Senate to consider requiring South Dakota businesses to accept tribal IDs

PIERRE — The Senate will consider legislation to allow tribal ID cards to be an accepted form of identification in South Dakota businesses.

Senate Bill 146 received the unanimous support of the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee on Tuesday. However, the committee's unanimous vote meant the bill would automatically go on the Senate's consent calendar, which the Senate passes without discussion. The senators wanted bill sponsor Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, to have the opportunity to discuss his bill on the Senate floor and Sen. Blake Curd, R-Sioux Falls, changed his "yes" to a "no" vote to keep it off the consent calendar.

The bill hasn't yet been scheduled for a full Senate vote.

The bill would allow tribal IDs to be accepted for all business purposes in South Dakota, including when a person's age needs to be verified during a sale.

Tribal members can use their tribal IDs to vote and get on a plane, but they can only use the IDs at some businesses in the state, Heinert explained to the committee.

Heinert said afterward that he was "pleased" with the committee's support and it's important to have a chance to discuss it on the Senate floor. There's no reason for tribal IDs to not be accepted because they're valid forms of identification and it's "just another hurdle" for Native Americans, he said.

"It's 2020," Heinert added. "There is no reason to not accept a valid form of tribal identification. We have had to prove who we are by blood since colonization, so there's probably no other group of people who have had to jump through those hoops to identify who we are."

More: South Dakota tribes want a better relationship with state. Here's what else they want.

Tribal leaders told the committee that the change would allow their members without state-issued IDs to participate in the economy when they're not on the reservations. Not being able to use a tribal ID "stifles" tribal members' spending elsewhere in the state, said Crow Creek Tribal Chairman Lester Thompson Jr.

"We're underdeveloped in a lot of our areas so that commerce is not available to us," Thompson said. "Those dollars are taken off the reservation and spent locally within border towns, within our larger cities in South Dakota."

Jason Cook, vice president of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, said his tribal members have run into problems when trying to use their ID cards in East River cities. The tribe is a large employer and those employees put their money into the economy, he said, adding, "We are also taxpayers."

There's a strict process in place to receive a tribal ID, which includes providing a birth certificate from which the ID card's date of birth is directly taken, said Remi Bald Eagle, representing the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

The bill has the support of the South Dakota Retailers Association. Lobbyist Doug Abraham called it a "a good change" and told the committee that the bill gives businesses clarity in state law so they can be comfortable in accepting tribal IDs for commercial purposes.

Voter registration

SB 146 was the second move to accommodate tribal IDs in South Dakota in the past week.

The House defeated Democratic Rep. Oren Lesmeister's attempt on Thursday to amend House Bill 1054 to allow tribal IDs to be used as identification when registering to vote. The bill allows a non-driver identification card to be used to register to vote.

The amendment would only have affected when a resident is registering to vote with the South Dakota Secretary of State's Office. Tribal IDs can still be used as identification when voting.

HB 1054 is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday, but Heinert said they may try to find a compromise while it's in the Senate to include tribal IDs.

After the House's defeat of the amendment last week, several Democrats leveled accusations of voter suppression. Republicans say their resistance is all about keeping voter registration secure.

“The way our voting system is set up does disenfranchise, in particular, Native American voters,” said Rep. Ryan Cwach, D-Yankton.

Republicans argued that the secretary of state could not verify the information on tribal IDs, which are issued by the tribes. They were also concerned that not every tribal ID provides an address, which could allow people who live outside the state to vote in South Dakota elections.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.