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Native Americans Turn Focus Inward for Political Empowerment
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/native-americans-turn-focus-political-empowerment-40126911...
The Native vote could be especially crucial in Democrat Denise Juneau's bid to become the first American Indian woman in Congress. Juneau, the state's two-term superintendent of schools, is one of nine Native Americans running for Congress, from North Dakota to Arizona. They include two incumbents: Reps. Tom Cole and Markwayne Mullin, both Republicans from Oklahoma.
By most accounts, Juneau will need strong Native American voter turnout to boost her chances of defeating the incumbent, Rep. Ryan Zinke.
...
Native Americans weren't given the right to vote until 1924, when the U.S. government granted them citizenship. Even then, states erected obstacles that kept American Indians from the political process. Montana, for one, passed a law decreeing that only property taxpayers could vote. That meant Indians who lived on reservations, and were therefore not subject to state property taxes, had no access to the ballot box. At one time, the state barred polling places on tribal lands.
"Back in the day, there were all these voter suppression laws in place, and now we're just realizing how important it is for us to vote," said Dustin Monroe, who is Blackfeet and Assiniboine and founded Native Generational Change, a Missoula-based group that has registered and mobilized scores of new Native voters.
The Native vote could be especially crucial in Democrat Denise Juneau's bid to become the first American Indian woman in Congress. Juneau, the state's two-term superintendent of schools, is one of nine Native Americans running for Congress, from North Dakota to Arizona. They include two incumbents: Reps. Tom Cole and Markwayne Mullin, both Republicans from Oklahoma.
By most accounts, Juneau will need strong Native American voter turnout to boost her chances of defeating the incumbent, Rep. Ryan Zinke.
...
Native Americans weren't given the right to vote until 1924, when the U.S. government granted them citizenship. Even then, states erected obstacles that kept American Indians from the political process. Montana, for one, passed a law decreeing that only property taxpayers could vote. That meant Indians who lived on reservations, and were therefore not subject to state property taxes, had no access to the ballot box. At one time, the state barred polling places on tribal lands.
"Back in the day, there were all these voter suppression laws in place, and now we're just realizing how important it is for us to vote," said Dustin Monroe, who is Blackfeet and Assiniboine and founded Native Generational Change, a Missoula-based group that has registered and mobilized scores of new Native voters.
...
Go Denise Juneau! https://denisejuneau.com/