Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A record number of Native American voters are expected to vote this fall, some for the very first time, and many with the help of local Indigenous organizations and nonprofits.
Groups like the Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste and Uniting Resilience have spent the past several months registering people across South Dakota to vote. On Monday, they prepared to turn in their work at the Pennington County Administration Building.
A total of 615,987 South Dakotans were registered to vote as of Oct. 1, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State, 6,037 more than Oct. 1 last year. About half of those new registrations, roughly 3,700, occurred within the last month.
Native people weren’t granted the right to vote until 100 years ago, with the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act; however, discrimination at the ballot box didn’t end there.
It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that voting rights were guaranteed, though states continued to block Indigenous people from voting for decades. Before 1965 Native voters were often barred from voting in federal elections, especially those that lived on a reservation.
That’s recent history for many voters, and it’ll take a lot of work to regain trust, said Andrew Cisneros, Southern Ute and an organizer for Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste.
“There’s a lot of distrust of the system,” Cisneros said. “One elder (we spoke to) witnessed the Wounded Knee Occupation and said she will never vote because of what has happened in the past.”
Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste spent the past several months registering voters on reservations in South Dakota and will continue to do so.
Cisneros encountered a lot of individuals who had never voted before. One in particular was a 77-year-old Lakota Vietnam veteran who heard about the Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste on a reservation-based radio program and decided to reach out and register.
“We have to heal our nation and it’s not gonna be easy,” Cisneros said. “People were angry but there’s an awareness in the Native community that we’re gonna need to get out there.”
In Rapid City, Uniting Resilience has spent the past four weeks organizing “BBQs & Ballots” a nonpartisan social event where community members could come, register to vote and enjoy a meal and conversation at the group’s headquarters at 705 E. Watertown St. in Rapid City.
In that time, the nonprofit organization was able to register 107 people to vote.
“I learned a lot about our community over the past four weeks, and I felt that we need to continue to uplift our community in the most positive way possible,” Uniting Resilience Executive Director Monique “Muffie” Mousseau said.
Mousseau said the events offered an opportunity to explain ballot measures to the community and discuss misconceptions. The amendments and ballot measures that most community members had concerns about were Amendment G and Initiated Measure 28.
Amendment G would establish a constitutional right to abortion in the state of South Dakota. The amendment would allow the state to interfere with the right to an abortion after the first trimester and only then in “ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”
Initiated Measure 28 would prohibit state sales taxes on anything sold for human consumption, not including alcohol or prepared food. Forty-five states collect a statewide sales tax, and of those 45, 13 apply that tax to food. Only two states, Mississippi and South Dakota, apply the full state sales tax rate to groceries. Municipalities would still be able to tax anything sold for human consumption, including groceries.
Other issues that were important to voters, particularly Native voters, are the handling of the Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline, which continues to flow through North Dakota above the Standing Rock Reservation.
Many new Native voters also don’t identify with a particular political party, Cisneros said.
The one mutual understanding, though, was the importance of voting.
“Just get out there and vote,” said Felipa Mousseau, co-founder of Uniting Resilience. “We need to keep moving forward in a positive way.”
Uniting Resilience and Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste will be offering rides to the polls on Nov. 5. Anyone in need of a ride in Rapid City can call Mousseau at 605-786-6682. Uniting Resilience is also seeking volunteers to provide rides, volunteers can call 605-786-6682.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
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