Just a few more days to go...

It's getting close! I'm headed to the Democratic National Convention in just a few short days. We leave Thrusday night/Friday morning for what is officially the most diverse convention to date.

Indian Country Today announced something I didn't know -

"Colorado's first residents will offer the first official welcome to the
Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 23, when Southern Ute, Ute
Mountain Ute and Northern Ute tribal leaders and other Indian notables in full
regalia will lead the pageantry of a grand entry before officials address some
13,000 media representatives."

Other plans include a pow wow on the 24th, various Native gatherings and discussions, crafts booths and all sorts of dance/drumming groups.

The DNCC let out numbers that show 2.5% of the delegates are Native American (110 total) - up from 1.8% from the 2004 convention, and up from .9% from the 1984 convention. Meaning in my lifetime, attendance by Native American delegates is up nearly 300%. In all,

"44.3 percent of the delegates elected to attend the Convention in Denver represent minority communities, 50.1 percent are women and 31.4 percent are either seniors or youth, making this the most diverse Convention in Party history."

Not to mention at least one VERY excited Tlingit/Athabascan blogger!

I will be participating in as much as I can cram in to nine short days. (Yes, nine days. Due mostly to the fact that our air travel plans weren't so much PLANS as... well, "get on the first few available seats at the last possible second." Hence - we found a need to extend our stay.)

For those that don't know, I will be attending the convention with Team Blue Oasis, headed by Celtic Diva. I will share credentials with her, so I will be blogging both from the floor (with the delegation) and from The Big Tent, depending on what's going on.

I will also be attending the Native American caucuses, and really any event I can canoodle, beg or bribe my way into.

P.S. Thanks to some very generous people, we were able to get plane tickets, and I was able to get a laptop with wireless capabilities this weekend (I was picturing some funny things, carting my desktop around...) But I could still use a bit more - we've learned that the blogger tent doesn't supply plug-ins for everyone to recharge, and I need to get a couple of (expensive!) universal batteries to make sure I don't get cut off in the middle of something exciting (or not so exciting, really). If you can give, every little bit REALLY does help! There is a donation link to the side - and gunalcheesh!!