Just about now.
So thank you so much for your
time and for this
interview today.
Can I just start by having you
slowly say your full
name so that we can say it
correctly?
And what tribe are you with?
Wow. Can you pronounce your last
name again for me, please?
Egan Wacka.
Waka, waka, got it, got.
Yes, thank you.
Nice.
But you prefer Anne.
Yeah, but when we have
our anchor Rita on the desk,
would you prefer Anne at
that point?
Anne, okay.
I visited Menominee back in January.
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.
Yes, I also met with the language
school.
Yep. The language school is awesome
as well.
Nice.
It's a beautiful place.
Absolutely beautiful.
Yeah. 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.
So tell me about historically some
of the challenges of
getting Wisconsin natives the
messaging to vote and then actually
out to vote.
Oh, okay. I will be right over.
Right, and she gave you
misinformation.
She was misinformed.
So there's many things that came up
because of what you experienced.
And if we move it to 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.
Mm-hmm.
Are tribal IDs a
valid form of ID for voting?
And 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?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, isn't that a shame.
And but you're also out in the
community on the flip side,
are people when they go in to vote,
is 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?
And 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 adress
on the reservation can be a
challenge to getting the tribal ID
or any ID if you've been going to
your license. Can you speak to that
a little bit?
Okay.
Do you have an estimate of the
current number of how many
registered Native voters we have
in Wisconsin?
that vote that are registered to
vote that that
could vote.
Right, Sophie said.
Right, that there's, if we said that
there is an estimate of
70,000 possible
voters, That would
sound, that would sound accurate.
That's accurate.
Mm-hmm.
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
in whether it's local elections
or on the federal level?
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.
Mm.
Hehehehehe
Right, right, whatever it takes,
and then to come out and actually.
Now, when we talk about tribal
sovereignty
in the government-to-government
relationship,
do you think that there is sometimes
confusion on that
government- to-governmental relationship
if it's between the tribes and the
state or tribes in
the federal level?
Right, right, absolutely.
How's the youth vote when you go out
and speak to the community?
And with next week,
between now and then,
what are you and your organization
going to be doing to
get out the vote?
Wow.
That's wonderful, that's wonderful.
Before we wrap up, I want to say two
things.
One, congratulations on your feature
in Madison 365.
That's exciting, that's exciting to
be featured, so congratulations,
that a good thing.
Yeah and yeah you're
welcome and I want 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?
And it seems to be working
as positive strides.
I've saw the website of
voting numbers going up.
So the message seems to
be resonating with people.
Great, I'm glad that you're living
in your passion.
You're welcome.
All right, I think we will end there
and I will continue doing
our journalism work on this side.