Early in-person voting in North Dakota begins as group looks to encourage Native voters

BISMARCK — Early in-person voting begins in certain counties throughout North Dakota during the next week, an opportunity one Bismarck-area group is highlighting to encourage Indigenous people to vote. Staff of the Sacred Pipe Resource Center gathered Thursday, Oct. 22, with half a dozen voters to all cast their ballots shortly after polls opened for the first day of Burleigh County s early vote. They donned matching black T-shirts reading Democracy is Indigenous, took pictures together and walked inside the Bismarck Event Center to vote. Voting can be confusing or intimidating and it s helpful to have support, said Daniela Aki, the center s director of civic engagement. That s kind of what we want to do is, again, bring down those barriers to voting and say, This isn t a scary process. We understand it, so come along with us, Aki said. Leta Killer, a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation citizen, joined them. She said she wants to see change in the world, especi