In 2017 and 2018, the NARF-founded Native American Voting Rights Coalition held nine public hearings to better understand how Native Americans are systemically and culturally kept from fully exercising their franchise. More than 120 witnesses testified from dozens of tribes across the country. We released the final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, on June 4. It provides detailed evidence that Native people face obstacles at every turn in the electoral process: from registering to vote, to casting votes, to having votes counted. Get the comprehensive final report as well as summary materials and recommendations→

In some good news, on June 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a ruling in Solenex v. Bernhardt, a case about the protection of the Badger-Two Medicine Area, which is an area sacred to the Blackfeet Nation and where the Tribe possesses treaty-reserved rights. NARF represented the Blackfeet Nation as an amicus party at the federal district court and again at the DC Circuit. Find out more about the Blackfeet Nation's fight to protect its sacred places →

Tribes' Senior Water Rights Secured

And in more good news, on June 22,  the US Supreme Court declined to hear the Klamath Project irrigators’ Fifth Amendment water rights takings case Baley v. United States. This is a tremendous victory for the Klamath Tribes as well as for the other Klamath Basin tribes, the United States, and environmental groups. In this case, the Klamath Tribes’ treaty water rights were confirmed once again as the most senior water rights in the basin; rights which are critical to protect the Tribes’ fisheries and traditional way of life for future generations. Learn more about this lengthy case, which spanned almost two decades→