The Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy and two voters filed a lawsuit against Chouteau County and its board of commissioners Thursday in Great Falls U.S. district court.
The three Chouteau County commissioners are elected county-wide instead of by district. Plaintiffs say this system stacks the cards against Native American residents as both voters and candidates and violates the federal Voting Rights Act. They say it’s been roughly a decade since the county elected an Indigenous resident to the commission.
Chippewa Cree Tribal member Tanya Schmockel is one of the voters suing the county.
“We should be able to, not have a shoo-in or expect a candidate of our choice, but we should have the fair opportunity to elect somebody that we feel would be a candidate of our choice,” said Schmockel.
She said she didn’t even know she qualified to be a county commission candidate until recently, and “just to run would be amazing.” She said she hopes maybe next year she’ll be able to throw her name into the ring for county commission if the lawsuit is successful.
Yellowstone Public Radio reached out to the county and has not heard back at this time.
