I’m thrilled to announce that on Feb. 5, 2020, North Dakota Native Vote launched a permanent organization. You, the Daily Kos Community, helped build this much-needed group with your incredible contributions of more than half a million dollars in October 2018.
Here’s the background piece I wrote at the time about how North Dakota tried to suppress the Native vote and how the Daily Kos community reacted.
Less than a month before the midterm 2018 elections, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Native American Rights Fund’s (NARF) emergency application to stop North Dakota from implementing a discriminatory law requiring that a physical address be listed on each voter’s ID. In the primary election, Natives were able to use their tribal IDs, most of which use a post office box as an address.
Many reservations across the United States are very rural, meaning homes are far apart on long gravel or dirt roads off the main drags. The post office won’t deliver to many of these residences, so a significant number of Natives must rely on P.O. boxes. The new law was a deliberate attempt by North Dakota Republicans to suppress the Native vote, which gave Democrat Heidi Heitkamp the narrow margin for her victorious Senate race in 2012.
As soon as the court announced its Oct. 9 decision not to review the Eighth Circuit Court’s discriminatory ruling on the IDs, activists in Indian Country and its allies across the nation swung into action. For our part, Daily Kos Senior Campaign Director Monique Teal (aka Teal Bomb) and Activism Development Manager Amanda McKay (aka amandaVT) engaged our massive community of readers to rise to action.
If you’d like to continue to support North Dakota Native Vote
please visit their ActBlue Page.
But no dedicated Native GOTV organization existed in North Dakota. So our own Chris Reeves called his contacts in North Dakota, and within 48 hours a group was formed to receive our contributions. In partnership with the new North Dakota Native Vote and the national Native group Four Directions, the Daily Kos community raised more than $500,000 so these two organizations could help Natives get new IDs, drive them to the polls, and promote community rallies to raise awareness of this obvious attempt to erase the Native voice by suppressing their vote.
Here are the names of those individuals, including their indigenous names with the English translation: Left to right: Theodora Bird Bear (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation—Fort Berthold); Justin Young Adhiku-chitish [Four Rings] (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation—Fort Berthold); Tawny Cale Wast'e Winyan [Good Woman] (Hunkpapa Lakhota—Standing Rock); Lisa Casarez Hihci Nugabugi'sh [Pink Blossom] (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation—Fort Berthold); Wesley Davis Mashkiki Makwa minisiinoo [Medicine Bear Soldier] (Anishinaabe-Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa); Nicole Donaghy Kampeska Cinkila Win' [Little Shell Woman] (Hunkpapa Lakhota-Standing Rock); Jonathan Catch The Bear (Hunkpapa Lakhota—Standing Rock); Zachery S. King Wabishki makwa, makwa doodem [White Bear, Bear Clan] (Anishinaabe—Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa); M. Angel Moniz Mapáákokoka Mihe [Butterfly Woman] (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation—Fort Berthold); Anna Lucas (WORC Political Director—outgoing); Pat Sweeney (WORC Senior Adviser); Lisa DeVille Maheahzah Ahgawgish [Accomplishes Everything] (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation—Fort Berthold); Leah Berry (WORC political director)
Here is the NDNV launch release to the press:
North Dakota Native Vote launches a permanent organization in North Dakota
New organization works towards greater civic engagement and voting participation for North Dakota’s Native communities
BISMARCK, North Dakota—Today’s press conference and reception marked the official launch of North Dakota Native Vote (NDNV), a new organization dedicated to increasing civic engagement to develop a representative democracy for Native communities both on reservation and urban. We will work to create and affect policy for the well-being of the Native people of North Dakota. North Dakota Native Vote was founded during the 2018 election as an advocacy group to help organize and fight back against a voter suppression law that went into effect just weeks before Election Day. NDNV is now a permanent, full time, year-round organization.
Led by tribal members from across North Dakota, NDNV seeks to build bridges across cultural gaps. NDNV works with tribal communities and allies on public policy, advocacy, the legislative and electoral process, and other issues that affect the well-being of tribal communities. The foundation of our work is to foster sustainable, positive social change in Native communities through community organizing, mobilization, leadership development, education, civic engagement, and public policy advocacy.
“Native Americans were not allowed to vote in this country until 1924 even though our people have been here since time immemorial. We experience firsthand the effects of the attempts to suppress the vote of our communities. It is up to us to take action and exercise our right to vote, participate in the 2020 Census, and be a part of the decision-making process at all levels. North Dakota Native Vote is a resource to help us get there.” Lisa DeVille, chair of NDNV, MHA Nation.
“Every election cycle, we are forced to operate in reactive mode. North Dakota Native Vote is now a full time organization committed to building capacity, civic engagement, and voter participation in North Dakota. We will continue working on our issues year round and I am excited to see what we can do when we have the opportunity to continuously educate, organize, and mobilize our communities.” Wes Davis, Vice Chair NDNV, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
NDNV’s immediate focus will be to increase Native voter education and participation across the state as well as ensuring a complete count of Native communities in the 2020 Census. There is a lot at stake for North Dakota’s Native communities in the 2020 Census and they will face significant additional challenges because responses for the 2020 Census will primarily be internet-based. Households in tribal communities have far lower rates of home internet service or cellular data-plans. NDNV will be on the ground across North Dakota educating communities about the importance of being counted and providing information on when, where, and how to be counted.
You can watch the Facebook Live of the press conference here.
North Dakota Native Vote (NDNV) counteracts the ongoing colonization of our lands, minds, and bodies by identifying systems that continue to subjugate our communities. We work to learn disparities in civil rights, food systems, energy security/democracy, climate chaos, and policy that disproportionately affects our people and how we interact within and contribute to these systems.
Mission Statement
North Dakota Native Vote works to engage tribal members in constructing a representative democracy by working in reservation communities and urban areas to create and affect policy and equal representation for the Native people of North Dakota. We do this by fostering sustainable positive social change in our communities through community organizing, mobilization, leadership development, education, civic engagement, and public policy advocacy.
North Dakota Native Vote is an organization that is representative of the communities that we organize, led by Tribal members that build bridges across cultural gaps. We engage tribal communities and our allies in issue campaigns, public policy, advocacy, and the legislative and electoral process on issues that affect the wellbeing of tribal communities.
This is a video of scenes from the Native GOTV events held on three reservations in the last two weeks before the election in 2018. Mark Ruffalo and Dave Matthews donated their celebrity and time to host these rallies. Your contributions provided the financial fuel to make these happen!
Pilamayaye (thank you) to all who have supported us and gave us a solid footing to do the work that we envision as North Dakota Native Vote. We work to build a better world, a world that our ancestors fought for before us. Politics and decision making is not only for the wealthy and well-connected, our Tribal Nations must be included in that process. Because of your help, North Dakota Native Vote will continue to expand our reach to the electorate year round so that we have the ability to freely exercise our right to vote. —NDNV Executive Director Nicole Donaghy Kampeska Cinkila Win' [Little Shell Woman] (Hunkpapa Lakhota-Standing Rock)
If you’d like to continue to support North Dakota Native Vote
please visit their ActBlue Page.
I’d like to thank the Daily Kos community for caring about Indian Country. Once again your passion and contributions did something amazing, helping to build and launch this new organization dedicated to helping the Native peoples of North Dakota keep their voice. Such work is ongoing, and we can be sure that the state’s Republicans will continue to do all they can get away with to suppress Native votes in the century-and-a-half long effort to erase the tribes living there. Thanks for making a difference in 2018 and for all the years ahead. If you can’t donate, you can help by sharing this announcement with your network and asking them to share. Thanks so much!
Thursday, Feb 13, 2020 · 6:57:04 PM +00:00 · Neeta Lind
From Meteor Blades’s Saturday Snippets, Feb. 8.
• North Dakota reforms its system to make Native voting smoother: In years past, North Dakota has suppressed the American Indian vote with identification requirements that were hard for Natives to comply with. In particular, requiring IDs to have street addresses, something not that common on the five reservations where much of the North Dakota Native population lives. “In Indian Country, you don’t have a 123 Elm Street address,” said James Tucker, a pro bono voting rights counsel for the Native American Rights Fund. Daily Kos readers helped raise more than half a million dollars in 2018 to help Native activists in the state overcome that problem. Out of this came the North Dakota Native Vote, which just launched its 2020 get-out-the-vote campaign. The authorities have now resolved another hang-up for Native voters. Tribal officials will now be able to quickly verify “set aside” ballots by confirming voters’ eligibility. In the past, voters had up to six days to return to the polls with proof of their identity before their ballots could be counted, the kind of rule that discourages many people from voting in the first place, and has a special impact on Natives already suspicious of a governmental system that has so often worked against their interests.