The Lakota People’s Law Project and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are encouraging Indigenous people to register to vote through a two-day registration drive Saturday and Sunday.
Oceti Vote ‘22 will feature an intertribal basketball tournament, live music, and hand game and singing competitions. The event is free to the public. To compete, eligible adults must be registered to vote and can do so on-site if needed.
Chase Iron Eyes is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Lakota People’s Law Project. He said the event combines appreciation of Indigenous culture with political advocacy.
“You don’t have to convince Native people to love basketball, we love basketball,” he said. “You don’t have to convince Native people to love our culture, we love our culture, and so what we wanted to do was combine those aspects of our lives and try to infuse a bit of political motivation and civic responsibility.”
Oceti Vote will take place at Rapid Skillz in Rapid City.
The event is a part of recent efforts to improve Indigenous representation in the state through increased voter awareness and registration.
“Our voices have been silenced because Native people have been disenfranchised,” Iron Eyes said. “And Native people in the state comprise more than just a swing vote.”
There have also been efforts to increase Indigenous voter registration after earlier generations of Indigenous elders were wary of voting and saw it as contrary to the sovereignty of tribal nations.
“But you know, the generations change, the generations adapt,” Iron Eyes said. “The generations are hopefully evolving.”
The Lakota People’s Law Project, along with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe and individual plaintiffs, recently won a lawsuit against the state for violations against the National Voter Registration Act by not providing sufficient assistance to Indigenous people registering to vote.
Iron Eyes said the main point of encouraging Indigenous people in the state to vote is to help address the social and political disparities Native Americans in the state have faced over the years.
“We feel that voting and becoming politically active will help right some of those wrongs and put us on a path where the state will reckon with us, will respect us and not be able to ignore us,” he said.
