PRIOR LAKE, Minn. – The call of Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan for a Native American political coalition last week is reverberating through Minnesota tribal communities. Flanagan said Native people can be critical in electing Kamala Haris to the White House and Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. “Native people will absolutely help decide the results of this election,” Flanagan told Native leaders convening at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake. These are troubled times for indigenous people, she said. She pointed to:
> A 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that minimalized a tribal role in placing indigenous children in foster care.
> Another 2023 U.S. Supreme that nullified Navajo water rights that were guaranteed in an1868 treaty.
Flanagan called Governor Tim Walz “a good partner” to Native people and a defender of tribal sovereignty. Flanagan noted that Walz was the first Minnesota governor to visit all 11 tribal nations in the state. Also, she said, Walz created the first agency in the nation for missing and murdered indigenous relatives.
Flanagan. A member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. She would become the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as governor if Walz is elected vice president.