A Montana District Court has struck down three election laws which would have created voting barriers weeks before the midterm election.

Two of the laws presented especially high hurdles to Native Americans in the state, including a law to eliminate Election-Day voter registration and another banning third-party ballot collection.

Jacqueline De León, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which represented plaintiffs in this case, said Judge Michael Moses found evidence the Legislature intentionally discriminated against people who rely on Election-Day registration, such as Indigenous communities and students.

"It's pretty disturbing that the Legislature went ahead and passed these laws despite the known impacts on Native Americans," De León asserted.

The lawsuit was brought by Western Native Voice and tribes in Montana, including the Blackfeet Nation and Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The third law struck down in the decision would have made it harder for students to register to vote by requiring them to use another form of identification in addition to their student ID.

De León said a court struck down a nearly identical ballot collection law in 2020 in Montana, noting many tribes do not have reliable residential mail delivery.

"They've really come to rely on organizations that go out in vehicles that can access the poor roads and can pay for gas and can travel significant distances to circumvent poor mail service to pick up ballots for Native Americans," De León explained.

De León added it is important to note the laws are discriminatory and conversely, Native Americans are not asking for extra accommodations.

"They're not asking for more than what other Montanans are entitled to," De León contended. "What they're asking for is for equal access and in the face of it being unequal, they're asking that the tools that they use to overcome those inequalities not be targeted and taken away."

Conditions may have improved, but Native American tribes in South Dakota say they're still reeling from the recent blizzard that left many stranded without vital resources. That's prompted renewed calls for improved aid to make it through future weather events.

The storm cut off roads to areas such as the Pine Ridge reservation, forcing some residents to burn clothing and furniture to stay warm. State Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said the conditions there were extremely dangerous, too. He said tribes already have limited resources and can only do so much to prepare.

"Considerable investments in roads and bridges and equipment," he said, "manpower is going to be needed if we're going to continue to have storms like this."

He called on local, state and federal leaders to ensure infrastructure needs and emergency planning for tribal areas receive priority. In response to the current storm, Gov. Kristi Noem ordered expanded National Guard missions to help affected tribes, including hauling firewood from the Black Hills.

Heinert said that assistance was a huge help, but noted that residents are still having trouble getting to their livestock. Tribal governments have their own emergency preparedness plans, but often lack enough snow-removal equipment to prevent snowdrifts from swallowing up fields, as well as surrounding roads.

"What we found down here in Rosebud is we had no place to put the snow," he said. "There was so much and it was so deep, and it was so heavy."

Because first responders had trouble reaching homes, Heinert and other local leaders said, a 12-year-old boy died after suffering a medical emergency. Because of term limits, Heinert won't be back in office in the new legislative session, but he said he will continue to serve as a voice for remote tribal areas in need of additional support.

Arizona tribal communities face inequalities every day, but a recent Arizona State University graduate said she wants to shape public policy to help change it.

Ty'Lesha Yellowhair argued changing public policy which guides social services would not only ensure tribal members receive the care they need, but also help to change the public perception of Native communities, which hold lots of strength and resiliency, despite challenges.

Yellowhair is from the Navajo Nation, originally from Kayenta, Arizona, and currently works in the Office of Health Programs for the Phoenix Area Indian Health Services as a social service assistant. She explained she wants her story to serve as an inspiration to others.

"I hope that my story being shared can change the image of what people have of Native communities, like, we too, can become professionals. We, too, can deal with policy. We, too, have the power to change what's happening around us," Yellowhair outlined.

Yellowhair comes from a family of teachers, and is her family's first social worker and public administrator. She emphasized her mother, a teacher of more than 50 years, was fundamental in helping her understand people have different lived experiences.

Yellowhair added her childhood influenced the work she does today. She acknowledged she grew up in a home with two educated working parents, and knows it was not the case for everyone. Her graduate work led her to study violence in Indigenous communities, specifically against Native women and children.

Yellowhair stressed she has not met a single Native woman who was not impacted by some sort of violence in her life, and she is convinced there must be a greater focus on the issue.

"To me, that speaks volumes," Yellowhair remarked. "That is what continues to drive me, as a person who strives to be an advocate for my community."

Yellowhair believes she has the tools to fight for justice and reparations, and hopes to give back to her community and others by advocating through policy and fighting for systemic change.

Indigenous activists in the Commonwealth are calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation to strengthen protections for Native American remains.

The outcry follows an announcement from Harvard's Peabody Museum that it has hair samples from indigenous people around the world, including clippings from some 700 Native American children, many of whom attended U.S. Indian boarding schools. The hair was part of a donation to the museum in 1935.

Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the North American Indian Center of Boston, said he was horrified to learn about it.

"This was a severing of a spirit and of identity, forcefully cutting off the connection between the children and their home communities," Pierite asserted.

Pierite emphasized lawmakers can ensure publicly-funded institutions in the Commonwealth adhere to federal protections for Native American remains by passing An Act to Protect Native American Heritage, which was originally filed in 2019.

The Peabody Museum did not respond to multiple requests for comment, although it has created a website detailing efforts to return the hair samples to families and Tribes.

Pierite argued the museum's collection is indicative of a broader issue, in which sacred objects and
human remains continue to be, in his words, "held captive" by public institutions. He contended the Peabody Museum needs to correctly identify the origins of the samples to help families properly heal, as well as the Indigenous students on Harvard's campus.

"You know, we've had students feeling like they're in a situation where they couldn't even breathe," Pierite pointed out. "And not even really knowing how much is in there, but just knowing that these are places that hold so much that needs to go back home."

He added legislation would also have hastened the recent return of items and remains from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre by a museum in the town of Barre after decades of requests by descendants of those who were killed in the battle.