By Gregory Perryman
High School Essay Contest Winner
From a policy of genocide to assimilation, it is difficult to separate the long history of oppression by the United States Government from the struggle for voting rights by Native Americans. It was not until recent history that Native Americans were given citizenship under the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act and thus the right to vote after being excluded from the 14th and 15th amendments. It would not be until the year 1948 that two breakthrough cases Trujilo vs Garley in New Mexico and Harrison vs Laveen in Arizona, that Native Americans were able to vote in state and federal elections in each state respectively. Utah would be the last state to repeal laws barring Indigenous people from voting completely. They did so in reaction to the appeal of Allen v Merrell to the Supreme Court which the Utah state legislature thought would surely strike down the law. In 1965 the VRA passed extending its protections to Native Americans who were subject to suppression tactics a lot like those used in the south against Black voters such as literacy tests.
“‘Native people need to have a seat at the table...I mean, it’s 2020 for heaven’s sake…They deserve to have their voices heard.’”commented Deb Halland, a congresswoman from New Mexico and soon to be the first Native American cabinet secretary as Secretary of the Interior. She is speaking concerning voting rights and representation for 6.8 million Native Americans and Alaskan Natives living in the US, many citizens of the 574 federally recognized tribes. There are nearly 4.7 million Native American eligible voters, of which only 66% are registered. Average turnout is five to fourteen percent, the lowest of any racial group in the US. However, Native American voters have proven to be both powerful and decisive in numerous elections like that of Hedi Heitkamp of North Dakota's 2012 senatorial election where she won by less than 3,000 votes. Following Shelby County vs Holder, a new landscape of voter suppression has emerged that puts the burden on Tribes and nonprofit organizations to litigate and uphold the promises of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) on issues related to language access, voter identification, and numerous other laws that suppress the vote. The promotion of Native American voting rights is crucial to confronting the oldest contradiction of the American republic. Many battles have been won recently due to the hard work of Native American activism, however, there is still a long way to go to realize the coexistence of self-determination and the franchise for the original inhabitants of this land.
In 2013 when the Supreme Court in Shelby County vs Holder struck down section 4(b) and as a result the preclearance measure in section 5 the protections that were extended to Native Americans residing in states like Arizona gave way to a new intensified wave of voter suppression. Though Section 2 of the VRA is still in effect, Shelby County vs Holder “reverses the burden of proof, requiring the federal government, citizens, and advocates to prove the voting change is discriminatory…” putting an enormous strain on tribes with over 1 million dollars for litigation to have a chance at success.
Bilingual language access in elections was mandated under section 203 of the 1975 amendment to the VRA and later expanded in 1992. Native Alaskan tribes have had to litigate for language access at the ballot box most notably in the case Toyukak v. Treadwell, No. 3:13-cv-00137- SLG, (D. Alaska Sept. 30, 2015). This case found that Alaska had failed to provide significant language assistance to Alaskan native tribes specifically through pre-election materials detailing what was on the ballot. Mr. Mike Toyukak himself would take the stand in a contentious trial demonstrating Alaskan Native voters “had experienced exclusion from not just one or two pieces of voting information...but exclusion from the entire political process”.
Another barrier to voting that Native American voters face is increasingly strict voter ID requirements. North Dakota in 2013 implemented a strict voter ID law which eliminated the practice of allowing voters to swear their identity using a signed affidavit or being vouched for by a poll worker they knew. Instead, IDs require you to provide a county or state-recognized address which Native American reservations often lack. Many Native Americans use P.O. boxes to receive mail, and with high poverty rates often are without a stable address. The impact likely intended is that a whole swath of voters living on reservations are disenfranchised. To rectify this issue tribes like The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian had to surge resources spending $36,000 to provide 2,400 new ID cards which cost $15, waiving the fee to avoid forcing citizens to choose between a “week’s worth of milk and bread”and voting.In Spirit Lake Tribe. v. Jaeger, No. 1:18-cv- 00222 (D.N.D.) (Complaint filed Oct. 30, 2018) the situation was similar. The Spirit Lake and Standing Rock tribes reached a consent decree with the North Dakota Secretary of State to allow Native American voters to verify their place of residence on a map and provide free state ID’s on reservations 30 days before each election. Though this was a positive breakthrough, many states such as Arizona have increasingly strict voter ID laws that disenfranchise Native American voters. Defending the constitutional right to vote for indigenous people can not be done in the courts alone.
The way forward on combating voter suppression and strengthening voting rights for Native American voters is clear. Washington state passed the Native American Voting Rights Act in 2019 and currently the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Native American Voting Rights Act sit stalled in Congress. The biggest impediment: political incentives that discourage fulfilling the fullest vision of democracy in order to prevent Native American tribes and citizens from having both self-determination and a say in the affairs of a nation that has for so long tried to erase them.
Endnotes[1] Marcia L Fudge, “Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of
America,” Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America §
(2019).
[2] Sarah Rounsville, “Trujillo v. Garley: The Struggle for Native American Voting Rights,”
Intermountain Histories (Brigham Young University, 2019), https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/251.
[3] Jennifer Robinson, “Utah and Native American Voting Rights,” Utah Women's History
(Better Days Curriculum, May 2, 2019), https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2019/03/utah-and-native-american-voting-rights/.
[4] Nathan Rott, “In Historic Move, Biden To Pick Native American Rep. Haaland As Interior
Secretary,” NPR (NPR, December 17, 2020), https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/937259525/in-historic-move-biden-to-pick-native-american-rep-deb-haaland-as-interior-secre.
[5] Dr. James Thomas Tucker, Jacqueline De León, and Dr. Dan McCool, “Obstacles at Every
Turn,” Native American Voting Rights (Native American Rights Fund , June 18, 2020), https://vote.narf.org/obstacles-at-every-turn/, 6.
{6] Marcia L Fudge, “Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of
America,” Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America § (2019).
[7] James Thomas Tucker, Natalie A Landreth, and Erin Dougherty Lynch, “‘Why Should I Go
Vote Without Understanding What I Am Going to Vote For?’ The Impact of First Generation Voting Barriers on Alaska Natives,” Michigan Journal of Race & Law 22, no. 327 (2017), https://doi.org/10.36643/mjrl.
[8] Marcia L Fudge, “Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of
America,” Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America § (2019).
[9] Georgia Lyon, “Spirit Lake Tribe, Et Al. v. Jaeger,” Campaign Legal Center, April 24, 2020,
https://campaignlegal.org/cases-actions/spirit-lake-tribe-et-al-v-jaeger.
[10] Seattle Weekly, “Native American Voting Rights Act Signed into Law,” Seattle Weekly,
March 18, 2019, https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/native-american-voting-rights-act-signed-into-law/.
[11] (2020), https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4263/text.
[12](2019),https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1694/text?q=%7B%22searc
h%22%3A%5B%22H.+R.+83%22%5D%7D&r=62&s=1.
BibliographyJohn Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Bill, Congress.Gov § (2020).
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4263/text.
Lyon, Georgia. “Spirit Lake Tribe, Et Al. v. Jaeger.” Campaign Legal Center, April 24, 2020.
https://campaignlegal.org/cases-actions/spirit-lake-tribe-et-al-v-jaeger.
Native American Voting Rights Act of 2019. Bill, Congress.gov § (2019).
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1694/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.+R.+83%22%5D%7D&r=62&s=1.
Robinson, Jennifer. “Utah and Native American Voting Rights.” Utah Women's History.
Better Days Curriculum, May 2, 2019. https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2019/03/utah-and-native-american-voting-rights/.
Rott, Nathan. “In Historic Move, Biden To Pick Native American Rep. Haaland As Interior
Secretary.” NPR. NPR, December 17, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/937259525/in-historic-move-biden-to-pick-native-american-rep-deb-haaland-as-interior-secre.
Rounsville, Sarah. “Trujillo v. Garley: The Struggle for Native American Voting Rights.”
Intermountain Histories. Brigham Young University, 2019. https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/251.
Seattle Weekly. “Native American Voting Rights Act Signed into Law.” Seattle Weekly, March
18, 2019. https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/native-american-voting-rights-act-signed-into-law/.
Tucker, Dr. James Thomas, Jacqueline De León, and Dr. Dan McCool. “Obstacles at Every
Turn.” Native American Voting Rights. Native American Rights Fund , June 18, 2020. https://vote.narf.org/obstacles-at-every-turn/.
Tucker, James Thomas, Natalie A Landreth, and Erin Dougherty Lynch. “‘Why Should I Go
Vote Without Understanding What I Am Going to Vote For?’ The Impact of First Generation Voting Barriers on Alaska Natives.” Michigan Journal of Race & Law 22, no. 327 (2017). https://doi.org/10.36643/mjrl.
United States House of Representatives Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on
Elections, and Marcia L Fudge. Report, Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America § (2019).
