Native Americans were given the right to vote in 1924 following the Indian Citizenship Act. One-hundred years later, Native voters still face barriers when attempting to vote.
A new Lakota-led initiative, the He Sapa Voters Project, is working to make a change.
“I don’t think my ancestors would want me to be quiet. I’m urging everyone to talk to your relatives and families, to get out the Native vote,” said Marlene Poor Bear, Oglala Lakota, in a Sept. 17 press release.
This fall, the He Sapa Voter Project plans to bring voter registration opportunities to several urban and rural communities across the state.
COUP, or Communities Organizing for Unified Power, is a Rapid City-based nonprofit organization led by Lakota women. In 2019, COUP created the He Sapa Voters Project before the highly anticipated 2020 election.
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“We’re (He Sapa Voters) a nonpartisan group,” said Natalie Stites Means, Cheyenne River Lakota and COUP executive director. “We’re solely interested in getting more Native Americans registered to vote. We feel like Native Americans are the future of South Dakota, we’re the majority-minority, and it’s been demonstrated that our voter rights are suppressed or definitely inhibited by conditions that we’re facing here.”
In 2022, a federal judge ruled that South Dakota, specifically the state’s driver’s license agency, had committed numerous violations of the National Voter Registration Act. One of the violations came from a failure to provide voter registration at licensing agencies in Indian Country and rural areas.
Following an investigation from the Justice Department, officials in Bennett County, part of the Pine Ridge Reservation, must now offer a satellite polling station in Allen, after findings indicated the county failed to make registration and early voting opportunities equally open to Native voters.
In rural areas, Indigenous voters face challenges not only in registering to vote but in getting to a polling station. Public transportation on reservations is severely limited and many places haven’t historically offered satellite polling stations.
As of now, the group plans to hold events in Pierre, Rapid City and Sioux Falls, as well as on the Cheyenne River, Standing Rock, Crow Creek, Lower Brule and Pine Ridge reservations before the voter registration deadline on Oct. 21.
The group will also be tabling at locations around Rapid City, such as the Oglala Lakota College He Sapa Center and the upcoming Black Hills Powwow Oct. 11 through 13.
On Sept. 22 from 4 to 6 p.m., the group will host a voter education bingo event at COUP headquarters, 103-A New York Ave. in Rapid City.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
Amelia Schafer is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ICT and the Rapid City Journal. She is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent. She is based in Rapid City. You can contact her at aschafer@rapidcityjournal.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 02:00:00
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