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Newsletter - November 14, 2024

LWVIN | Published on 11/14/2024
A LETTER FROM OUR STATE PRESIDENT
Dear League Members,

Thank you for your untiring and dedicated work this past year to register voters, disseminate accurate information, urge people to vote, support election workers, or work the polls yourself. The increased voter registrations in Indiana touted by our Secretary of State are due in no small part to your efforts.

The suffragists who formed the League of Women Voters even before they officially had the vote realized they couldn’t stop with that. Voters had to be armed with knowledge when they approached the ballot box, so the newly-formed League began by educating themselves—and then the public—on issues of importance to them, initially focused on women and children. (If you’d like more of the history of League positions, take time to read the introductory material in Impact on Issues 2022-2024.)

Radical hope sustained them and will sustain us.
Hope is a discipline. It must be practiced.
LWVIN will move forward in our mission to defend democracy and to make it work in Indiana!

We can learn from the suffragists’ focus on issues of immediate importance to the women going to the polls for the first time. Indiana voters cited immigration and the economy as determining factors in their votes. But disappointing voter turnout across parts of the state as described in this Indiana Capital Chronicle article and in this MirrorIndy article suggests we must adopt some new strategies to get voters to actually show up. Nationally, reports indicate that 15 million registered Democrats and 4 million registered Republicans sat out the election. Myriad reasons have been suggested, but our focus must be on Indiana. Why did Hoosiers not vote? We have a year before the midterms….

Here are opportunities to be involved—to get those answers, to reach voters where they are:

• We need volunteers to build the 2024 election report. The Voter Services Coordinating Committee is looking for dedicated volunteers to support the collection, analysis, and the writing of a statewide election report following the 2024 election. Email: voterservicelwvin@gmail.com. Go HERE for more information.

• The Board has begun talking strategy and invites members to contribute on December 5 at 6 pm ET. Register HERE.

• Volunteer to be a liaison from the League to help plan the Women’s March in Indianapolis on January 18, 2025. Contact: Angie Klitzsch at angie@women4changeindiana.org

• Talk to your legislators at League Day at the Statehouse, February 12, 2025. Watch for more information at LWVIN.org.

I am privileged to work with all of you—We are resilient in service of democracy.

Linda
LWV, ERA Coalition, and Common Cause responses to the election results all indicate women’s resilience and determination.
Minnie Hollow Wood wears her war bonnet as she makes chokecherry patties, a seasonal treat. Photo by Thomas Bailey Marquis.
Pretty Nose, photographed at Fort Keough in Montana, in 1879. Photo by Laton Alton Huffman.
FORGOTTEN FOREMOTHERS
Profiles of lesser-known heroines in the fight for women's rights
WOMEN WARRIORS OF LITTLE BIGHORN

Minnie Hollow Wood, Pretty Nose, One Who Walks with the Stars, and Moving Robe – Four indigenous women who refused safety and chose to fight for their tribes at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Historical narrative tends to distill the indigenous people of the United States into two archetypes. Thanksgiving lore tells of the welcoming tribe who shared a meal with the newly arrived and poorly equipped immigrants from England. Western movies and novels often depict the “noble savage,” or simply a bloodthirsty one.

There’s value, in this writer’s opinion, in presenting people—especially women—with greater nuance. So why has this column treated brutal fighters as heroes? Why has it called rough women, apathetic women, and even women who viewed society with contempt “heroes”?

In a culture that wants to deem only certain qualities “feminine,” there’s revolution in demanding that women be reckoned with as the complex human beings they are. These profiles are not to praise war or violence but to recognize courage of conviction—the bravery to resist and the will to act.

For every defeat, there was a fight. The fights mattered, even if they were lost. Our actions and words can stand as a record to time: “Someone knew this was wrong.” We should never look back at history’s bleakest outcomes and say, “Why didn’t anyone stop it?” because there are surely countless stories of those who tried. Perhaps they even nearly succeeded. Perhaps they even celebrated and believed they had won.

The long lens of time dulls the landscape, but the people in the moment live on the edge of a knife, not knowing which way each event may cut and who may be left bleeding. Fictional heroes have the foresight of a guided narrative. As we exist in the real world with history unfolding beneath our feet, we can only act with hope and the courage of our convictions.

You can read this entire article HERE.

Kathryn S Gardiner

One Who Walks with the Stars, Oglala Sioux. Art by Daniel Long Soldier.
Moving Robe Woman in the 1900s. Photographer unknown.
Pam Locker, Editor, LWVIN Voter

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