Ho-Chunk Nation President introduces presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders
By Ken Luchterhand
Ho-Chunk President Wilfrid Cleveland had the privileged of introducing Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders at a rally on Wednesday, March 30, at the OmniCenter in Onalaska, Wisconsin.
Sanders made the appearance before the Wisconsin primary election on April 5. Sanders won the primary, with 567,858 votes, or 56.5 percent, and 47 delegates, while his opponent, Hillary Clinton received 434,168 votes, or 43.2 percent, and 41 delegates.
There were 3,321 people in attendance for the rally.
Ho-Chunk President Cleveland took the podium before Sanders, offering the crowd some insight on the views of the Ho-Chunk people and how Sanders’ views are similar.
“I give you a Ho-Chunk welcome, say thank you for being here, and it’s good to see each one of you,” President Cleveland said. “I’ve been given the privilege and the honor to introduce our special guest to southwestern part of Wisconsin, a portion of the Ho-Chunk Nation.
“These are our ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation and Senator Sanders has been a true friend to Indian Country. Just like us Indigenous people throughout the United States, Senator Sanders is also a steward of the land,” he said.
“He shares our ideals, our thoughts on protecting our environment, particularly in our state of Wisconsin. We have this natural environment here throughout the state from the Chicago-Wisconsin line up to Lake Superior, from La Crosse to Green Bay, from Hudson to Milwaukee. All of that is God’s land,” President Cleveland said.
“As stewards of the land, we protect this beauty to stay forever – for generations – for future generations. This is the same thought that Senator Sanders has in wanting to be the president of the United States. Senator Sanders also believes in Indigenous people and understanding the trust responsibility that the federal government has, and also our tribal sovereignty,” he said.
“With this good thought, good feeling that he has for our Indigenous people, I’d like you all to give a warm, thankful, hearty welcome for the presidential candidate from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders,” President Cleveland said.
Senator Bernie Sanders then took the podium and replied.
“Let me thank Kathy Jo Van Baren, Monica Rose Upton, and mostly let me thank Wilfrid Cleveland, president of the Ho-Chunk Nation,” Sanders said.
“Let me just say this. I think all of us understand that from day one, before our nation was a nation, when the first settlers came here to this land, from day one we have treated the Native American people extremely unfairly,” he said.
“They have been lied to, they have been cheated, treaties that were negotiated between the government and the Native American community were often abrogated. And we have got to make that situation right. We owe the Native American community a deep debt of gratitude that we can never repay because they have fought for so much. And among many, many other things they have taught us is that, as human beings, we are part of nature – we have to live with nature. We cannot destroy it,” Sanders said.
“If elected president, our government’s relationship with Native American communities around this country will fundamentally change,” he said.
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