Wins for local governance benefit Lower Brule voters last

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe’s first foray into the county electoral redistricting arena gave a statewide boost to local governance in South Dakota, officials say. Yet the tribal constituents will be the last to benefit from it.

While tribal citizens make up 40 percent of Lyman County’s 3,718 population, no Native candidate in history has run and won a county commission seat. Knowing that at-large voting prevents Natives from winning local elections, the Lower Brule Tribal Council petitioned for voting by geographical areas during this year’s mandatory redistricting exercise.

The five-member county commission reacted by adopting a two-district plan to take effect in the 2024 election cycle. It provided one majority Native district with two commissioners elected at large and one majority non-Native with three elected at large. The county later successfully lobbied the statehouse for a code amendment to validate the novel plan increasing the odds for future Indigenous representation in Lyman County government.

The outcome sets a precedent that fortifies local self-rule for all 66 South Dakota counties. The amendment governs the decennial revision of commission districts. It explicitly provides that commissioners can decide whether their seats are “elected from single-member districts, from multi-member districts, or from a hybrid plan of single- and multi-member districts.”

However, the Lyman County ordinance that established the two-district hybrid plan keeps in place at-large voting in this year’s election. So, combined with pre-existing law requiring staggered commissioner terms, it postpones full participation of candidates from the tribe’s new Native district for two consecutive voting cycles.

“The county’s use of at-large elections and staggered terms will deny Lower Brule voters an opportunity to elect their two candidates of choice until 2026,” Native American Rights Fund Staff Attorney Samantha Kelty told Buffalo’s Fire. “The county’s delay is intentionally discriminatory.” she said.

Tribal government envoys explained to commissioners that the at-large elections were a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act Section 2. “That was not something that they were aware of until it was brought to their attention,” Lyman County Auditor Deb Halverson told Buffalo’s Fire.

For three months, the tribe petitioned the county commission for five single-member geographical districts, with two of them being majority Native. The tribal council even passed a resolution opposing the county’s two district plan and submitted it to the commission, but with little effect.

Halverson said one Native majority district with two at-large members is better than two single-member majority Native districts, because sparse population sometimes leads to no candidate. “I absolutely understand their reasoning for wanting two seats on the board as soon as possible,” she added. “Lyman County is not doing (this) in an attempt to mute them by any means.” Time constraints of switching to the new formula this year were insurmountable for county administration, she said. “It just couldn’t be done.”

To comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Lyman County would have to establish two Native American majority districts in this election cycle, Kelty argued. “Because the Lower Brule Tribe is geographically compact and politically cohesive, Native voters would be able to easily and handily elect their candidates of choice if the Lyman County Commission drew fair districts effective immediately.”

The county ordinance establishes a temporary non-voting tribal liaison position starting Jan. 1, 2023, when the three commissioners in this year’s elections begin their terms. “We look forward to working with our liaison in the next two years in the interim,” auditor Halverson said.

Lyman commissioners passed the ordinance pending adoption of the county’s bill in the state Legislature for the code amendment recognizing its hybrid map.

When the state lawmakers entertained the proposed amendment specifying commission redistricting powers in March, witnesses called it a sneaky, last-ditch effort to disenfranchise Native constituents. It nearly died in the Senate for lack of a two-thirds majority needed on the emergency clause that would have granted immediate rule changes for the two at-large districts.

Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller said she and colleagues voted against it, seeing that its language was unclear and it provided no justification of an emergency. “In my opinion there had to be something going on behind the scenes on this bill. They were trying to do something specifically for Lyman County, and the emergency clause was a red flag,” she told Buffalo’s Fire.

However, Sen. Mary Duvall resuscitated the proposal on the commissioners’ role by scheduling its immediate reconsideration sans the emergency clause. This allowed passage by a simple 50-percent-plus-one vote. Duvall, who was active as the head of the statewide legislative redistricting committees in 2021, said it was a good bill.

“I thought it made sense for commissions to be able to decide what works best for their counties, and this bill enables them to have that local control,” Duvall told Buffalo’s Fire.

Mayor Angela Ehlers of Lyman’s largest town, Presho, population 472, testified in favor of the amendment. The city and county “sometimes struggle” to find candidates due to low population, she told Buffalo’s Fire. With the tribe’s proposed five single-member districts, “I’m not sure if we were going to get the best candidate, so that’s why I do think the amendment improves the opportunity for good governance,” she said.

When Gov. Kristi Noem announced her signature on the legislation March 16, she labeled it as a “good government law.” The tribe has not announced whether it will pursue court action on grounds of Voting Rights Act violation.

However, Kelty said, “Lower Brule and other Native Americans in South Dakota have demonstrated an amazing persistence in fighting for their rights and will continue to fight for an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice and fully participate in democracy.”

Talli Nauman is a contributing editor at Buffalo’s Fire. You can contact her at buffalo.gal10(at)gmail.com