The White House press release listed:



Our nation's first people, Native Americans, have had to battle genocide, ethnocide, removal to reservations, and restrictions on their rights to vote since colonial times.

Meteor Blades wrote here recently about how the gutted portion of the Voting Rights Act affected the American Indian vote. He has also written frequently about the history of the franchise for Indians and the racist denial of their rights which continue to the present day.

Many non-natives assume that Native Americans, by virtue of being our first peoples, would not have to face voting discrimination, and that states would comply with federal laws. Not so. Ojibwa discusses this in his history of Native American Voting Rights.



Many historians cite 1948 as the year in which Indians finally won the right to vote. Court rulings in Arizona and New Mexico affirmed that Indians have the right to vote. The Court ruling in New Mexico was started when Miguel Trujillo, Sr. (Laguna), a teacher, attempted to register to vote and was refused by the recorder of Valencia County. In the ruling, the Court found that New Mexico had discriminated against Indians by denying them the vote, especially since they paid all state and federal taxes except for private property taxes on the reservations. In Arizona, Frank Harrison and Harry Austin, both Mohave-Apache at the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation, attempted to register to vote and were not allowed to register. In Harrison v. Laveen the Arizona Supreme Court overturned the earlier Porter v. Hall decision and agreed with the plaintiffs that their Arizona and United States constitutional rights had been violated. In Maine, Indians were finally given the right to vote in 1953 when the state accepted the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. In 1957, the Utah state legislature repealed legislation that prevented Indians living on reservations from voting. Under the law, Indians had been considered non-residents and hence not eligible to vote. In New Mexico in 1962 an unsuccessful non-Indian candidate for elective office challenged the validity of Indian voting rights by claiming that Indians were not state residents. The state supreme court reaffirmed the rights of Indians to vote in the state. In 1968, the Havasupai finally obtained the right to vote in Arizona and federal elections. The Havasupai Reservation is located in Coconino County and the county had never designated the reservation as a voting district. Thus, Havasupai voters could only vote by registering in some distant precinct and then traveling to that distant community to vote.

For further reading on this history I suggest Voting Rights in Indian Country (ACLU Report), American Indians and the Fight for Equal Voting Rights , by Laughlin McDonald, and Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote

So seated at the table, it was no surprise to find John E. Ecohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF).



John Echohawk, Pawnee, is the Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund. He was the first graduate of the University of New Mexico's special program to train Indian lawyers, and was a founding member of the American Indian Law Students Association while in law school. John has been with NARF since its inception in 1970, having served continuously as Executive Director since 1977. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal and has received numerous service awards and other recognition for his leadership in the Indian law field. He serves on the Boards of the American Indian Resources Institute, the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Indigenous Language Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. B.A., University of New Mexico (1967); J.D., University of New Mexico (1970); Reginald Heber Smith Fellow (1970-72); Native American Rights Fund (August 1970 to present); admitted to practice law in Colorado.

This is a brief interview with him at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) meeting held this year.

The 2012 elections demonstrated the increasing power of the Asian-American and Asian Pacific Islander vote, with the majority going to Democrats. But the history of Asian-Americans and their rights in the U.S. has been fraught with barriers and racism, much of which is detailed in An Unnoticed Struggle: A Concise History of Asian AmericanCivil Rights Issues.

At the forefront of today's battle against voter discrimination against Asians are several organizations, and two of them—embodied by their leaders—had a seat at the table.

AALDEF focuses on critical issues affecting Asian Americans, including immigrant rights, civic participation and voting rights, economic justice for workers, language access to services, Census policy, affirmative action, youth rights and educational equity, housing and environmental justice, and the elimination of anti-Asian violence, police misconduct, and human trafficking.

Throughout United States history, Asian Americans have been disenfranchised by discriminatory laws that denied citizenship to Asian immigrants and rendered them ineligible to vote. It was not until 1943 that Chinese Americans were first permitted to become citizens. For Asian Indians, it was 1946. For Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans, that right did not come until 1952. Despite the inroads Asian Americans have made as elected officials, the legacy of these discriminatory policies and the notion of Asian Americans as foreigners is still strongly felt today, impeding Asian American political participation.

Asians in America were barred for over 150 years from becoming naturalized citizens and thus were not eligible to vote. In the 20th century, laws prevented Asian Americans from owning property, testifying against white men in court, marrying Caucasians, and ordered their evacuation into concentration camps. The citizenship restrictions were finally rescinded in 1943 for Chinese Americans, and for other Asian immigrant groups in 1952. As a result, this legacy of discrimination effectively blocked Asian Americans from participating in the political process until the civil rights era of the 1960's. That is why the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has such significance for the Asian American community. It has only been in the last fifty years that most Asian Americans have exercised their right to vote and had a voice in governmental policies affecting their lives. When the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act were enacted in 1975 and then expanded in 1992, section 203 helped to remove other obstacles for Asian American voters not yet fluent in English.

In the 2005 elections in Edison, New Jersey, a Korean American mayoral candidate, Jun Choi, was repeatedly ridiculed by two radio hosts, who mocked Asian American accents and said too many Asians gambled in Atlantic City. The campaign manager of Choi's opponent said, "[Asians] walk in here. They don't know what they're doing, and their countryman is telling them who to vote for." Choi won the mayoral election. In 2004 in Queens County, New York, a poll site coordinator said, "I'll talk to [Asian voters] the way they talk to me when I call to order Chinese food," and then said random English phrases in a mock Chinese accent. In Kings County, New York, a poll site coordinator asked, "How does one tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese?" and brought her fingers to the side of each eye moving her skin up and down. In the 1999 City Council elections in Palisades Park, New Jersey, the White mayor made racial appeals to his constituents, warning that Korean Americans were "attempting to take over our town and change it inside out." In a letter opposing a Korean American city council candidate, the mayor wrote, "Now we are faced with a new problem--one that threatens to wipe out our history and our heritage. . .Our quality of life will be brought to an abrupt and chaotic end."



Margaret Fung, a graduate of Barnard College with a law degree from NYU, is the executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund They have played a key role in the struggle for Asian American voting rights In her testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the JudiciaryHearing on the Voting Rights Act, on June 13, 2006, Fung elaborated on that history:She also spoke of modern day racial incidents:I found a biting observation from Ms. Fung, on the Southern Policy Law Center pages:

"I would hate to be an immigrant in his courtroom."

MARGARET FUNG, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, commenting Nov. 27 on Brooklyn, N.Y., Criminal Court Judge John Wilson, who wrote a 2006 children’s book comparing undocumented immigrants to weeds that kill flowers

She was not the only Asian-American activist at the table last week.

Mee Moua, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Mee Moua (RPA: Mim Muas, born June 30, 1969 in Xieng Khouang, Laos), is the president and executive director of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. Prior to her current post, she served as the vice president for strategic impact initiatives at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), where she was the executive administrator of the Washington, D.C. office and managed the communications, government relations, policy analysis and research functions of the organization. Moua was the first Hmong American woman elected to a state legislature, where she served as a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. She represented District 67 in the Minnesota Senate, which includes portions of the city of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, which is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. On May 16, 2010, she announced that she would not run for a third term. Moua chaired the Judiciary Committee and held the highest office of any Hmong American politician. She also served on the senate's Taxes and Transportation committees, and was a member of the Finance subcommittee for the Public Safety Budget Division and the Transportation Budget and Policy Division, of the Judiciary Subcommittee for Data Practices, and of the Taxes Subcommittee for the Property Tax Division.

I was born in a remote village in Laos in 1969. When I was five, my family left for the refugee camps in Thailand and in 1978, when I was 9, we came to the U.S. I don't remember Laos, but I remember Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand... First, we went to Providence, Rhode Island. We were fortunate because we came in the summer. I can't imagine how the families who came during the winter adjusted from the heat of Southeast Asia to the cold of North America. I remember our first night at the apartment, my mom was trying to learn how to use the gas stove, the taps. We had seen toilets before, but we had to get used to just pushing a button to flush the toilet instead of bringing in buckets of water...

There were a couple of Filipino families, they were doctors and researchers at Kimberly-Clark, so they were very privileged and they didn't identify with us. We were minorities and we were also really poor. We lived in a public housing duplex and everyone knew we were the poor.



Church people would show up at our house on Christmas with trees and stuff, but there were also people who spit at us and called us chinks, gooks and told us to go home. The hostility was so overt that it made us feel very different, so my siblings and I became very rooted in our Hmongness.

Initially my intention was to become a doctor, what Asian family doesn't want their child to become a doctor, right? But when I was at Brown, I got involved in protests and I felt very empowered. I learned a new language and for the first time, I was able to identify racism and I learned about pluralism. I felt smart, creative and I thought, "Wow, I'm doing something that makes a difference." I majored in public policy and we studied welfare, poverty, social security, Medicare - all the things I was familiar with because I spent years filling out forms for my family.

Mee Moua has a groundbreaking history.I found myself immersed in Moua's life story . It speaks to the richness that our country is and can be, as it opens doors that some would like to slam shut, to new immigrants.The family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin.She went on to become engaged in politics.And now, after time in the trenches of elected office, she has taken the struggle into a related arena, at Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Their values statement speaks to things we can all relate to: Respect for human dignity, transparency and honesty, accountability to community, elevating voices, inclusive collaboration, creating solutions, achieving excellence, and most importantly, courageous and committed advocacy.



We advocate for social justice and the needs of marginalized communities no matter how difficult or unpopular the cause. We commit to the long-term work that is required for true social change.



I regret that I do not have the space today to highlight the others who were there that I want to cover, so this will be continued next week.

It is important that we all reach out and forge bonds between groups, and support organizations who are refusing to accept the unconscionable decision handed down by the current majority on the high court, and the increased efforts by the right to deny us our votes, and that we commit to the long term work.

With that as a commitment, we will win this.

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