Part I. The question of citizenship -- The framing of American Indian citizenship -- Ambiguous civic status -- Part II. The promise of the ballot box -- The Voting Rights Act reaches Indian Country -- The shift to vote dilution, suppression, and abridgment -- A case study of Jackson County, South Dakota -- Part III. Grassroots perspectives -- Lawyers and native voting rights -- Lifetimes of activism -- Grassroots voting rights activism -- Stepping forward -- Why It matters.
Summary
"This book is about attempts by states to limit the right of Native Americans to vote. The book covers law, legal cases, politics (especially at the state level), grassroots activism, history, and policy"-- "Voting in Indian Country uses conflicts over voting rights as a lens for understanding the centuries-long fight for Native self-determination. Among the American public, there is a collective amnesia about the U.S. government's shameful policies toward the continent's original inhabitants and their descendants. Only rarely, such as during the Wounded Knee standoff in the 1970s and the recent Dakota Access Pipeline protests, do Native issues reach the public consciousness. But even during those times, there is little understanding of historical context—of the history of promises made and broken over seven generations—that shape current events. Voting in Indian Country uses conflicts over voting rights as a lens for understanding the centuries-long fight for Native self-determination. Weaving together history, politics, and law, Jean Reith Schroedel provides a view of this often-ignored struggle for social justice from the ground up. Differentiating this volume from other voting rights books is its use of ethnographic data, including the case study of a county with a population evenly split between whites and Native Americans, as well as oral histories of the people who have chosen to fight for voting rights. The stories of these lawyers, activists, and plaintiffs illuminate both the complexity and the vividness of their experiences on the front lines and their understanding of a connection to broader Native struggles for self-determination—both to control the lands and resources promised to them in perpetuity through treaties and to freely exercise the political rights and liberties promised to all Americans." -- Publisher's description
