Screenshot from #Natives4Harris virtual event on July 28, 2024
Well before Kamala Harris brought her Midwest running mate on board, Native Democrats were already highlighting Minnesota as a state to watch in the 2024 presidential campaign.
As Holly Cook Macarro, shown in center of screenshot, explained on the #Natives4Harris virtual call on July 28, 2024, the home state of Peggy Flanagan and Tim Walz is “where we have great representation and actual evidence of what turning out the Native vote does.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 68,641 American Indians and Alaska Natives made their home in the Land of 10,000 Lakes as of 2020. That accounts for just 1.2 percent of the population.
Yet as Cook Macarro noted, the Native vote definitely counts. With 11 federally recognized tribes (plus the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) in the state — including Flanagan’s White Earth Nation –– and with Walz on the ballot, the 2024 presidential electiono stands to make history in more ways than one.
“As we move forward, all of these things matter,” said Cook Macarro, who hails from the Red Lake Nation, also in Minnesota.
Tribal Nations in Minnesota
- Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
- Fond Du Lac Reservation
- Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
- Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
- Lower Sioux Indian Community
- Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
- Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
- Prairie Island Indian Community
- Red Lake Nation
- Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
- Upper Sioux Community
- White Earth Reservation
Urban Indians in Minnesota
Minnesota is notable for its urban Indian population, mostly centered in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. As the birthplace of the American Indian Movement, the metropolitan region home to the Little Earth of United Tribes community and the vibrant food sovereignty scene made prominent in part by Sean Sherman, also known as The Sioux Chef, who has been posting almost daily on social media about the 2024 presidential race.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, American Indians and Alaska Natives represent 1.7 percent of the population in Minneapolis and a little over 1 percent in St. Paul. And up in Bemidji, close to three tribal nations in northern Minnesota, 14 percent of the population is Native.
Natives in Public Office
- Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Nation), Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
- Mary K. Kunesh (Descendant of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), Assistant Majority Leader in Minnesota Senate
- Patrice H. Kunesh (Descendant of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), former member of Minnesota Legislature, Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans in the Department of Health and Human Services, Nominee to be Chair of the National Indian Gaming Commission
- Alicia “Liish” Kozlowski (Grand Portage Band and Fond du Lac Band), member of Minnesota House of Representatives