Montana Taxpayer Questions Cost of Battling Native Voting Rights
Published in Indian Country Today in 2013. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.... F or several months, Montana counties have been shelling out taxpayer dollars to fight a Native voting-rights lawsuit—Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch—and William Main, seen here, wants to know why. A taxpayer himself and former chairman of Fort Belknap Indian Community, he thinks other Montanans will also want to learn why they’re fighting a suit that may end up costing hundreds of thousands, or even a million dollars. To that end, Main has submitted advertisements to local newspapers in Blaine County, Rosebud and Big Horn counties. The three jurisdictions ended up in court after they refused prior to the 2012 election to set up one satellite early-voting station each on the Fort Belknap, Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations, respectively. Main has also demanded related financial records from local Blaine County. “There was no public hearing o