Make-up Post: Native women elected to Congress

For my make-up post I wanted to write about the recent election of Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland to Congress since it was really exciting news. In the last class when we finished Skins, multiple people brought up that they feel that only the negative things about Native life and rez life are emphasized in the media, and I thought this was an awesome example of positive things going on in the Native community.

Having Native voices in Congress is crucial because of the history of Natives being written out of history and leadership, despite the U.S. being on Native land. This is a strong step toward decolonization and it's impressive that these women are stepping up into very public roles to advocate for their communities in a time when government is in a particularly precarious state. Also, given the long history of distrust of the federal government, hopefully having Davids and Halland in Congress will help the U.S. take steps toward repairing that damaged trust and creating policies that benefit indigenous people. Davids has emphasized her history of working and living on the rez, collaborating closely with tribes to create economic development opportunities so it will be interesting to see how this manifests in her new role as Congresswoman. I'm also excited about Haaland's commitment to advocating for affordable housing, expanding Medicare, gun reform, and more.