HELENA, Mont. - State legislatures across the country have passed laws criminalizing an essential part of civic participation in a democracy - protesting. According to one expert, these laws also could infringe on the religious rights of Native Americans.

A measure passed in Montana this year is designed to protect critical infrastructure, like oil pipelines.

Rosalyn LaPier - associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Montana - said if someone is convicted under this law, they could be fined up to $150,000 and spend 30 years in prison.

"What is different about the Montana law, and a few other laws," said LaPier, "is that the Montana law also includes people who assist protesters."

LaPier said many states have borrowed similar language to punish protesters and people who aid them.

She believes the laws are in response to protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, and to prevent actions like the Keystone XL pipeline protests, a project that was proposed to run through Montana.

LaPier said the people who gathered at Standing Rock saw themselves more as protectors of the land than protesters. She said Native Americans treat the land as sacred, and the places where these demonstrations take place are comparable to church.

"They're coming in and they're praying there," said LaPier. "They're coming in and they're blessing the place. They're coming in and they may be having a ritual or a ceremony there, and that is just in accordance with the tradition or the culture of that particular area."

The 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act allowed indigenous people to exercise their traditional religions, but LaPier noted the law often isn't held up in court.

She added laws that make it harder to protest also erode the American tradition of civil disobedience, which has been a tenet of the society since Boston Tea Party protesters broke the law at the country's founding.

"Today, with these anti-protesting laws, what we are saying is that civil disobedience is no longer something that we want to occur in the United States," said LaPier. "It's no longer a value that we hold in the United States."

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Organizers behind a new Indigenous school in western South Dakota hope they can give young Native American students a more optimal learning environment for years to come.

Mary Bowman is founder of the Oceti Sakowin Community Academy in Rapid City, which opens in September. It's starting with a kindergarten class of more than 30 students.

Bowman said Indigenous students often encounter achievement gaps, along with discipline disparities in most school settings. She said the academy wants to be a place where these students might get off to a better start after previous generations dealt with many roadblocks.

"Our school, we are really looking to address some of those things that have been harmful - with boarding schools, where they took away the language and the culture," she said.

She said they will have rigorous academics. Students also get daily lessons on the Lakota language, along with engagement opportunities with tribal elders.

Officials with the Rapid City School District have said they wish the new academy well, but note it isn't accredited yet. Bowman said they are working to achieve that status with the state.

The school's opening comes amid tense debate over updating social-studies standards in South Dakota schools, and how much effort is being placed on certain aspects of American Indian history. This new campus may be starting with just one grade, but Bowman said she hopes possible expansions in the future will shield more students from policy fallouts - and provide better outcomes.

"They're going to do better economically," she said. "Hopefully they'll go on to post-high school - or you know, services, or find a trade."

Separately, there have been recent legislative efforts in South Dakota to establish state-funded charter schools that would focus on Lakota language, culture and history.


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On August 27, members of the public will have a rare opportunity to visit the historic Padlock Ranch first developed for livestock in 1867, now operating as the Arapaho Ranch.

Lorre Hoffman, project coordinator with the Arapaho Ranch Field Station, said the 450,000 acre site was seen as a job-creation venture when the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone agreed to buy it in 1940.

But after the Shoshone dropped out of the deal, the Arapaho were left holding a $290,000 loan.

"This kind of debt was a horrifying thing," said Hoffman. "Someone said it was like a weight around their necks. But they paid it off in half the time they were allowed. And now the ranch is always called the pride of the tribe."

A tour organized by the Field Station and the Alliance for Historic Wyoming will include talks on the history of the ranch, a performance by Crow poet Henry Real Bird, self-guided tours, and a trip to view nearby petroglyphs created before the Bronze age.

The ranch sits about 20 miles northwest of Thermopolis, on lands that are part of the Arapaho, Shoshone, and Crow Ancestral Migratory routes. For more information and to sign up for the tour, visit historicwyoming.org.

Buildings constructed during Padlock Ranch days, which went into receivership after the 1929 stock market crash, include a large horse barn and a mansion modeled after an Italian villa.

Hoffman said the elaborate homestead was built for entertaining, and is unlike other buildings constructed at the time.

"It has a very open entry," said Hoffman. "You stand in the middle of it, and it's open all the way to the living room, and all the way to the dining room, and the enormous wide staircase that goes up with a giant window at the end. So it's very welcoming."

Padlock is considered to have been the largest sheep operation in Wyoming around 1917, and the Arapaho are working to restore its schoolhouse, company store and other structures.

Hoffman said the ranch is now widely renowned for its high-grade beef, raised naturally with plenty of space to roam and without the use of chemicals found in factory-farmed animals.

"They don't use antibiotics or hormones," said Hoffman. "The Arapaho Ranch in the late '90s was the largest organic beef producer in North America."





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With new voting maps for Montana's Legislature to be revealed soon, Native American communities are being encouraged to watch the process closely.

Billings-based Western Native Voice wants the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission to respect tribal sovereignty in the process. One of the commission's goals is to keep communities of interest, such as tribes, intact.

Ta'jin Perez, deputy director of Western Native Voice, said keeping communities whole is important, as is ensuring representation in the Legislature.

"Candidates of choice are from your community and that these communities should be able to have the opportunity to elect someone that shares their values and shares who they are and the unique history and the unique cultures of these tribal areas," Perez outlined.

The commission has scheduled nine public meetings in August and September, so Montanans can comment on the maps, including three meetings online: Aug. 30 for the western region, Sep. 9 for the central region, and Sep. 19 for the eastern region.

Perez pointed out Montana has an independent redistricting commission, and contended it has done a good job of ensuring the Legislature is proportionally representative of the population of Native Americans in the state. He noted the independent setup of the commission has many upsides, including it is not beholden to the governor or lawmakers.

"An entire Legislature, their voice is intended to be just as loud as that of the public because of this independent commission that we have," Perez explained. "Other states don't enjoy this kind of thing."

Perez added voters should be engaged in the process.

"Representation that reflects communities as they are is important, and the only way that a body like the redistricting commission can do that is through public comment," Perez concluded.

The deadline for the redistricting plan is the 10th day of the 2023 legislative session.