The fight against GOP suppression of the Native vote in North Dakota is the fight for democracy

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday May 02, 2018 · 10:37 AM PDT

2018/05/02 · 10:37

CANNON BALL, ND - DECEMBER 04: Military veterans arrive to support activists at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 4, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Native Americans and activists from around the country have been gathering at the camp for several months trying to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Today the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not grant an easement for the pipeline to cross under a lake on the Sioux Tribes Standing Rock reservation, ending the months-long standoff. The proposed 1,172-mile-long pipeline would transport oil from the North Dakota Bakken region through South Dakota, Iowa and into Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Republican battle against democracy has been well-covered here. The intersectionality and historical significance of voter suppression actions has been particularly poignant in North Dakota over the last six years. When Democrat Heidi Heitkamp defeated Republican Rick Berg to become senator, her small margin of victory was, in no small part, the product of the tireless work by Native American activists like Prairie Rose Seminole, who organized and helped get out the vote—from Sioux County to Benson County and the Spirit Lake Tribe. The Republican Party and its overlords, instead of looking at the policies that led to voters choosing Heitkamp over their candidate, decided the best thing to do was get rid of people voting against their unpopular ideas. The top of that Republican list to suppress are South Dakota Native Americans. Roey Hadar in The Nation profiles the history of the North Dakota conservative response to Native Americans participating in democracy.

Over the last six years, Republicans in North Dakota adopted a flurry of legislation that effectively revoked the right to vote for thousands of Native Americans and other Democratic voters, according to an investigation of court records, internal emails among state officials, as well as interviews with voters and lawmakers on both sides of the issue.

Six Native American plaintiffs challenged North Dakota’s law in court, including Brakebill, Norquay, and Vivier. A federal district-court judge sided with the plaintiffs in challenges to two different iterations of the state’s voter-ID laws, finding the laws’ requirements to be disproportionately burdensome on Native American voters.

In 1924, the Indian Citizen Act meant that—theoretically—American Indians were also American citizens. This was an attempt to resolve what the 14th Amendment had left out: the original people living in the territories we call North America. The history of Native American citizenship in America is as unjust as you can imagine. The battle has continued with victories and loses since then. The most recent ruling means that while Native Americans still have to “prove their identities” on voting day, they will be more latitude in their proofs.

In light of the ruling, Native Americans in North Dakota will now be able to present additional types of ID to vote or prove their identity, including the federal tribal ID that many Native Americans already possess. The ruling also allows them to use more readily accessible tribal documents to supplement their IDs if they need to prove their identity or address. This will make it considerably easier for Native Americans, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates, to cast their ballots.

The old adage is true: if your vote doesn’t mean anything, why oh why are they trying so hard to make sure you do not vote.

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