Overview

• Sowmick acknowledged the Dakota Oyate as original stewards and highlighted Dakota care for the Mississippi River long before colonization.
• She said the land is tied to broken treaties and asserted that current systems suppress Indigenous cultural and spiritual history.
• DNC Chair Ken Martin introduced Sowmick, identifying her as the Minnesota DFL treasurer and a member of the Saginaw Ojibwe Nation.
• Sowmick urged Democrats not to treat acknowledgments as a box-checking exercise and called for engagement with Native communities.
• Coverage noted more than 400 party officials convened at a downtown Minneapolis hotel and that similar acknowledgments featured at the 2024 convention and in the party platform.