“The Native vote in South Dakota is a sleeping bear.”
Demanding Democracy in South Dakota
In 1924, Congress granted citizenship to American Indians and one hundred years later, our voting access, rights and participation in American democracy remains contested territory. Through building a powerful voter mobilization towards November 2024 and beyond, the Native Vote South Dakota coalition is intended to wake the sleeping bear in South Dakota. Join this coalition here!
The COUP Council has collaborated with the He Sapa Voters Initiative since its founding, and now fiscally sponsors this non-partisan project to engage and turn out Indigenous voters in our homelands. We engage our community using creative & cultural civic engagement, integrated voter engagement and relational organizing. Our intent is to build collective power that brings justice & healing to the Oceti Sakowin territory. Look out for events in your community throughout South Dakota! Check out your registration status here on the South Dakota Secretary of State website.
Educating Future Voters
On May 13, 2024, COUP Council Executive Director & Co-Founder of He Sapa Voters, Natalie Stites Means (Cheyenne River Lakota) shared her thoughts on the 100th Anniversary of the American Indian Citizenship Act with the students of the Todd County School District located on the Rosebud reservation of the Sicangu Lakota.
Packing City Hall in Rapid City
On Monday, November 5, 2023, COUP Council joined with Dakota Rural Action and packed city hall to oppose the politics of cruelty being levied upon the unhoused relatives of Rapid City. Banishing the houseless from public spaces, decreasing services to the needy and increasing policing and jailing is not what we stand for as the Oceti Sakowin. Being a good relative, exemplifying Lakota virtue and philosophy, is a key part of why we advocate and serve the most vulnerable among us, and join forces with those also exercising their rights to freedom, assembly and religion.
