Native Americans turn focus inward for political empowerment

[...] a state senator, she wants more of her fellow Blackfeet to let go of their indifference and discover the influence of politics — to experience government at work as she did 35 years ago.

For generations, tribal nations fought to tear down the barriers that kept them from having a voice in the government the U.S. Cavalry imposed upon the western frontier.

[...] Native American activists are increasingly turning their focus inward, working to persuade their fellow tribal members to seize the ballot box as a weapon against oppression.

Across reservations, tribal leaders implore their people to engage in the political process.

The Native vote could be especially crucial in Democrat Denise Juneau's bid to become the first American Indian woman in Congress.

By most accounts, Juneau will need strong Native American voter turnout to boost her chances of defeating the incumbent, Rep. Ryan Zinke.

"Back in the day, there were all these voter suppression laws in place, and now we're just realizing how important it is for us to vote," said Dustin Monroe, who is Blackfeet and Assiniboine and founded Native Generational Change, a Missoula-based group that has registered and mobilized scores of new Native voters.

Rodgers, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, helped force state officials to establish satellite elections offices across tribal lands as part of a 2014 settlement in a lawsuit filed by Native Americans from three Montana reservations.

The lawsuit, brought under the federal Voting Rights Act, claimed the great distances and time needed to travel to elections offices put an undue burden on Native Americans.