BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – A lawsuit was filed in federal court yesterday by two of North Dakota’s tribes which challenges the legislative map drawn in last year’s redistricting effort.
The Spirit Lake Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians say that the new boundaries dilute the voting rights of Native Americans which would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). A number of individual voters joined in the suit.
“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 one of the individual plaintiffs, Zachary S. King of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa.
Late last year, Governor Doug Burgum signed HB 1504 into law. The legislation redrew state legislative districts to account for population shifts captured by the 2020 Census.
The plan created two subdivided House districts in what legislators claimed to be an effort to comply with the VRA. The districts were divided in half by population, assigning one representative to an area encompassing most of the Native American population and the other to the majority-white surrounding area. The subdivided districts were created for the Turtle Mountain and the Fort Berthold Reservations. Subdistricts were not created for Spirit Lake and Standing Rock because the population on those reservations did not warrant it, according to lawmakers.
Spirit Lake Tribal Chairman Douglas Yankton Sr. says the suit is about protecting democratic rights.
“The map adopted by the North Dakota Legislature silences Native Americans on every issue, lowers the chance Native voters could elect a candidate they feel best represents their community, and prevents communities in these splintered districts from receiving a fair share of public resources,” Yankton said.
“Chairman Yankton and myself both testified before the legislature’s redistricting committee that Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake should be drawn into the same district, and that the committee’s redistricting plan would violate federal law by diluting the Native American vote. The legislature chose to ignore our concerns and decided to adopt an illegal map,” said Turtle Mountain Chairman Jamie Azure.
The Native American Rights Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Law Offices of Bryan Sells represent the plaintiffs in their suit. Robins Kaplan LLP represents the Spirit Lake Tribe.
