Displayed with permission of the Skagit Valley Herald

By MARTA MURVOSH

Staff Writer
   Swinomish tribal member Lona Wilbur has become the fourth Native American serving as a member of the Democratic National Committee. Her election came Saturday at a meeting of Washington state Democrats in Vancouver, Wash.
   Wilbur said involvement in politics is a family tradition.
   “My mom’s mom, she sat me down before I was 18, and she said, ‘You need to know the importance of voting because our people didn’t always have the right to vote,’” Wilbur said of her grandmother, Agnes Charles.
   Wilbur said she’s a Democrat because the party is about standing up for protecting government services used by everyday citizens. In 2004, she was selected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
   Six people represent the state’s Democrats on the national committee. Two are the party’s chair and vice-chair and the other four, two men and two women, are elected by precinct committee officers.
   “Lona is a valued leader in our of our organization,” said Dwight Pelz, chairman of the Washington State Democrats.
   At 49, Wilbur is relatively young for a state representative, a position generally held by retirees. The national committee is responsible for the Democrats’ National Convention and for supporting party members across the United States. The members of the national committee represent the party members at home.
   “It’s important to be able to be inclusive of all of the voices of all of Washington state,” Wilbur said of her responsibilities to other Democrats in Washington.
   Wilbur became interested in a position on the national committee because of a chance encounter in 2006 with a committee vice chairman, Congressman Mike Honda, D-Calif., who was a speaker at the state convention. They were at the Yakima airport waiting for a flight.
   They started up a conversation, and Wilbur asked Honda about American Indians on the National Committee. Honda told her that there were only three. Then he asked: Why don’t you run?
   “I said, ‘You have to have years of experience and be on committees and have a resume. You can’t just be a woman of color. You have to put in your time and earn your dues and earn your respect,’” said Wilbur, who was serving on the state party’s rules committee. “He looked at me and said: ‘You just simply do it. Run.’”
   Wilbur said she had to lay the groundwork before this past Saturday’s election in Vancouver. She had to give stump speeches to the various caucuses within the state party and make contact with individual state committee members. After she was nominated, she had minutes to convince at least 78 of 154 precinct committee officers to vote for her.
   On Saturday, Wilbur became the fourth Native American on the national committee, according to the Democratic National Party. To have a Native American Caucus within the party, there must be at least nine. Wilbur said she would like to see that happen.
   Although American Indians have been U.S. citizens since 1924, not all states recognized their right to vote until 1948. In spite of changes in state laws, Indians in South Dakota took two counties to court in 1975 so they could vote in county elections, according to The New York Times.
   Wilbur said her involvement with the Democrats was inspired by the example set by her grandparents — Tandy Wilbur Sr. and Laura Wilbur, and Raymond and Agnes Charles — and by her parents — Marie Charles and Claude Wilbur Sr.
   They raised her to understand the importance of getting involved. Her paternal grandparents were national delegates at the 1960 Democratic Convention. They told her about how her great grandfather testified before Congress. Lona Wilbur became a Democratic precinct committee officer for La Conner, a committee member for the 10th Legislative District, and she sits on state party committees.
   “I always knew from the time I was a young girl when voting day was,” Lona Wilbur said. “My mother, Marie Charles, she went to polls to work. She would go early in the morning and … my dad had to cook dinner, and we delivered it to her at the voting polls.”