McKay is a name among many early Blackfeet and other tribes because of the names of Hudson’s Bay factors who took local wives “in the country way”. But my awareness of the Blackfeet family only goes back to Iliff McKay, an elected leader of much power in Bob Scriver’s generation. His children have been remarkable. Mary Margaret McKay Johnson was an enduring, resourceful and beloved school superintendent in Browning. She was in my Sixties English classes and is now retired. Diane Magee was a notable teacher.
Mike McKay was in the first class I ever taught, the designated highest performers of the 7th grade in 1961. They lived up to their chosen-ness, but only Mike was the comedian, particularly noted for his portrait of “Sistergirl,” the infamous “auntie” type who tells the truth even as her underwear goes askew and no one is listening.
Tom McKay was a year older. I didn’t know Joe, the youngest boy who became a lawyer. But you need to know this family in order to understand the significance of the story in the local newspaper this week.
Tom is, as the story linked above describes, a steady worker for the famous Blackfeet Writing Company and then worked for tribal housing , until most recently he became a county commissioner.
The Blackfeet Tribe has gone to mail-in voting because of the pandemic and because of the long distances on the rez. At the time of the Primary Election, McKay was in the post office when he glanced at the wastebasket where people throw their unwanted mail and saw handsful of mail-in ballots sent to registered voters who had evidently thrown them away. The envelopes are meant to be distinctive, but so are the envelopes that are advertising or the steady torrent of “significant information” from the governments. In fact, a remarkable envelope seems more of a source of mistakes than an ordinary one might be.
Since he was a conscientious and politically alert McKay, Tom gathered out the prospective ballots and took them to the Satellite Office of Glacier County where they called the people whose names were on the ballot and asked, “Did you really mean to throw this in the trash or are you going to vote? We have your ballot.”
Looks like those who have suspicious ideas about mail-in voting have it upside down — it’s not that people will vote too many times or vote without being registered, but that those who are entitled will simply shrug it off. This is particularly shocking in a place so dependent on the results of elections, both in terms of sympathy to needed programs and in terms of budget.
McKay hoped for backup from County officials but they were horrified by the prospect of the postmaster being obligated to dig through trash. The county clerk and recorder, Mandi Kennerly, said they had taken precautions against every kind of cheating or abuse and considerable care to get the records straight and make it easy to vote. But no one had ever even imagined that the voters themselves would simply ignore voting. Some message is simply not getting through.
No one ever told them that the price of freedom is constant vigilance. No one ever suggested that they were letting other people run their lives. It had not been taught to them that they matter, that they have their own future in their hands.
Instead the message has been that any official is corrupt, all of them are opportunists, and the safest way to live is by pretending they are too nasty to think about. It’ll just make you feel bad. Elections don’t matter.
On October 2, next week, mail-in ballots in Glacier County will be available at both the main Court House in Cut Bank and the Satellite Office in Browning. They will be mailed out by October 9. No stamp is needed, just like all those advertising replies
Organizations have formed to wake people up and urge action. “Western Native Voice is a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization working to inspire Native leadership through community organizing, education, leadership, and advocacy. With 7% of Montana’s population being Native American living almost evenly split between reservation and urban areas, WNV organizes in both rural and urban communities using a culturally tailored community organizing and citizen education model to build Native leadership.” One of their goals is to follow-up on creating good drop-off points in the satellite villages, like Heart Butte, Starr School, Babb, St. Mary, and even East Glacier, which is 44% white.
There also need to be posters, meetings, and maybe even door-to-door contacts. People don’t throw money in the trash, but they don’t realize that voting is MORE valuable than cash. No one in the McKay family could get away with such a thing. The relatives would come down on uncaring family members with force. Get an education! Vote! Claim your citizenship!
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