Dems ignore Indians

Prez Avoids the Rez[Y]ou would think given the last presidential election came down to several hundred votes, that anyone would be worth campaigning, especially a segment of society which is growing in political clout and clearly an untapped source of new voters. That is apparently of little or no consequence to some candidates running for the democratic presidential nod. Senator Hillary Clinton has so far dismissed any attempt to meet with Indian leaders or to seek their vote. Oh, she has repeated the very process that Indians want to see go away; don’t campaign in Indian country, just put some Indian on an obscure committee. That is not seeking our vote and it does nothing to rev up the vote in Indian country.

Clearly Senator Barack Obama as a man of color would understand the unique needs of Indian people need to be addressed with a personal visit. But, it appears so far, he is just going to ignore the Indian vote all together. Barack has come up with no Indian position or any effort to reach out to the Native community. His campaign strategy is a mystery. It is a little to the middle of the road; and you won’t find Native Americans in the middle of the political road, they remain on the fringe. To gather the Indian vote you have to go off the road and visit with leaders who aren’t on any big donor list or where your usual stump speech will work. You have to develop an Indian position. Maybe Barack doesn’t know what he would tell the Indian voter yet.