Let’s chip in and buy one of the white ones!
The Voting Rights Act opened the doors for Native American candidates
By Native Sun News Today Editorial Board
nativesunnews.today The State of South Dakota is officially a Red State. There are 89 Republicans in the legislature and only 16 Democrats. The State has not had a Democrat serve as Governor since Richard “Dick” Kneip in 1971 to 1978. At one time the State’s voting districts were so badly gerrymandered that it was impossible for an Indian to be elected to office even on an Indian reservation with 90 percent Indian population. It took a Lakota man who wanted to run for state office to use the Voting Rights Act to get the federal government to step in and make the changes and that is how Tom Shortbull became Senator Shortbull. Shortbull also ran into problems when he decided to run for the presidency of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. At that time individuals born off of the reservation were counted as Non-Enrolled or NE on the tribal rolls. Shortbull went to war with the tribe and the federal government to get that discriminatory rule erased. However, that important change still has not been fully implemented by the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Enrollment Office. There are members of the tribe that have NE’s in their family and it has impacted their blood quantum. For example, there are tribal members whose mother may be Lakota, but she was born off of the reservation and was listed as Non-Enrolled. Therefore her Lakota blood quantum is not counted when determining her children’s blood quantum. Therefore her children’s blood quantum is diminished because of it. We know one man whose mother was full blood and her husband was full blood which should have made her children full blood, but since she was listed as NE her blood quantum was not counted and so her children were listed on the tribal rolls as one half. We know that in order to remedy this situation it would be a huge undertaking, but we believe that it is something that should be done out of fairness to all tribal members. When looking at a political map of South Dakota you will see that the state is pictured as “red” except for those areas with Indian reservations. The reservations are pictured as blue. We wonder why a small state like South Dakota even has to have different political parties. The Indian reservations for the most part do not. When an election is held all of the candidates run in one Primary Election and the top vote getters move on to the General Election. Right now there are only eight members of the U. S. Supreme Court. They are divided ideologically and politically so that the vote on any major issue is always divided 4 to 4. The Supreme Court Justices are supposed to be open minded and dedicated to enforcing the laws built around the U. S. Constitution free of political or religious affiliation. We know that is not true. The next Justice appointed to fill the court will without a doubt be a right leaning conservative which will throw the balance of the Court to the right. God forbid that any serious legal challenges involving Native American tribes ever reach this court because their cases will be lost before they begin. The Indian population is the fastest growing population in the state. In 50 years Indians will be closing in on being the majority. The political parties in this state better beware and take heed of this developing trend. South Dakota will gradually become a blue state and we hope the blue will treat the red better than the red ever treated the blue.
Find more news and opinion on the Native Sun News Today website: The Voting Rights Act opened the doors for Native American candidates (Contact the Editorial Board at editor@nativesunnews.today) l Copyright permission Native Sun News
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