Greg Lembrich first volunteered in South Dakota during the 2002 general election, offering to do voter registration, get out the vote, and voter protection work. “I couldn’t build schools or roads, but I could help Tribal members elect people they support who could,” Lembrich says.

What he saw monitoring the polls, however, lit a passion to champion Native voting rights going forward: “I have watched people outside a polling place telling Native Americans it was actually elsewhere,” he told Huffington Post in 2010. “I’ve heard Native voters threatened, as in ‘I know your boss; I’ll get you fired.’”

As Legal Director of Four Directions, Lembrich has managed our voter protection work since 2008. During each election cycle, Lembrich works with his former law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, his alma mater Columbia Law School, and the University of South Dakota Law School, among other partners, to send as many as 50 lawyers, law students, and Tribal volunteers to help Native voters exercise the franchise at polling locations on reservations across South Dakota.

In addition, Lembrich has provided election protection trainings and written a manual that’s been adopted by allies including the National Congress of American Indians and Tribes countrywide.

He has prevented white county commissioners from closing polling locations in Tribal communities and has protected satellite voting offices for in-person absentee voting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For his service, the National Law Journal recognized the Pillsbury law firm with a 2008 Pro Bono Award.

Why is this work important? “South Dakota is the frontline of today’s civil-rights battle,” says Lembrich. “And Four Directions is breaking down barriers for Native voters there and across the country.”