Posted on 10/27/2020 8:39:08 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
MISSION, S.D. - The small, brick post office in Mission, South Dakota, sees steady business most days as people wait outside to allow one family at a time to check for mail at one of just four such depots scattered across the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
With limited polling places on a reservation that’s roughly 2,000 square miles and officials pushing people to vote by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic, cramped post offices such as this one are a lifeline to preserving Native American’s right to vote.
But voting right advocates fear it’s not enough.
The slow-moving nature of mail on large reservations puts the people who live there at a disadvantage to getting their votes counted, advocates say. They have launched a series of legal challenges in several states to gain accommodations for reservation voters while also pressing people to figure out how to get their ballot counted as the coronavirus upends life in Native American communities.
“Using the mail is less effective, and it’s devastating in Indian Country,” said OJ Semans, co-founder of an advocacy group called Four Directions.
“Poverty, time, distance, transportation has always been a barrier to participating in elections,” Semans said, describing the compounding obstacles that lead to low voter turnout on many large reservations.
Native Americans have a long history of exclusion from voting, with the U.S. government depriving them of citizenship until 1924. Some states, including the Dakotas, had laws preventing tribal members from voting into the 1950s.
In recent years, voting rights advocates and tribes have won or settled 86 election-related lawsuits in a state-by-state legal battle to increase voting access for Native Americans. But advocates worry that progress could face setbacks as election officials push for mail-in voting and tribes scramble to contain COVID-19 outbreaks by locking down reservation communities.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
OJ Semans, the co-director of a Native American voter advocacy group, poses in the post office in Mission, South Dakota on Aug. 6, 2020. Semans shares a post office box with members of his extended family and says that a reliance in mail-in voting makes it difficult for Native Americans to cast their ballot. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)
With such a low population density, voting by mail isn’t necessary. What is wrong with these people?
Indian reservations are Apartheid and racist and should be dissolved.
Oh no!
How will those 300 voters cast their 5000 votes?
And why do people in a “sovereign nation” get to vote in our elections?
We can’t vote in their elections.
Nothing.
It’s just another bs made up problem to continue the narrative of white peoples bad.
Put a mail box in the liquor store.
Elizabeth Fauxchahontas Warren will dress in a Plains tribal costume, do a traditional dance and send smoke signals to get out the vote. She can interpret all the return signals as “100% votes for Biden.” Dem election officials will say “Sounds good. Certified votes.”
Now we’re talking diversity.
Wow, I guess there were never any Elections on Indian Lands before this one.
The latest civil rights crisis caused by Donald Trump’s Hell Regime.
Caption:
Biden lost. Worst election night ever.
Us, quietly, yipeeee!
Now, is that nice? And am I wrong to laugh about it?
We should be ashamed of ourselves. Too bad we aren't.
Then don’t.
1924 Synder act plus the 65 voting rights act and numerous court cases gave them the right to vote. I have no problem with native Americans however this sovereign nation stuff is absolutely garbage. Why politicians in this country continue to push division i will never understand.
We won the war, yet give them duel citizenship and payouts for imperpetuti. When is the last time we won a war and did not lose the peace? Maybe the Spanish American war?
Well played sir!
Fixed.
After the various wars were won, there was always a formal transfer of the lands from the tribe in question to the American settlers in the area. The transfer was accomplished by a treaty that included a lot of legal language similar to a deed and some financial or in kind goods and a designation of Indian lands.
As time went by, the lands shrank to areas designated as reservations.
Those treaties are still in effect. The reservations and indian nations are still governed by the 19th century treaties.
Still playing the forever victim card I see.
I’ve lived in several Latin American nations, one thing is evidently clear - “Native” people find it very hard to adapt to change.
American Indians often would go off alone, starve themselves and work themselves into a fit of hallucinations. From these they got their “visions” and it became a big part of their life.
Then they found the white man had all those “visions” trapped in a bottle. For a few hides they could get a bottle and have all the “visions” they needed.
Sad but true.
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