Listen: North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong on “The Jay Thomas Show”.
NORTH DAKOTA – North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said state law needs to be changed to allow retailers to accept tribal identification to prove someone’s age while buying alcohol.
“If it’s a valid government-issued ID that can’t be faked overly easily, then I’m not sure why we wouldn’t take it,” Armstrong said on “The Jay Thomas Show.”
Aaron Presley Vallejo Starr reached out to our partners at Valley News Live saying he gave a clerk at Happy Harry’s Bottle Shop his tribal ID and they refused to take it.
“Our policy is the state law and that’s been that way forever. That way there is no judgment calls. It’s literally whatever the state statute says is what we accept and currently the state statute does not permit us to accept a tribal ID,” Happy Harry’s CEO Dustin Mitzel told Valley News Live.
“It made me question my identity. It made me question, should I even be proud to be Native American? Should I be proud to show people my tribal ID or where I come from?” Vallejo Starr told Valley News Live.
North Dakota law says a licensed retailer can verify age using a valid state or Canadian ID with a photo and birthdate, a United States military ID, or a U.S. passport.
Armstrong shared with Thomas he wasn’t aware of this law.
“All you want with the ID is to make sure the ID shows how old you are and that you are the person with the ID,” Armstrong said.
