Native American groups from Buffalo County, South Dakota are claiming that their 14th Amendment rights are being violated, because voting districts established in the past have not changed to let American Indian populations participate in government. The American Civil Liberty Union says that although the population of this area is predominantly American Indian due to the presence of the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation, the county government is controlled disproportionately by non-Indians because of unconstitutional districting rules. A lawsuit has been filed in a U.S. District Court to change the way the districts are drawn so American Indians are better represented. Right now, there are three separate districts: one has 101 people with no American Indians, the second has 353 people and 199 are American Indian, and district 3 has 1,578 people, of whom 1,493 are American Indian. The critics say that the correct district sizes should be equal, with 677 people in each. “This is the most glaring example of political apartheid that I have seen anywhere in the United States,” said an ACLU representative.
