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Your Monthly Climate Digest

Protecting the water, moccasin making, bold visions for a livable future…

Boozhoo John,

November is Native American Heritage Month. To me, this month is a time to remember and honor our ancestors and our elders who have taught us the ways of our people. One of the most important teachings is that we must protect the water. That means our rivers, lakes, drinking water, and, for mothers, the water we carry our babies in for nine months. 

We are taught that water is the source of life – literally each of us are carried in water before we are born. That is why women are water protectors.

One of the women I, and many others, have learned from is Grandmother Josephine or Josephine Mandamin. Josephine of the Anishinabek Nation of Ontario, Canada, was the original water walker – founding the movement of water walkers when she walked around Lake Superior in 2003. She brought people together to stand for the water and raise awareness of the harm being done. Over her lifetime, she walked about 25,000 miles around the shorelines of the Great Lakes. 

After her final walk in 2017, she told the next generation to follow in her footsteps. Today, Wisconsin Conservation Voters and the Wisconsin Native Vote team are bringing awareness to drinking water contamination. We are talking with private well owners around the state to make sure they know to test their water. We are also building support for legislation that would protect their right to know what’s in their water. Scroll down to learn more about this campaign and how you can help.

This November, join us in carrying on the legacy of Grandmother Josephine by honoring the water, and get involved.

Scroll down for more:

• Take action for clean drinking water
• Join our team! We're hiring
• Triple your impact for a pro-conservation trifecta
• Making moccasins as a community
• Bryan Rogers shares his “bold visions for a livable future”
• No Kings: Marching for democracy
• Evers announces wild rice initiative

Miigwech for protecting the water,

Maria Haskins

Anishinaabe, Lac Courte Oreilles

Wisconsin Native Vote Regional Tribal Organizer

Take action for clean drinking water

Approximately one-third of Wisconsinites rely on groundwater from private wells for their drinking water. Without regular testing, required notifications, or state support, thousands of families remain unaware of the risks in their drinking water. 

Here’s how you can help:

1. Write your legislators and ask them to co-sponsor the bill that would protect private well owners’ right to know if their water is contaminated >>>
2. Join one of our canvasses happening in Western and Northeast Wisconsin throughout November. We’re knocking on doors to make sure people are aware of the potential risks in their drinking water. Check our event page for upcoming canvasses or sign up here to let us know you’re interested volunteering >>>
3. Donate to support our work. Every dollar you give means more doors we can knock and more people we can make aware of this issue.  

Join our team! We're hiring a southwest organizer

We are looking for a passionate, energetic, and effective community organizer to our team. The full-time organizer will be based in or near La Crosse. 

This person will lead regional campaigns that will hold our state and federal lawmakers accountable to protecting Wisconsin’s air, land, water, and democracy, and fight for climate justice.

Triple your impact for a pro-conservation trifecta

With Triple Match, this November every donation goes three times further engaging voters on clean water, clean energy, a robust and equitable democracy, and accountable government. Triple your gift, triple your impact on the midterm elections, triple the odds of a pro-conservation trifecta. Keep an eye on your email and mailbox for updates on Triple Match coming soon.

Making moccasins as a community

To celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day and talk with people about how they can get involved with Native Vote programs, Native Vote Organizer Maria Haskins put together a four-part moccasin-making class in collaboration with the Menominee Cultural Museum.

Maria brought local community members together to learn the art of handcrafting this traditional footwear. Building connections within the community and fostering spaces for cultural knowledge to be passed on are just one of the many ways we connect with people across the state to talk with them about how their voices can be heard on issues they care about. Participants left with their own handcrafted moccasins, an understanding of traditions, and knowledge of how they can get more involved.

Bryan Rogers shares his “bold visions for a livable future”

Sometimes, we need a reminder to have hope – especially given the state of our federal government. In his award acceptance speech at our September Green Tie Madison event, Bryan Rogers reminded us that love, community, and our commitment to doing the work are what’s needed to fight the authoritarian powers that seek to divide us and control us. 

His message: We cannot and will not give up. 

“We’ve organized enough to calmly claim the revolutionary optimism that is the birthright of anyone engaged in the love and practice of revolutionary struggle,” Rogers said.

As we organize and fight oppression, together we are building a world “rooted in justice, care, dignity, and love. We know that that other world is possible and our task is to make it irresistible,” he said.

Watch his moving comments and remember you are a part of this movement. You can help protect our democracy and the environment now and for future generations. Together, we have the power to resist and prevail.

No Kings: Marching for democracy

Thank you to all of you who joined a No Kings protest in October. Across the country, we sent a message to the Trump administration that we will show up and resist their blatantly oppressive actions and policies. 

March in the streets is an important way to use our voices but the work doesn’t stop there. Let’s keep that momentum going by writing your state legislators, volunteering, and making a plan to vote in 2026. 

Gov. Evers launches new wild rice and Tribal stewardship efforts

This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Gov.  Evers announced an exciting new initiative to honor Tribal sovereignty, protect Wisconsin’s natural resources, and celebrate the deep cultural roots of wild rice (manoomin) across the state.

The new Wild Rice Stewardship Program will:

• Create a Wild Rice Stewardship Council to protect and restore wild rice in Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers.
• Raise awareness of Tribal treaty rights through education and staff training across state agencies.
• Add Indigenous languages and cultural education to state park signs and materials.
• Celebrate the first week of September as “Wild Rice Week” each year, starting in 2026.

Wild rice isn’t just a plant. It’s a sacred food, a symbol of resilience, and a living connection between people, land, and water. Protecting it means supporting ecological balance, clean water, and the traditions that have shaped Wisconsin for centuries.

Wild rice has specific habitat requirements and changing ecological conditions are putting Tribes’ ability to grow, cultivate, and harvest the crop on ceded Tribal lands and waters at risk. 

We thank Gov. Evers and leaders from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) for this meaningful action.  And we are grateful to the Tribal Nations of Wisconsin for their continued leadership in caring for the places and species that sustain us all.

Watch Gov. Evers’ announcement here.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters
133 S. Butler Street Suite 320
Madison, WI 53703
United States

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