Court orders North Dakota to adopt Native’s proposed voter districts

“The court properly recognized the voting strength of our tribal members must not be diluted,” said Jamie Azure, chair of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. “When I testified in favor of a fair redistricting plan to the members of the Legislature during the 2021 redistricting process, my words were ignored,” he said in a Native American Rights Fund statement Jan. 9. “It is unfortunate that litigation was required in order for a lawful plan to be put in place.”

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe – together with individual tribal citizens – have been battling with North Dakota in this federal case since the state’s 2021 Redistricting Plan. The plan would have crammed the majority of the Turtle Mountain Band citizens into a single House subdistrict, 9A. A part of the band would have been split into another House subdistrict, 9B.

At the same time, Spirit Lake tribal citizens would all be in House District 15.

The new map, which Chief Judge Peter D. Welte ordered on Jan. 8, is the same redistricting plan the tribes proposed to the Legislature and were refused in 2021.

According to a background brief by NARF, North Dakota tribal citizens have been fighting for their right to vote since suffrage became legal for them in 1924, the Native American Rights Fund said in the blog post. It said state policies in place since 1958 have created obstacles to election access.

“For so many years, generation after generation, Native people have had to defend their right to vote in North Dakota,” said Spirit Lake Tribal Chair Lonna J. Street. “This court order marks a milestone closer to the day when Native people participate in redistricting and in elections as equals to our non-Native neighbors,” she said in the post.

The 2021 voter boundary plan put tribal members on the two reservations at a disadvantage, according to NARF. During the mapping process, the tribes said North Dakota Legislature’s redistricting committee refused to hold public meetings on or near reservations and ignored testimony from tribal leaders. American Indian voters were left without a say in the issue.

“Instead of creating fair boundaries as outlined in the Voting Rights Act, the map adopted by the North Dakota Legislature in 2021 silences Native American voters 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,” former Spirit Lake Tribe Chair Douglas Yankton, Sr., said in the brief.

Judge Welte denied North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe’s repeated motions to dismiss in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, et al. v. Alvin Jaeger and in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Michael Howe.

In November 2023 Welte ruled North Dakota’s legislative maps discriminate against American Indian voters by not providing them an equal voice. In December he rejected the Secretary of State’s request to delay adopting a new map.

“The tribal plaintiffs’ hard-fought victory means Native American voters in North Dakota will be able to vote in fairly and lawfully drawn legislative districts in this year’s elections,” said Native American Rights Fund Staff Attorney Michael Carter.