fund
Attorney, Alison Ness would
come in and speak.
We had over 50 people in
my event in Milwaukee and it was
at the Indian Council of the Elderly
who's co-sponsored with us.
And we had people from 10 different
organizations from Milwaukee,
Native organizations, attend the
event, listen to what
the message was.
and they in turn pass it on to their
people. And I work with as many
organizations in Milwaukee as I can,
and then I visit these.
I've been revisiting them as well
throughout the year.
So it just doesn't stop.
It's not just right before the
election. It's all year
long, and it's enjoyable.
I feel like I've be preparing for
this job since I left my reservation
in 1978.
Went to Marquette, worked for the
teachers union.
I worked at an Indian health center
for a while, which I'm now on the
board, you know, question of the
board at the Gerald L.
Indian Ignex Health Center.
But I've developed a lot of
contacts.
And through that, I've also
developed a lotta skills
and know the culture
well enough that it was brought up
with on my reservation by my father
particularly, and how
to speak to people and make
sure we maintain respect
and pride for our culture.
And I'm so honored that I have
this position.
I'm extremely honored that I'm
allowed to do something that I
truly love and I feel very
purposeful.
That's wonderful.
Before we wrap up, I want to say two
things.
One, congratulations on your feature
in Madison.
That's exciting.
That is exciting to be featured.
So congratulations.
That's a good thing.
And yeah, you're welcome.
And I want to end with going back to
that gentleman that you said he
wasn't going to vote.
And then when you reminded him.
the mission of your organization,
nonpartisan, and he reverted the
conversation back to issues.
What do you think changed for him?
I think it was the
protecting Mother Earth, which is
really strong, and also tribal
sovereignty.
And he actually filled out a pledge
to vote card and
said he would vote.
So then we put them in our system
and then we do emails to people
and then send voting reminders out.
And we had a tailgate last summer,
which was pretty successful.
We had a donation of a thousand
tickets to the rural games.
We had a big tailgate and we had
a color guard with all the tribes
represented and a drum.
And I had people, my one
cousin came up, she said, Annie, I
registered to vote.
I'm going to vote and on,
on last Friday, I met
a woman who said she
wanted me to help her register and I
was helping her and she didn't have
her ID or anything like that.
So she said I could tell she was
nervous. I said, I'll pick you up
and I'll take you to the poll, bring
your elect, bring a bill and
we'll go to the pole and you can
register and I'll make sure I'll,
make sure you're okay. I'm not going
to tell her what to do, but I
think she was a little nervous.
So if I can help one person out,
I'll do it.
If I can have about 30, great.
If I could help out more, awesome.
And it seems to be working
as positive strides.
I've saw the website of
voting numbers going up.
So the message seems to resonating
with people.
It does.
And you know, it's it's just
amazing that
we can make such a difference now
for the next seven generations, you
know, that's our one of our main
lines of work for the seventh
generations.
What we do now, we think about
what's what we're doing now, how
will that affect the next 7
generations.
And the key is to voting and
maintaining all our cultural
identities and sovereignty
and protecting Mother Earth.
And it's just a blessing to
be able to do this work.
The creators blessed me.
Great, I'm glad, I am glad that
you're living in your passion.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
All right. I think we will end there
and I will continue doing our
journalism work on this side and
then I'll keep you posted
and this will air.
It will be edited. I'll be working
on that in the next two days and
then the first time it will air will
be Friday evening 7.30,
PBS Wisconsin, the new
show is called Hearing.