Reznet

Native Superdelegates Mulling Candidates

By Kevin Abourezk

A Democratic nomination like no other.

That's how many political pundits are describing the titanic clash this presidential primary season between Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cinched his party's nomination.

So these times beg the question: Who does Indian Country support?

Depends who you ask.

A good place to start: the Democratic Party's only two Native American superdelegates.

As two of 794 Democratic superdelegates, Frank LaMere and Kalyn Free are getting a lot of attention right now in a race that many expect superdelegates will play a key role in deciding at the Democratic National Convention in August.

The power to help decide their party's presidential nominee is a trust LaMere and Free aren't taking for granted.

LaMere is endorsing Obama.

Free said this week she remains undecided.

Both agree: The remaining presidential candidates' past work and rhetoric on Indian issues portend better times for Native people.

"I think this past administration has been abysmal on Indian issues," said Free, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma who also is president and founder of INDN’s List, a nonprofit that recruits and trains Native political candidates. "I think it is a new day in Indian Country, and I think a new administration is going provide a brighter future for Indians in America."

McCain served as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and was the only presidential candidate in 1999 to speak at the National Congress of American Indians national convention.

Obama has addressed Native issues mostly through his Web site, though he spoke about Indian issues also while campaigning in Nevada in January.

Clinton mostly stands on the work of her husband, who gained Indian favor by adding a key Native liaison position within the White House. Hillary Clinton also spoke via satellite in November to attendees of the NCAI annual convention.

So why does LaMere, a Winnebago tribal member and longtime Democratic Party activist, support Obama?

"Hillary Clinton, to many Native people, represents the status quo, business as usual," he said. "Eighty percent unemployment at Pine Ridge should not be business as usual. High rates of suicide and diabetes on our reservations should not be the status quo."

Indian Country, he said, needs someone willing to think out of the box when it comes to finding solutions to Indian issues. For LaMere, that someone is Obama.

"He has generated a lot of excitement, and I believe he will be an agent of change, something that Native people can appreciate," he said.

Still, LaMere plans to support whoever the Democratic nominee is and will work to educate that person on Indian issues come August. Those issues, he said, include health care, housing and education for Indian people.

"We need a new approach," he said. "We need, literally, a New Deal for Indian people."

Kevin Abourezk, Oglala Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. He is a reznet assignment editor and teaches reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute.

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