If you live off of the reservation, this editorial is for you

Are you an Oglala Lakota living off of the Pine Ridge Reservation in order to go to school? Are you living off of the reservation in order to have a job? Are you still counted on the rolls of the Oglala Sioux Tribe? Are you not living on the reservation because you are serving in the military? Do you or your family have an allotted piece of land on the reservation? Do you believe that as a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe you should be allowed the right to vote in tribal elections even though you live off of the reservation?

These are the questions that should be answered by every Oglala Lakota living off of the reservation because as it now stands, if you live off of the reservation, even though you are counted as a citizen of the reservation, you will not be allowed to vote in tribal elections.

This is ironic because the Oglala Sioux Tribe is fighting to get back lands in the Black Hills, lands it claims under the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and because of the Black Hills Claims Settlement of 1980. How can the Oglala Sioux Tribe make claims to the Black Hills when its own tribal members living in Rapid City or in other cities in and around the Black Hills are not allowed to vote in tribal elections because they are living off of the reservation? Does the tribe NOT consider the Black Hills as part of the lands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe?

The tribe has decided to disenfranchise thousands of Oglala Lakota even though those Lakota are, for the most part, landowners on the Pine Ridge Reservation and even though those disenfranchised voters are counted on the tribal rolls as Oglala Lakota citizens. Does the tribe send out absentee ballots to its members serving in the armed forces of the United States so that they can vote in tribal elections?

Disallowing members of the tribe their constitutional right to vote in tribal elections is not only the worst form of political discrimination, it should also be against the law. When the tribal elections roll around, a voting booth should be set up in Rapid City that would allow all duly-enrolled members of the tribe the constitutional opportunity to vote.

For the most part, tribal members living off of the reservation can only watch in horror at times when the tribal council makes boneheaded decisions that not only affect the tribal members living on the reservation, but also has an impact on those living off of the reservation.

With the tribal elections just around the corner, every tribal member who believes that he or she has been disenfranchised from voting should form a group or a committee and meet with some of the people that will be running for the tribal presidency or the tribal council and convince them to introduce a resolution at the first meeting of the newly elected leaders that will allow tribal members living off of the reservation the legal right to vote.

By denying their own citizens the right to vote, the Oglala Sioux Tribe has disenfranchised college students, landowners, members of the Armed Forces and veterans of the Armed Forces from participating in elections by a tribe that continues to claim them as tribal members.

What are the legal ramifications here? If you fit the description of one who has been disenfranchised, find out: get some legal advice and proceed.