The continuing relevance of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act in the Deep South is an open question for many people, but the importance of the Act in Indian Country cannot seriously be questioned. Laughlin McDonald\u27s powerful book provides a frontline view of the cases brought by American Indians in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and elsewhere. McDonald, the head of the ACLO\u27s Voting Rights Project, himself litigated these cases to successful conclusion on behalf of his Native clients.
In parts of the United States, many state and local governments quietly excluded Indian people from the suffrage until after World War II. Even where Indian people could vote, non-Indian governments used the same techniques used in the South that effectively undercut Indian political participation. In classic examples, governments established at-large voting for county commissions, rendering significant Native minority votes null by electing only the top vote-getters. The hated literacy requirements used to exclude African Americans in the South appeared in the Great Plains as well, with local governments either outright excluding Indians who spoke their Native language as a first language, or only printing ballots in English. These techniques were so effective that in some districts with a Native majority no Indian person was elected to any office for many decades
