Voting and Redistricting Lawsuit News
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Indian voting rights trial begins
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
April 13, 2004
By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer
PIERRE -- American Indians have been systematically shut out of the
democratic process in South Dakota for more than 100 years, an expert witness testified
in a trial over the state's legislative districts.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state of South Dakota, claiming
the newest map of legislative districts disenfranchises Indian voters in the
south central part of the state.
South Dakota encompasses nine Sioux tribes, and, at 9 percent of the state's
population, their members comprise its largest racial minority.
The ACLU claims the legislative district encompassing both Pine Ridge and
Rosebud Indian reservations has packed in a "supermajority" of American Indians
and kept them from being a force at the polls in two separate districts. The
practice, known as "packing," has been struck down by other courts.
Lawyers from the state attorney general's office argue that the state's
political map does not take away the voting rights of Indians.
On Monday, federal judge Karen Schreier heard the first testimony in the
lawsuit launched in October 2001 when the South Dakota Legislature adopted its new
legislative district map in the wake of the 2000 U.S. Census. The ACLU is
scheduled to call its witnesses through Thursday. The state won't begin calling
its witnesses until next week.
Political science professor Dan McCool, director of the American West Center
at the University of Utah, said the wars between Indian tribes and white
immigrants in the 1800s left a legacy of racial separatism and hostility.
"It was a war of conquest, a war for the land. It was one of the longest and
bloodiest wars in all of history. It was a war for the continent," McCool
said. "The Indians lost a majority of the military conflicts. They won a few, but
the result was they lost most of their land base."
Decades after those wars ended, racially and politically polarized
communities live side by side, McCool said.
In the early days of the reservation system, about 100 years ago, white laws
restricted Indians' behavior. They could not speak their native language,
could not travel, could not participate in traditional ceremonies and could not
own guns, he said.
"I think racism was used as a justification for taking Indian lands and
dispossessing Indian people," McCool said.
Over the years, Indians have worked to gain equal footing with the white
majority through persistent effort, McCool said.
First, Dakota Territory laws outright prohibited Indians from voting. Then,
state of South Dakota laws banned residents of "unorganized" counties from
voting. Those counties were on Indian reservations, so the result was a continued
prohibition on Indian voting, he said.
"It made it virtually impossible for them to participate," McCool said.
When Bennett County was carved out of the Pine Ridge reservation, the law
stated that Indians could vote only if they had severed their tribal relations.
That determination was subjectively made by unnamed people, McCool said, but it
was the beginning of a history of lawsuits whereby Indians fought for and won
the right to vote.
"It was part of a consistent pattern where Indians wanted to participate, but
their efforts were thwarted by local officials," he said.
Lawsuits continued over voter registration requirements and practices, and
most recently, Indians won a case in 2000 that required the state to carve out a
single-member state House district on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.
Of the nine voting rights lawsuits filed by Indians, they won eight and
settled one, McCool said.
The court victories have not erased the legacy of the wars of the 1800s, two
witnesses testified.
The Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 affects modern-day race relations,
according to McCool and Charlotte Black Elk, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux
Tribe who lives in Manderson.
"There are still hard feelings on both sides," McCool said. "It is part of an
atmosphere of polarization."
Black Elk's great-grandmother survived Wounded Knee, she said, and the fact
that 27 medals of honor were awarded to members of the cavalry is "still raw."
"It was the last act of direct genocide by the federal government," Black Elk
said. "It marked the transition from direct genocide to genocide by
bureaucracy."
Black Elk said she agrees that the legislative district at issue, District
27, packs too many Indians into one voting district.
Specifically, she objects that a narrow band of the district stretches across
southern Bennett County to connect the two reservations but to exclude the
mostly white town of Martin.
"District 27 is a legislative reservation for Indians," Black Elk said. "It's
beneath the dignity of whites to be represented by an Indian. The city of
Martin was taken out."
If the Indians of those reservations were in two separate districts, not only
would they have a greater voice in state government, but also, all people in
those districts would get better representation, Black Elk said.
"The (supermajority) implies that an Indian should come out of the district
whether they're qualified or not. It diminishes my right to vote for a white
person, if that's my choice," she said.
Black Elk testified that she has been a Republican for 30 years, but American
Indians are registered predominantly as Democrats. She chose the Republican
Party because Republican President Richard Nixon returned land to Indians, she
said.
The trial resumes at 8 a.m. today.
Contact Denise Ross at 394-8438 or denise.ross@rapidcityjournal.com
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