The Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska held its annual powwow in June 2015. Photo from Facebook

Members of the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska are seeking the right to vote.

Tribal members collected signatures in hopes of calling a secretarial election on the issue, The Sioux City Journal reports. The council will consider the petition at a meeting today.

“I visited the reservation recently,” Daniel Bearshield, a tribal member who lives in Nebraska, told the paper. “I said, we’re not doing this for money, we want to be a part of the future of our people. We matter, too.”

Chairman Roger Trudell said the issue has come up in the past but has never been resolved. The tribe would need to amend its constitution to make the change.

Get the Story:
Santee Sioux members in tri-state area seek voting rights (The Sioux City Journal 12/14)

Federal Register Notice:
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 19, 2015)
Secretarial Election Procedures (December 17, 2014)
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 20, 2014)
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 9, 2014)

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BIA encourages tribes to assert more control over internal affairs (10/19)
BIA announces consultations for secretarial election regulation (10/21)