In 2023, two Native nations in North Dakota — the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians — won a hard-fought legal battle to fix legislative maps that diluted their voting power.

A federal judge agreed: the old maps violated the Voting Rights Act by preventing Native communities from electing candidates of their choice. A new, fair map was ordered, and for the first time, voters from both tribes elected three Native representatives to serve them.

Now that victory is being torn away.

A federal appeals court just reversed that decision — not because the maps were fair, but because the court says the tribes had no right to sue in the first place. That means even if voting rights are violated, Native communities in North Dakota and people in six other states can’t fight back in court.

This is not democracy. It’s silencing.

We’re calling on the courts and state leaders in North Dakota to reject this reversal and keep the fair map in place. Native voters shouldn’t lose their voice because of a legal technicality. The districts drawn in 2021 were discriminatory — and no community should be forced back into them.

Sign the petition to defend fair representation for Native communities in North Dakota.

Photo: AP News