A Native American organization is hoping to increase voter numbers after low turnout during the Montana primary this month.

Keaton Sunchild, political director for Western Native Voice, said numbers were low even for a midterm primary, at 21 % of Native American precincts in Montana.

He acknowledged new election laws likely affected numbers, especially an end to same-day voter registration. Sunchild noted same-day sign-ups are used frequently by Native Americans who often live in rural areas and only make one trip to the polls.

"Certainly disappointed with how low the turnout was originally, but we also recognize that there were some new barriers put in place, some confusion with the laws and various lawsuits," Sunchild explained. "As well as turnout is usually lower, as we all know, in midterm elections."

Restrictive election laws were passed by Montana legislators in 2021, but an injunction had been in place blocking those laws, including an end to same-day voter registration. However, the state Supreme Court overturned the injunction in May, allowing the restrictive laws to go into place before the primary. A trial is expected on the laws later this summer.

Sunchild emphasized there are important reasons to vote in the midterm.

"The presidential races seem to get all the glitz and glamour of elections and of voters' time," Sunchild pointed out. "But on a day-to-day level, what you're voting for in a midterm affects your life more."

Western Native Voice is setting up voting kiosks on reservations across the state to ensure people are registered before Election Day.

Sunchild added the organization is looking at the data and determining where their work will be most impactful. For instance, the Rocky Boy reservation precinct had the lowest turnout among tribes in the primary, at 7%.

"Doing things proactively rather than reacting is going to be key these next few months," Sunchild stressed. "That's kind of what we're trying to focus on."

Native American communities say the pandemic severely limited their ability to communicate with the rest of the world and each other, largely because of internet access issues. But new grant money will help some areas improve service, including three South Dakota reservations.

The federal government said $77 million will be shared among tribal governments in 10 states, to be used for things like new equipment and creating affordable internet service programs.

Sherry Johnson, education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe, said many local students were not able to be fully connected with teachers when schools were shutdown.

"This really affected our children, with our academics, our test scores," Johnson reported. "We definitely can see that in our data."

She pointed out reading and math scores saw declines, but with funding, the roughly 700 homes on the Lake Traverse Reservation will get more reliable service, and schools will be equipped with devices like Chromebooks. Johnson emphasized it puts families in a better position for future distance-learning scenarios.

Johnson acknowledged some homes already have service, but the bandwidth is low. Adding to the dilemma is a large land ridge running through the reservation.

"At times, it's really a barrier for our cell boosters and stuff [that] are needed to really pick up and have a good signal there," Johnson remarked.

She added they will be able to buy more equipment to counteract signal disruptions. The community will see other connection gaps addressed, including telehealth.

The two other grantees in South Dakota are the Cheyenne River and the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribes. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey shows tribal areas trail the rest of the nation by 21 percentage points when it comes to homes with internet service.

Enbridge is seeking to reroute a portion of its Line 5 around the Bad River Band's territory in northern Wisconsin.

The rerouting falls within the tribe's watershed, and tribal advocates argued it poses risks to tribal farming traditions.

Aurora Conley, chair of the Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance and a member of the Bad River Ojibwe, said the potential environmental fallout could be disastrous for the region's wild rice fields. She explained wild rice, or manoomin, is more than an agricultural commodity to the tribe.

"This is why we migrated to this area," Conley pointed out. "We were told to keep going until we found the food that grows on waters, that being the wild rice. It's our job to take care of the rice. We were told if we could take care of the rice that we would survive, and we have."

According to the National Wildlife Federation, Line 5, which currently crosses the tribe's land, leaked 29 times from 1968 to 2017. A company spokesperson said an estimated $46 million dollars will be spent with Native-owned businesses and communities for the rerouting, and the project is undergoing reviews by state and federal regulators. The integrity of those reviews has been questioned by tribal leaders and environmental groups.

Last month, more than 200 organizations submitted a letter urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt new construction on Line 5, including updates outside of Wisconsin, and conduct a top-down Environmental Impact Statement.

Osprey Orielle Lake, executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network International, signed the letter, noting the Biden-Harris administration made campaign promises to begin divesting the nation from fossil fuel.

"This struggle to stop Line 5 we think is really vital to protect Indigenous rights," Lake asserted. "Protect Indigenous cultural lifeways, and also to protect the water for all of us and the climate for all of us."

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted its own draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Wisconsin reroute, which received more than 10,000 written comments.

Among other issues, Conley contended the document does not consider the cultural and historical importance of rice to the Ojibwe, and how damaging the crop would be a direct strike at their cultural identity.

"You can't commodify love," Conley emphasized. "That rice represents a gift of love from a spiritual essence that was given to us. And it's been our duty since the beginning of time to take care of that."

According to the DNR, northern Wisconsin's wild rice fields can produce more than 500 pounds of seed per acre, and are an important source of food and shelter for native and migratory wildlife.

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education showed progress has been made at Arizona State University (ASU) in recruiting Native American faculty and students to the Tempe campus.

Arizona is home to more than 20 tribes and about 400,000 Indigenous citizens, but until the late 1990s they were underrepresented at state universities.

ASU founded the Center for Indian Education about 20 years ago in response to a growing number of Indigenous students on campus.

Bryan Brayboy, director of the Center, said there was a clear need to hire more Native faculty members.

"We wanted to get really intentional about listening to our students who were saying to us that they wanted more faculty that looks like them, and they wanted to be seen," Brayboy explained. "They felt invisible, and so we sat down, and we made a plan to try to address that."

Even though Native students make up only about 1% of ASU's enrollment, many are the first in their family and in their community to attend college. Brayboy noted it led them to recruit 60 Indigenous scholars to teaching positions.

He argued programs such as the Center are an integral part of the university's mission of inclusivity, research toward the public good and responding to the communities they serve.

"Native students and many of our nonnative students come to college, come to ASU in particular because they believe in the mission of the place, and they are interested in serving society," Brayboy asserted.

Brayboy pointed out the Center is also important because of Arizona's history of using schools as a means of assimilating Indigenous children to Anglo culture.

"It's not that we don't care about the past, we do," Brayboy contended. "It's important that guides us in all kinds of ways. But the hope is we are moving towards transforming society and transforming the lives of people by really thinking about what's possible."

He added while the Center is honored by the recognition, it will not rest on its laurels.

"People have said to us, 'Gosh, you're an overnight success,' and we're a 25-year overnight success," Brayboy stressed. "This has been in place for a long time as we begin to move toward these goals."