GIRA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY — About 100 tribal leaders, voting rights activists and tribal members celebrated the 75th anniversary of a landmark event that enabled indigenous peoples to vote in state and local elections on Friday.
Also honored were the first Arizona tribe members who sought to secure their basic rights in 1924, as well as contemporary voting activists.
But 75 years after the groundbreaking affirmation of indigenous voting rights, the tribe says it is still fighting attempts to suppress indigenous votes.
Hosted by the Arizona Interstate Tribal Council, the memorial event featured speeches by Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Law Lewis and Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation President Bernadine Burnett. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes sent video greetings.
“We stand on the shoulders of our predecessors,” Lewis said.
He recognized a group of tribal elders who had long advocated equal voting rights and human rights for indigenous peoples. He also paid tribute to the late Alida Montil, a longtime activist and ITCA official, and the recently deceased former Gila River City Councilman Brenda Robertson. Lewis also said history might have been different if tribal members had been able to vote when their water was stolen in the late 19th century.
Burnett congratulated his tribe’s Yavapai tribesmen, Frank Harrison and Fort McDowell Chairman Harry Austin, for winning the pivotal battle for Native American voting rights.
“I knew Frank Harrison personally,” Burnett said. “Thanks to him and Mr. Austin, we were able to exercise our voices. Voting affects lives in many ways, she said, and we weren’t indifferent, and our voices were heard.” I advised the assembly not to consider it unimportant.”
Barnett said what her tribesmen did was “not a privilege or a right, but a matter of course for Americans in this country.”
ITCA too showed the video Featuring Mr. Harrison and the late President Clinton Pathea-Fort McDowell, it details the history of Arizona’s struggle for First Nations suffrage.
Voting history:Indigenous people won the right to vote in 1948, but the road to the ballot box remains a rocky one
Why Arizona Tribes Celebrate July 15, 1948
Four years after Native Americans became American citizens, two tribal members of the Hillary River, Peter Porter and Rudolph Johnson, filed a lawsuit to ensure they had the right to vote in elections like any other citizen. woke up Their appeal was dismissed on the grounds that Native Americans are considered “wardens” of the United States and cannot register or vote.
The two at Fort McDowell Yavapai figured out a way around it. Frank Harrison is a decorated World War II veteran who previously advocated for members of his tribe to take high-paying construction jobs at Bartlett Dam. He returned home as a war hero to Fort McDowell, about 30 miles northeast of Phoenix.
At the time, Yavapai and other Native American homes in Arizona had no running water, no electricity, and no floors. His parents and other indigenous elders had no retirement benefits and had to work hard just to make ends meet. Mr. Harrison decided that the terms would never change unless the Indians voted to change them.
Fellow Yavapai Tribal President Harry Austin met with civil rights attorneys Richard Harless, Lemuel Matthews, and Ben Matthews to plan how to proceed. In 1947, Harrison and Austin entered the Maricopa County Courthouse and attempted to register to vote. County Recorder Roger G. Lavigne denied them, citing state law.
The Yavapai left, and they and their lawyers soon filed a lawsuit. After being dismissed in the Superior Court, they appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court and won.
The state threw them a curveball in the form of literacy and language tests that tribal members had to pass to receive ballots. That and other barriers, including securing polling places in remote reservation communities, have been overcome after 20 years of struggle and the Voting Rights Act, which requires Arizona to “pre-approve” voting policies and laws. placed on the state list. U.S. Department of Justice.
Tribal vote supporters are still fighting. In 2022, ITCA signed a lawsuit seeking to overturn. Two laws in Arizona It set stringent requirements for proving residency, which many tribal members and local residents have not met, and required registrars to record votes in circumstances that opponents of the bill claimed would stifle tribal votes. required to be deleted.
“I know this is no coincidence,” Lewis said. “These laws were targeted at our tribal communities.”
Angela Wilford of the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, one of two winners of the Community Vote Award, said the Indigenous vote turned the tide in the 2022 Hobbes election. .
“Indigenous voters account for 4% of the total voter turnout,” she said. “Hobbes won by a margin of 3 percent.” Many indigenous peoples were invited to participate in the election campaign as volunteers.
Another recipient, Robert Jackson of Gila River, was honored for presenting his position to tribal voters by inviting elected officials and candidates at the Voter Information Forum.
Lewis added, “We attend because we know that it matters who sits in state and federal courts, state courts and federal courts, especially the Supreme Court.”
“It certainly makes a difference for tribes in Arizona,” Barnett said. “We laid the foundation. You are here to defend and continue this right.”
Debra Kroll reports on Indigenous communities at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. To reach the crawl, debra.krol@azcentral.com. follow her on her twitter @debkrol.
Reporting on indigenous issues where climate, culture and commerce intersect is supported by the Catena Foundation.
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