Two Indigenous nations in North Dakota are suing the state, alleging that Republican lawmakers redrew district maps in ways that dilute their voices and violate the Voting Rights Act.
New maps were redrawn and approved by the state legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, in November. GOP Gov. Doug Burgum signed the maps into law shortly afterward.
In their lawsuit, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe say that the state was supposed to redraw maps, after the decennial Census, to allow Indigenous voters to select candidates of their choice to the state House of Representatives. Instead, actions taken by state lawmakers will divide their districts or move their voters into different ones, allowing white voters to have an even larger influence in state politics.
In North Dakota, voters in each state House district select two individuals to represent them in Bismarck. Under new rules concocted last fall, however, some districts are being divided into two subdistricts, where voters in each section will get to pick one of the two members separately.
Michael Carter, a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, alleges the two subdistricts that were created in District 9, where members of the Turtle Mountain Band reside, packs Indigenous voters into one of the subdistricts but spreads many other Indigenous voters among other districts, thereby diluting their voices in the state House. Instead of having influence over the selection of the two House members for District 9, the subdistricting makes it so that they’ll likely only have influence over the selection of one member, while the other House member for District 9 will likely be picked by a majority-white population.
The maps pack “the entire reservation into a single subdistrict, rather than providing the tribal members in that area the opportunity to elect two state House representatives,” Carter said.
Spirit Lake voters are also being moved into District 15, again diluting their voices into a majority-white area.
“North Dakota created a map that guarantees voters living on these two tribal reservations face a no-win scenario before each election even begins,” said Zachary King, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
“With each election, you hope your vote makes a positive change. Yet our state officials chose to create and approve an election map that robs Native American voters of that opportunity,” added plaintiff Collette Brown from Spirit Lake Tribe.
Voters from both Indigenous nations tend to vote for Democratic candidates more than Republican ones. The majority-white areas surrounding them are more conservative, and tend to pick Republicans.
According to the lawsuit, the new districts violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which disallows “voting practices or procedures” that discriminate on the basis of race.
“Our voice is going to be muffled once again. It’s getting a little sickening, tell you the truth,” said Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa chairman Jamie Azure, speaking to The Guardian about the matter.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.