Native American Rights Fund

Voting rights advocates worry that a new state law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote may cause issues at the polls.

Samantha Blenke with the Native American Rights Fund stresses Native American voters face many barriers when trying to cast their ballots.

That includes long distances to election offices, requiring a physical address to register to vote, and reducing the number of polling places.

If someone's told, hey, just go back home and get the right document and come back, that could be a three-hour drive.

One thing I've learned from you guys is visibility is not the same as access.

And the Native American Rights Fund's Native Vote Week has been highlighting all the barriers involving accessibility.

you know, voter registration, identification requirements, language access, and of course, as always, the distance some voters will have to travel to reach a polling place.

Simon, when you look at the record number of Native candidates running this year, do you see a genuine shift in political power, or is there a danger that the establishment's going to celebrate this representation without actually addressing the barriers Indigenous voters still face?

And so, you know, having you know, just the vote by mail is a great, you know, option, but, you know, you shouldn't assume.

Yes.

And then also identification, you know, the Native American Rights Fund is now saying they're documenting that poll workers are refusing tribal identification.

And, you know, the rules vary by state, but voters should never have to pay the price for, you know, a poll worker's lack of training.

So again, this allows for education and communication sovereignty, which means tribal members can learn, govern, and conduct commerce on secure networks owned and operated by their own nations.

And we've got a pushback against the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAJA, according to the Native American Rights Fund and the National Congress of American Indians, a massive coalition of tribal organizations directly impacting resource-dependent communities, such as the Gila River Indian Community and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, have formally called on Congress to strip Title III and other harmful permitting provisions from the BAAJA.

Now, Title III and BAAJA, according to analysis from NARF and environmental groups, Title III and the broader provisions of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act aim to dramatically streamline federal permitting processes by shortening review timelines restricting judicial challenges and altering foundational environmental and historic preservation laws.

Now, this is huge.

and recognize their ancestors, their elders both past and present, and future generations.

Learn more by visiting the Native American Rights Fund website at narf.org.

The Esoteric Order of Roleplayers present Cracks in the Facade, a Cthulhu by Gaslight campaign, with David Larkins as the keeper of arcane lore.

Holy shit.

Yeah.

And the Native American Rights Fund did a whole, um, Native vote week-

Mm-hmm

... to, to kind of, you know, uh, sharing resources and drawing attention to voting access for Indigenous folks.

The facility holds historical documents, including federal Indian boarding school records.

Four native organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund, have raised concerns about a lack of meaningful tribal consultation.

Native American Rights Fund Executive Director John Echohawk says the archives contain documents tribal nations rely on to protect their rights and hold the federal government accountable.

Federal officials say the closure is part of an effort to reduce costs and consolidate records.

California's lawsuit seeks to stop the closure and prevent the transfer of the collections.

And in regional news, Native Americans face voting obstacles at every step of the electoral process.

That's according to a recent report issued by the Native American Rights Fund.

From Rocky Mountain Community Radio, here's Gail Binkley.

The report, titled Obstacles Persist, states that the barriers, quote, are rooted in decades of exclusion, chronic underinvestment in rural and tribal infrastructure, and election administration systems that were not designed with Indian country in mind, end quote.

Yet some communities face unreliable mail delivery, long distances to polling locations, and difficulties meeting address requirements because their homes lack conventional street addresses.

The Native American Rights Fund published a report in August 2026 examining federal election data from 2020, 2022, and 2024.

It documented disparities in voter registration and ballot acceptance, alongside problems involving unreliable mail service and poll workers refusing tribal identification.

Certain registration rejections increased by an average of 200% in counties where Native Americans constituted at least one quarter of the population.