A record number of Native American women are running for municipal positions in Rapid City.
It’s part of a national trend that shows more women with tribal affiliation are running for political office.
Cante Heart spent an evening back in February at the state capitol.
She testified before the House State Affairs committee supporting a bill to collect data on missing and murdered indigenous women. The very next day—Valentines Day—she organized a march to spotlight the issue.
Now, she’s running for a seat on the Rapid City Common Council. It’s a move she announced at a recent event.
“We’re here for those that have lived here before us,” Heart says. “we need to acknowledge the history and the location of this place. It’s very sacred. These are our sacred Black Hills. I think it’s time we work together on a community level, a local level.”
Heart is Lakota and enrolled with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She’s focused her campaign on infrastructure, education, affordable housing and bettering race relations in the city.
There are a total of five Native American women running for municipal office. Four for city council and one for mayor.
However, none of the current ten council members have any tribal affiliation. Heart says that needs to change
“You hardly ever see Natives on city council and I think that is a problem,” Heart says. “It needs to reflect our population. We decided to come together and say, ‘Let’s get people to run. Let’s get some leaders in here. Let’s get people to stand up.’ I said if no one’s going to do it, I’ll do it.”
The U.S. Census bureau puts Rapid City’s Native American population at about eleven percent. A researcher from the University of South Dakota says the percentage is much higher--around twenty-three and a half percent.
Heart also convinced Stephanie Savoy to run for council. Savoy is a Dakota and member of the Crow Creek Tribe.
Savoy wants to continue working on the city’s homelessness issue. She says the Care Center in Rapid City can address part of the issue, providing a range of short-term services and support.
The other part, she says, is addressing the meth epidemic.
“There is a lack of treatment that is available to the people that really need treatment for addiction,” Savoy says. “Because of addiction, there is a rise in crime in our city right now. We want a safe community for all our community members.”
Savoy’s campaign launched last week when she attended a meet and greet for several Native women running for office. Before she left that event, she was a candidate for the city’s third ward.
That’s where she first met mayoral candidate Natalie Stites-Means. She is Lakota and enrolled with the
Cheyenne Sioux Tribe. Stites-Means is challenging incumbent Mayor Steve Allender.
She says there’s not enough compassion in the city’s decision making process.
“The word for compassion in Lakota is ‘wowaunsila,’” Stites-Means says. “Within that word is a thought and philosophy. It’s about how you treat other human beings. Do you treat them with dignity? Do you treat them without judgement? Do you recognize—like I recognize that I’m only two or three paychecks away from joining the unhoused.”
Stites-Means wants the city to find ways to help alleviate the housing cost burden. Another area Stites-Means says where the council has lacked compassion is in some of it’s city ordinances.
According to Rapid City police statistics, there were just over 700 arrests in total each month in 2018.
“I’m a daughter of law enforcement, I’m a daughter of Vietnam veterans,” Stites-Means says. “I know very well the mentality, I know very well the work ethic and the values of people who come from the military and law enforcement. I also know the difficulties and shortcomings of letting that perspective dominate your city politics.”
A recent change to the city’s panhandling ordinance prompted these women to run for public office. The council recently unanimously approved to update the panhandling code. But Stites-Means and council candidate Heart say there were not substantive conversations with the native community beforehand.
All of the women say they were inspired by others who have stepped into American politics. Whether it’s Sharice Davidson and Deb Haaland who are now in U.S. Congress. Or South Dakota state lawmakers Peri Pourier, Red Dawn Foster and Tamara St. John.
“To have a slate of this size and depth is extraordinary.”
That’s Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe. He’s been watching native candidates running for office for years. He describes this trend as a trickle down from the 2018 election, where he says more native women ran for public office than at any point in history.
Trahant says that groundwork effort—is showing up elsewhere.
“It’s more important for the community in general,” Trahant says. “Once you start hearing different voices you think differently. Not only do you think differently, you think better. You start coming up with ideas that you haven’t thought of. You hear from parts of the community that may need help, or maybe offering ideal solutions. It’s a much broader way of thinking about the world.”
Rapid City voters head to the polls in June for the municipal elections. The first on June 4, with a runoff election on June 25.
In addition to getting her campaign message out and inspiring others to run for office, Cante Heart says she’s got another priority.
“But also, we want to inspire people to vote,” Heart says. “We want to get new voters out there. We want to get young voters out there. We need more votes, we need more people active. This is the way.”
Municipal elections often have historically low turn out. But if a new wave of candidates can get new voters to turn out, it may usher in a new chapter for the Rapid City Common Council.