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Election official’s comment was insulting

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Editor,

I feel compelled to share my voting experience last week. I voted in Precinct 9 in Ronan at which time I produced my Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal ID. The first gentleman accepted it and looked up my name on the voters list and I signed on the dotted line. He handed me back my ID and I was passed on to the next individual who made a comment to him, not looking at me directly, that “they’re sure getting loose on what kind of IDs we accept.” She was totally serious.

I was offended, but speechless, to the point I grabbed my ballot and proceeded to the voting booth. I took a few deep breaths and thought, “This is a teaching moment, use it.” So, after I voted, I had my speech ready for this woman about the Montana law passed three years ago that recognizes identification cards from sovereign Indian nations are to be accepted the same as a Montana ID card.

But much to my dismay, the election official was not at the table. So, therefore, this letter. I hope, in the future, this ignorance will not occur in Montana, especially on Indian reservations. Election officials:  please train your workers about MT HB 789 and improve your customer service training.

I won’t attempt in this letter to educate the general public on how your ancestors crafted the U.S. Constitution after my Iroquois ancestors’ Great Law of Peace, or the sovereignty of my Nation and the government to government relationship between my Nation and yours. I have great hope however, in that one of my friends is creating a U.S. Indian history textbook that will be a companion to the current U.S. history textbooks in our schools. This will teach your grandchildren and mine so that these incidents will be less likely to happen in the future. My prayers are that together our grandchildren will grow up to respect the diversity of this land and people.  

Shelly Fyant
Arlee

 

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