To inspire potential Native voters before election day in the face of new obstacles in North Dakota voter identification laws, Native Americans in Philanthropy, Rock the Vote, Native Voice Network, Western Native Voice, Montana Native Vote and We Stand United sponsored a concert of music, dance, spoken word and comedy held at the Prairie Knights Casino on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation titled Stand-N-Vote.

Native Americans in Philanthropy, Rock the Vote, Native Voice Network, Western Native Voice, Montana Native Vote and We Stand United sponsored a concert of music, dance, spoken word and comedy held at the Prairie Knights Casino on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation titled Stand-N-Vote. Photo: Jaden Cowboy

Headliners included Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk) and musician Dave Matthews — both of whom had participated in the NoDAPL resistance camps at Standing Rock in 2016-2017 — and who agreed on short notice to lend their celebrity and spotlight to the Stand-N-Vote campaign.

Ruffalo told a Swedish television news crew before the show: “Everyone in this state knows Natives don’t have physical addresses. Natives were systematically targeted for suppression just weeks before the election.”

On October 8, 2018, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower-court order requiring voters in North Dakota to present identification with proof of their residential address as a prerequisite to voting in next week’s elections. This was done despite the fact that on North Dakota reservations many people do not all have typical street addresses, and have often used post office boxes on their tribal IDs.

Read the article on Indian Country Today