Leaders of the Alaska Federation of Natives and Democrats all the way up to President Barack Obama are pushing Alaska Natives to vote, and vote early.
In a videotaped message played at the end of the day Friday, Obama urged delegates at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in downtown Anchorage's Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center to "walk across the street to City Hall and vote early."
Convention workers holding big signs that said "Follow Me to Vote" led a small parade of delegates to the Anchorage City Hall early voting station. Ballots from all over the state are available there, AFN co-chair Ana Hoffman told the convention. The voting station will stay open late for AFN, she said.
Willie Hensley, a longtime Native leader who served in the Legislature and ran for statewide office, reminded delegates of when their people had no voting rights.
Natives had little voice or power and couldn't protect their salmon and game, he said. Even when they were allowed voting rights under a 1924 law, literacy tests soon prevented many from voting. Those tests were only stripped away in 1970.
With the power to vote and Native leaders winning elective office, lives in rural Alaska began improving in big and fundamental ways, Hensley said.
"Without politics, we couldn't have electricity," he said. "We couldn't have brought our kids back home from scattered places around the country."
AFN worked with the state Division of Elections this year to add 128 early voting stations in rural Alaska, said Kim Reitmeier, who is executive director of the regional association for Alaska Native corporation chief executives and who is working on the Native vote campaign.
A number of Native organizations will send vans to pick people up for early voting and on Election Day, she said.
People can find their community's early voting station through an interactive map at aknativevote.com, she said.
Those who vote early should take selfies, post the pictures, then tag five friends to urge them to vote, Reitmeier told the AFN crowd.
The AFN convention theme is "Rise as One," a reference to voting power. "Remember, your voice is your vote," the program says.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, a Republican, urged AFN delegates to keep working to increase turnout, which has been improving. Turnout in northern and western legislative districts that are predominately Native increased 7 percent between 2010 and 2014, he said.