A handful of individual voters do not represent the majority

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

By Ivan Star Comes Out

Native Sun News Today Columnist

nativesunnews.today

Certain Oglala District Executive Committee members and tribal council reps have been making a genuine effort to give district voters their inherent right to govern themselves. It should be common knowledge by now that the condition of our government here in Oglala is in need of a serious upgrade.

I believe the real problem is in the lack of voter participation. “My vote won’t make difference so why vote!” is a common rhetoric. Amazingly, this peculiarity has existed since the overall voting bloc to the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was reduced just three days before congress enacted it.

“30 per centum” is less than one-third (33 1/3%). Although the democratic principle of ‘majority’ is used, the highly questionable reduced voting bloc is still being used today. Junior and high school civics and government classes are still not teaching the fact that Congress enacted the IRA with only 28.7% of Pine Ridge Reservation voters participating to “accept” the 1934 IRA (not the constitution).

No wonder we are having problems with this government! In other words, the IRA was coerced onto the people here as well as on several other reservations. It is very clear now, in the wake of the recent Pine Ridge constitutional revision effort, that a system wherein a majority of voters can collectively decide how they are to be governed is highly desirable.

Ivan F. Star Comes Out. Photo courtesy Native Sun News Today

Sadly, we still have elected officials who are not at all interested in improving life for their constituents as the current system serves their needs, whatever those are. The constitutional system we have on the Pine Ridge is not a genuine people’s system. Instead, it has allowed these few to thrive.

Here in Oglala District, under the new Article VI of the “tribal” constitution, voters do not have fair representation. The system is disordered as I see district members going to the tribal council reps to get their problems or situations taken care of while others use the district executive committee. Others go to other district reps and OST executive officers with their personal situations.

District voters must acknowledge the principle that they hold the authority and power to be governed. They must organize at the community level to access that authority. Voters must get involved if they are to determine how they want to be governed. They have to get involved.

Many today are looking to traditional government but it is difficult at this point in our history. As we all know, the family is not what it once was. That ancient tiospaye system was founded on the family unit and it must be reinstituted back into the fabric of our society before we can even talk about traditional government.

Anyway, let’s begin with government under the 1936 Oglala District constitution. Up to 1997, the system established a government hierarchy, one at the community level (top), another at the district level (bottom). However, the system established a disconnection of people power between the district councils and the central ‘tribal’ constitution and there was no education process regarding the new IRA.

The Oglala District and the communities had fairly equitable constitutions. They were in need of upgrading but they provided the basis for evenhanded representative government. The district constitution established a district council made up of two representatives from each community. This council elected its own executive committee from the district membership.

District council members served a two-year term and the communities held annual elections for their officers. The community officers, (president, secretary, etc.) and the district council members were not the same individuals. This reduced the potential for one person or group to dominate government power.