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Crow tribal members greeted Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic candidate's visit to Montana's Crow Reservation in May. Reznet Photo by April Gregory

Natives Hail Role in Shaping Issues at Democratic Convention

By Victor Merina

DENVER — It was 1998 when the national political spotlight fell on Denver as the newly formed Presidential Commission on Race made an urban barnstorming stop in the Mile High City.

But the proceedings had barely begun when they were interrupted by a group of Native protesters who stood up during the public meeting to voice their concerns over what was missing on the panel: a Native presence.

There was no Native representative among the seven commissioners appointed by President Clinton, the activists said, and they questioned how there could be meaningful discussion of cultural, social and political change without Native people — a group so often overlooked in such conversations.

A decade later, the locale remains the same but the times have certainly changed.

Today thousands of Democrats are here in Denver poised to nominate the first African American as a major party presidential candidate, and Barack Obama's campaign is built around his slogan for change, calling for a shift in the nation's direction. Although their numbers will be small, a visible contingent of Native delegates and fellow activists will be at the Democratic convention to help shape the party platform, rally party members and showcase the Obama candidacy.

"This is an historical convention in so many ways," said Kalyn Free, president and founder of the Indigenous Democratic Network, or INDN's List, a grass-roots political organization devoted to recruiting and electing Natives to local, state and national office.

"Barack Obama has engaged a whole new generation of people," including many in Indian Country, said Free, a Choctaw whose organization is based in Oklahoma.

One of four Native superdelegates at the convention, Free said that while Democrats "have been taking some baby steps in addressing concerns of Indian Country" over the last two decades, they have ratcheted up their efforts under party chairman Howard Dean. And she said that commitment will only strengthen if Obama wins in November.

Obama, who formally introduced Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate on Saturday, will look to end eight years of Republican control of the White House with a victory over Arizona Sen. John McCain who, as the former chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, has his own following among Native voters.

With Democrats making up the vast majority of the Native electorate — as much as 80 percent by some estimates — Obama enjoys a large edge in Indian Country. And although American Indians and Alaska Natives represent only 1.5 percent of the U.S. population, that difference could prove significant in a close race. That's especially true in the pivotal states of Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin — key battlegrounds identified by INDN's List and the Native American Network, another get-out-the-vote organization.

"I think it's good for both parties to fight over the Native American vote," said Jacqueline L. Johnson, executive director of the nonpartisan National Congress of American Indians.

Johnson's organization represents 250 member tribes monitoring federal policy and working to preserve rights under Indian treaties and agreements. She and her staff will be in Denver to host policy forums and discussion groups on Native issues for convention delegates. NCAI will do the same in Minneapolis-St. Paul when the Republicans meet next week.

"We were quite lucky," said Johnson, who is Tlingit. "Platform committees for both parties included Native Americans ... and we felt very satisfied at the work we got in both of those platforms."

Johnson said she is hopeful that both Obama and McCain will include a Native American policy adviser at the White House level. She also is pushing for the next president to appoint an Interior secretary and a high-ranking official at the Office of Management and Budget who have "a real working knowledge and understanding" of tribal issues and who can push for much-needed resources in Indian Country.

In Denver, there will be 143 self-identified Native delegates to the Democratic gathering compared to 86 in 2004, according to convention officials. Among the tribes represented will be the Tohono O'odham, Morongo, Navajo, Comanche, Northern Arapaho, Kickapoo, Comanche, Cherokee and Umatilla.

Frank LaMere, a Winnebago from Nebraska, will chair the Native American Caucus in Denver. He and Free — along with Margarett Campbell, an Assiniboine from Montana, and Laurie Weahkee, a Cochiti and Zuni Pueblo and Navajo from New Mexico — are the four Native superdelegates at the convention.

Like the others, LaMere is an ardent Democrat who has worked for the last 20 years in the political process, but he said he understands those who have been reluctant to embrace any political party or candidate given the history of disappointments and frustrations in Indian Country.

"I don't think the political process has made much room for us over time," he said, "and as they beckon us in, we will approach it with some hesitance. That is human nature."

At the same time, LaMere said, Natives need to be sure their voices are heard not only in the presidential election but at the local and state level as well. He added that the key is to stay in the political process and to remain consistent.

"To be effective in the party organization, you must be engaged for a long period of time," he said. "We are beginning to find success. The quicker we realize that, the better off we are."

For Kalyn Free of INDN's List, that success can be translated not only into the support that Natives can give high-profile, non-Native candidates like Obama but for lesser-known Native candidates as well. She said her group, for example, endorsed 28 Native candidates nationwide in 2006 and 2007. Of that number, 22 are now in office. Two are serving locally on a community college board and a county board of commission. The other 20 are in state legislatures.

Those numbers can only grow, Free said, with what will happen in Denver. By building on the political momentum of the Democratic convention, she added, Native America can cement a link with a new president that she hopes will prove to be Barack Obama.

"We still need a national dialogue with tribal leaders," Free said. "Politics have changed in how things are done in Indian Country. The real question is where do we go from here."

Victor Merina is reznet's senior correspondent and special projects editor. A former Los Angeles Times investigative reporter and finalist for the Pulitizer Prize, he also is a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism. Merina is a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute, where he leads seminars on cross-cultural reporting and writing about race.