Packet Resources:

 

Click here for a PDF of the WPLI Program

Click here for the Local Government & Policy Change slides

Click here for the Racial Wealth Divide – Government Boosts & Blocks 

 

Land Acknowledgment

As we gather for the 2022 virtual Women’s Policy Leadership Institute, we want to acknowledge the land we are all on today. We are joining this virtual event from all corners of the land we now call Montana. Montana was the traditional homeland and common hunting grounds of several tribes, including the Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kootenai, Little Shell, Northern Cheyenne, Pend d’Oreille, Plains Cree, Salish, Sioux, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara.

Today this land is home to twelve sovereign tribes with over 67,000 enrolled members. Those of us who are not Indigenous or Black acknowledge we are settlers on this land and benefit from the colonization and oppression of Indigenous people in the past and present.

We are also gathering in February, Black History Month. We recognize the invaluable and incomparable contributions of Black people every month, and take this month especially to lift up and highlight the leadership and excellence of Black people now and in the past. We acknowledge that Montana has had many thriving Black communities, whose history is often overlooked or purposefully erased, and who shaped Montana in many ways.

In addition to these acknowledgments, Montana Women Vote has made a contribution to the Helena Indian Alliance as a concrete way to demonstrate our commitment to the redistribution of resources and our acknowledgment of how we benefit from being on this land today.

You too can take action and share resources. To make a donation, visit these sites:

Helena Indian Alliance and Leo Pocha Memorial Clinic:
www.helenaindianalliance.com

MT Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Mutual Aid Fund
Instagram: mt.bipoc.mutual.aid
Venmo: @mtbipocaid

 

What’s at Stake in Indian Country

• 2021 MT Budget & Policy Center (MBPC) Report on State-Tribal Legislative Impacts
• 2003-2009 Report on Economic Contributions of Reservations to the State of Montana
• MBPC’s State-Tribal Handbook covers a history of state-tribal relations, how the budget process works in the legislature, how to track legislation, how to advocate for legislation, etc.
• House of the Moon: Indigenous Women’s Empowerment and Self-Defense
• Somebody’s Daughter film
• Say Her Name film

 

LGBTQ+ History Coloring Pages

 

Evaluation:

• Tell us what you think about the sessions you attended, what you’d like to see at future events, and how we can improve our communications: Women’s Policy Leadership Institute Evaluation

 

Suggested Further Reading:

Aubry Gordon on state-sponsored fat-shaming

 

 

 

National Congress of American Indians explains tribal sovereignty

 

 

Prison growth, prison size, and racial disparity data on incarceration in Montana

 

 

A study on the representation of Black and Indigenous issues in mainstream journalism

 

 

 

How to Provide Virtual Testimony (by Montana Budget and Policy Center)

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