“A group of ten persons of all ages have been meeting since late last year to regroup and focus on efforts to engage American Indians in this process,” said Rev David Wilson, Conference Superintendent of the OIMC, and chair of the RNV.

Rock the Native Vote (RNV) was first established in 2004 as an attempt to register young American Indians to vote. The RNV effort culminated in a large concert that was held June 5, 2004. The organization worked in conjunction with the National Congress of Indians.

Rev. Chebon Kernell led a training March 14th to prepare the young adults on how to do voter registration.

There were 25 persons from three universities present at the training. The schools represented included: Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University and Rogers State University.

“The plan is to prepare the young persons to set up voter registration booths at pow-wows, church events, and training events and wherever there are large gatherings of Native persons,” said Rev. Wilson. The group has already set up booths at four events since the end of February.

The RNV first official endeavor was in late February with the support of a gathering of Indian students at Southwestern State University in Weatherford. Native students from most of the state and private colleges and universities gathered there for a leadership conference. Rev Chebon Kernell, vice-chair of RNV, reported that, “we were successful in signing up twentytwo volunteers.”

The RNV will now sponsor training for the group on how to register persons to vote, motivate native persons to vote, and other pertinent information.

The group also has major events targeted where they will set up registration booths. They will also utilize the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic as a resource for registering voters. The final Rock the Native Vote event will be a rally on November 1, 2008, which will feature prominent American Indian leaders from Oklahoma.

The Rock the Native Vote began with concerns from American Indian leaders that native persons were not participating in the voting process. A recent report from the institute of American Indians Arts Chronicle listed the followoing reasons why American Indian college students don’t vote;