South Dakota had and still has an abysmal record when it comes to voting and Native American participation in the voting process. Many western states such as Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota enacted laws that made it illegal to pay organizers who collect completed absentee ballots from voters. This law and others were part of a nationwide surge in voter suppression legislation instigated by state legislators embracing lies of a “stolen” election in 2020.  In 2021, states around the country enacted dozens of other restrictive voting laws, making vote by mail and early voting more difficult, imposing harsher voter ID requirements, and making faulty voter purges more likely.  Additionally, states including South Dakota, being so afraid of the Native vote, often use intimidation tactics to intimidate Native voters just in case they actually make it to a polling place. 

Four Directions Native Vote–Indian Country* has, since 2004 refused to allow these egregious acts to go unchecked. Four Directions has been leading the charge in election protection in South Dakota and throughout Indian Country.  Our efforts have consistently been unrivaled in scope and sophistication among non-Partisan Native vote efforts nationwide. 

Unlike other voter protection organizations, Four Directions - the only voting rights organization that is headquartered on a reservation - is uniquely positioned to recognize and neutralize outside threats to voting rights.

Election day on reservations can be especially problematic when it comes to voter intimidation tactics.  Since 2004, Four Directions has laid the foundation for voter protection at polling places. Our tactics have long been considered the standard for election observation efforts and our materials have been copied and used by almost every national voting rights organization as a foundation for their own materials. Unquestionably, our success in protecting the Native vote on reservations has been unparalleled.

The 2026 midterm elections are arguably the most significant election in U.S. history.  As we have done with every election since our inception, we have been recruiting, training, and supervising at least 40-50+ lawyers and law students who will serve as election observers at polling places and act as resources for voters.  For these midterm elections, even though South Dakota lacks any competitive statewide races, Four Directions will have our largest group of election observers yet! Four Directions has already secured more than 75 election observer volunteers, and that number will most likely increase by election day. On November 3, Four Direction’s volunteers will cover over 40 polling places spanning all nine South Dakota reservations and the urban Lakota community in Rapid City, making our program truly statewide.  

Four Directions doesn’t rely on political parties or candidate campaigns for staffing. Instead, we have partnered with prominent law firms and law schools throughout the country, as sources for volunteers, nearly all of whom travel to South Dakota from out of state to join us.  Further, many national and state organizations continue to look to Four Directions as the model for conducting election protection efforts in Native communities.  

Four Direction’s success is largely attributable to our strong relationships built with South Dakota's tribes and leaders in reservation communities, earned through real community collaboration and our steady grassroots efforts in the communities we come from.  Tribal members know the value of having trained lawyers and law students at polling places. Having trained legal professionals stationed at reservation polling places makes our Tribal members more comfortable coming to the polls knowing they will have support for any problems they may encounter, ranging from illegal harassment or discrimination to procedural confusion about registration or ID requirements.

Four Directions has been publishing training manuals for the past 22 years and our 2026 Four Directions South Dakota Election Observer Training Manual and Voter Rights Guide is our most comprehensive manual yet. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we can distribute these manuals free of charge to all election observers who request them. In the future, we hope to publish state-specific manuals to distribute to election observers on reservations in states we are active in. 

Sovereignty is not free and the one way to protect Tribal sovereignty is to make sure that every eligible Tribal member who wishes to vote can. Join Four Directions Native Vote – Indian Country and become a Fearless Advocate and help us ensure Native peoples can exercise their right to vote without harassment.

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