"A civil rights report released last week blasts South Dakota for a climate of discrimination, racial hostility and unfair treatment of Native Americans. It calls the state a "hotbed of voting rights litigation."

We have problems, but that's just over the top.

South Dakota's record has been checkered. After all, we're home to Wounded Knee. And it wasn't until 1951 that South Dakota allowed Native Americans to vote.

But to paint South Dakota as a place of widespread racism today, where county auditors and poll workers look for ways to discriminate against Native Americans, where lawmakers secretly connive methods to make it more difficult for Native people to vote, is hogwash."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Voting rights report (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 5/30)

Civil Rights Report:
Voting Rights in South Dakota, 1982-2006 (May 17, 2006)

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