On June 24, 2025, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the ACLU of Montana, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Motion to Intervene in a case brought initially by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, challenging a new Montana law that restricts Native American participation in the state’s electoral process. The new law, Senate […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
Alaska Native voters and Alaska Tribes successfully sued the State of Alaska, forcing it to comply with the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act and the voting guarantees of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Because the State of Alaska has never fully complied with the federal court order, NARF […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, and individual voters filed a lawsuit in Jan. 2023, against Thurston County and elected county officials for adopting county supervisor districts that intentionally dilute the Native vote...| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
The Tohono O’odham Nation, Gila River Indian Community, and future Native voters filed a lawsuit challenging an Arizona law that would make it difficult to impossible for many tribal citizens to vote. Under the new law, individuals must provide a government-issued photo ID that contains or is paired with another document that contains the person’s […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
The Spirit Lake Tribe and two individual voters filed a lawsuit against Benson County, North Dakota, for adopting a redistricting plan that violates the rights of Native voters. In response to a Native population increase of 17% that would have required creating at least two Native majority districts, Benson County abandoned its previous district system […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
While over 40% of Lyman County, South Dakota, voters live on the Lower Brule Reservation, an at-large election system made it impossible for Lower Brule Sioux Tribe reservation voters to elect local representation for 30 years. Individual voters and the Tribe filed a lawsuit in May 2022 after the county adopted a 2020 redistricting cycle […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
In the final weeks of the legislative session, Montana legislators passed two laws that will hinder Native American participation in the state’s electoral process. A lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) on behalf of the Blackfeet Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
On July 18, 2022, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), represented by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court case Merrill v. Milligan (21-1086), a case which examines whether the proposed Alabama redistricting plan violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The NCAI brief […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and individual voters requested the Native American Rights Fund assist them in joining a lawsuit against two Republican officials seeking to eliminate the majority Native-voter state legislative subdistrict that encompasses the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. The tribal government and Native voters seek to defend the subdistrict, which […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
The Spirit Lake Tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and several individual voters filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota challenging North Dakota’s state legislative map, as unlawfully diluting the voting rights of Native Americans in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights
In 2017 and 2018, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition—founded by the Native American Rights Fund—held nine public hearings to better understand how Native Americans are systemically and culturally kept from fully exercising their franchise. More than 120 witnesses testified from dozens of Tribes across the country. The final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers […]| Protecting Native American Voting Rights