Jessie James-Hawley: Montana county encourages Indian vote

As an enrolled member of the Fort Belknap Gros Ventre Tribe, as well as the Fort Belknap Reservation voter organizer for Western Native Voice, I have to express my views on this issue.

Working with the Snake Butte Voter Coalition, headed by Gerald Stiffarm and Democratic organizer Eleanor Yellow Robe, we gathered together Fort Belknap tribal members to get our tribal members registered to vote, as well as getting them to the polls for this past November election. As a result, Fort Belknap Reservation was no. 1 of all the reservations in the state of Montana, for getting out the native vote.

A large part of our success can be credited to the cooperation we received from Sandra Boardman, clerk and recorder for Blaine County. She and her staff bent over backward to assist us in our work of getting tribal members registered and to the polls. We were provided voter registration lists, active and in-active and maps, while we assisted her office in providing updated addresses.