Chippewa Cree tribal members allege Chouteau County elections are discriminatory

The Chouteau County Courthouse in Fort Benton, Montana (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan).

A new federal lawsuit alleges Chouteau County prevents Native American voters from fully participating in elections for Board of Commissioners, and county officials have been unresponsive to working on a joint solution with the Chippewa Cree Tribe.

In the complaint, the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation and a couple of  tribal members are suing the county, the commissioners, and the clerk and recorder alleging the county’s at-large elections are unlawful.

The plaintiffs want the U.S. District Court’s Great Falls Division to find Chouteau County’s at-large elections for its three commissioners don’t comply with the Voting Rights Act.

They also want the court to implement a redistricting plan that doesn’t dilute the Native American vote.

The complaint requests the court order a plan “that provides at least one Native American voting-age majority single-member commissioner district that effectively performs for the Native American candidate of choice.”

In a statement provided by the ACLU of Montana, Chippewa Cree Tribe Chairman Harlan Gopher said it’s time for the county to respect the rights of its Native voters.

“We’re filing this lawsuit because Chouteau County continues to hold elections in which the Native votes don’t count,” Gopher said in a statement. “The Chippewa Cree Tribe filed this lawsuit to prevent this local government from trampling on the civil rights of our people. A fair redistricting process must respect the boundaries and voice of our Nation.”

The Native American Rights Fund and ACLU Foundation also are representing the plaintiffs.

The Chouteau County Attorney was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment until Monday; he could not be reached Monday morning before publication.

The complaint said Montana law requires at-large elections unless a court orders otherwise, and Chouteau County meets the conditions for a claim of vote dilution under the Voting Rights Act.

Those conditions are that the minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district; that the minority group be politically cohesive; and that the majority vote usually defeat the minority’s preferred candidate, the lawsuit said.

“Native Americans in the county are sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to constitute a majority of the voting-age population in one single-member district,” the lawsuit said.

The county overlaps with roughly one third of the reservation, the lawsuit said. It said in the county, 25.8% of the population is Native American (“alone or in combination”), as is 20.71% of the voting-age population.

But “to plaintiffs’ knowledge, no Native American has been elected to the Board of Commissioners nor to any other countywide office for at least the past ten years,” the lawsuit said.

The results mean Native Americans in the state and Chouteau County continue to experience the effects of discrimination, tribal members allege.

“Native Americans have a lower socioeconomic status and lag behind non-Hispanic white residents in a wide range of areas, including employment, income, education and access to health care,” the lawsuit said.

Ken Morsette, a plaintiff and member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, said Native voters need a fair election system, and they need the ability to elect a commissioner who understands Native issues and is willing to collaborate with the tribe.

“The three local representatives currently in power do little that benefits the Native taxpayers in this part of Montana and adopted a system that prevents us from being able to vote them out,” Morsette said in a statement provided by the ACLU of Montana. “Until our votes matter, too, we’re stuck under their thumb.”

The lawsuit said the tribe notified commissioners in November 2023 that at-large elections were in violation of the Voting Rights Act, and the tribe offered to work with the county on a solution “to avoid unnecessary expense to the county’s taxpayers.”

The tribe wanted to create a district map with commissioners that complied with the Voting Rights Act and could be jointly submitted to Montana’s federal district court for approval, the lawsuit said.

On Dec. 5, 2023, legal counsel for the tribe met with commissioners, the county clerk and the county attorney “to discuss a simple resolution,” and the tribe’s counsel followed up by email on Dec. 11, 2023, and again on Jan. 19, 2024, according to the complaint.

“To date, the county has not responded to the Tribe’s proposal,” the lawsuit said.

As such, the complaint said the court’s intervention is necessary. 

The lawsuit also argues the “totality of the circumstances” supports the plaintiffs’ claim they have less opportunity to participate in electing commissioners.

For one thing, it said, Montana has a “long and well-documented history of voting discrimination” against Native Americans, including that it passed a law as soon as it became a territory to limit voting to “white male citizens.”

It said legislators have continued attempts to restrict Native Americans from voting in Montana in the current day, and tribal members are boxed out of decisions in the county.

“To Plaintiffs’ knowledge, the county has never consulted the Chippewa Cree Tribal Council on policy decisions that affect the tribe,” the lawsuit said. 

The lawsuit asks the court to permanently stop the county from conducting at-large elections and order it to implement a plan that protects the rights of the Native American voters.

“Fair representation isn’t just about numbers on a map — it’s about the dignity of knowing our voices count,” said plaintiff and voter Tanya Schmockel, of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, in a statement. “Without that, we remain invisible in decisions that affect every part of our lives. This case is about making sure our community finally has the same say in who serves as commissioner as every other voter in the county.”