Why Natives Should Vote for Barack Obama
Just posted on the Reznet News blog.
SPARKS, Nev. - I have been a proud Native voter since the U.S. presidential elections of 2000.
If you recall, that race went on for weeks until the Supreme Court was called in to break the tie. At that point, when George W. Bush supported an anti-reservation figure--former Washington Sen. Slade Gordon--as Secretary of the Interior, I became disengaged from national politics.
That was, until Feb. 11, 2007, when I heard Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declare his candidacy for the 2008 presidency. When I heard the speech on National Public Radio, eloquently delivered by Obama, I was moved beyond all doses of cynicism I'd earned through my years as a disaffected Twentysomething Native voter. Immediately, I asked my mother, "This is the guy we need to support, huh?" She agreed and all was history since.
The object thereafter was to discover why I should support this junior senator from Illinois for president. The message was clear: dare to hope.
We Natives are born into this America to believe not just the worst in people, but to expect the bare minimum since our broken treaties with the federal government. We are bred to believe the worst in people: Black, white, Asian, Hispanic and even fellow Natives, we all are led to believe that we will betray each other in the end. Then I heard the call to believe in change from Obama and I dared to hope in a brighter future when we, as Native Peoples, can be counted and get legislation passed in Congress.
Long before Sen. Hillary Clinton supported gaming rights, which only support a small number of us, I heard Obama call to us in terms of how we could make our existence better while working to improve our present lives.
In recent town hall meetings in Elko, Nev., and in New Mexico, Obama echoed these sentiments:
"First of all, the first thing we have to acknowledge is the tragic history of a lot of the relationships between the United States of America and Tribal Nations," he said in Elko. "We [the U.S. government] have not always abided by treaties, we have not always been honest and truthful in our dealings and that's something ... we have to acknowledge."
This has been the loudest and clearest admission from a front-running presidential candidate recognizing our victimization and the rape of our homeland. Then Obama expounded on our shared belief in a better tomorrow:
"If we are going to be fair and honest about moving forward, the second thing we have to do is make sure that we are not just having a Bureau of Indian Affairs, but that our dealings with the various Native American tribes, we've got to have a President of the United States who is willing to meet, on an annual basis, with the [tribal] leadership and ensuring that there [are] relationships of dignity and respect. ... We have to make sure that there are adequate resources to deal with the extraordinary difficulties that exist among Native American peoples on every indicator: health care, life expectancy, substance abuse, you name it, Native Americans are at the bottom, and that's not just an embarrassment for the U.S. Government, that's an embarrassment for all of us.
"We should want all the people in the United States of America and all children to succeed and have basic health care and education and that's what I will be fighting for as President of the United States of America."
Obama also believes that the problems that plague us, like the lack of good health care and good education, substance abuse, infant mortality rates and unemployment need to be addressed once and for all in an Oval Office meeting among our elected tribal leaders. Not only would he hold our lord and master, the Secretary of the Interior, responsible for our general welfare, but he would meet with our leaders every year to address problems in Indian Country. He has made this pledge to treat us not just as infant children, as every successive president has done, to be patted upon the head, but to be respected as Domestic Dependent Nations that we are as defined by the Marshall Trilogy.
In this tone of cooperation, I challenge Obama-whether he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee-to visit both the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota, as his political forbearers, John and Robert Kennedy, did to assess and address the squalor and destitution that my cousins and countrymen bear every day of their lives and to join the Senate Indian Affairs committee to redress these grievances. After the incontrovertible evidence that our men suffer the worst life expectancy behind Haiti in the Western hemisphere, I expect no less than commitment from Obama. He's challenged us to believe in his presidency and we must challenge ourselves to work to solve our problems by voting and making the right choices.
You may vote for Sen. Clinton, if all you're worried about is a per cap check--based on her big gaming record--but in my experience in the Obama for America campaign here in Reno-Sparks, Obama not only has a bigger future in mind, but a bigger future that involves all our tribal leaders, on every reservation in these United States.
Barack Obama stands not just for change, but for progress in Indian Country, this is why I endorse him with my open heart.
SPARKS, Nev. - I have been a proud Native voter since the U.S. presidential elections of 2000.
If you recall, that race went on for weeks until the Supreme Court was called in to break the tie. At that point, when George W. Bush supported an anti-reservation figure--former Washington Sen. Slade Gordon--as Secretary of the Interior, I became disengaged from national politics.
That was, until Feb. 11, 2007, when I heard Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declare his candidacy for the 2008 presidency. When I heard the speech on National Public Radio, eloquently delivered by Obama, I was moved beyond all doses of cynicism I'd earned through my years as a disaffected Twentysomething Native voter. Immediately, I asked my mother, "This is the guy we need to support, huh?" She agreed and all was history since.
The object thereafter was to discover why I should support this junior senator from Illinois for president. The message was clear: dare to hope.
We Natives are born into this America to believe not just the worst in people, but to expect the bare minimum since our broken treaties with the federal government. We are bred to believe the worst in people: Black, white, Asian, Hispanic and even fellow Natives, we all are led to believe that we will betray each other in the end. Then I heard the call to believe in change from Obama and I dared to hope in a brighter future when we, as Native Peoples, can be counted and get legislation passed in Congress.
Long before Sen. Hillary Clinton supported gaming rights, which only support a small number of us, I heard Obama call to us in terms of how we could make our existence better while working to improve our present lives.
In recent town hall meetings in Elko, Nev., and in New Mexico, Obama echoed these sentiments:
"First of all, the first thing we have to acknowledge is the tragic history of a lot of the relationships between the United States of America and Tribal Nations," he said in Elko. "We [the U.S. government] have not always abided by treaties, we have not always been honest and truthful in our dealings and that's something ... we have to acknowledge."
This has been the loudest and clearest admission from a front-running presidential candidate recognizing our victimization and the rape of our homeland. Then Obama expounded on our shared belief in a better tomorrow:
"If we are going to be fair and honest about moving forward, the second thing we have to do is make sure that we are not just having a Bureau of Indian Affairs, but that our dealings with the various Native American tribes, we've got to have a President of the United States who is willing to meet, on an annual basis, with the [tribal] leadership and ensuring that there [are] relationships of dignity and respect. ... We have to make sure that there are adequate resources to deal with the extraordinary difficulties that exist among Native American peoples on every indicator: health care, life expectancy, substance abuse, you name it, Native Americans are at the bottom, and that's not just an embarrassment for the U.S. Government, that's an embarrassment for all of us.
"We should want all the people in the United States of America and all children to succeed and have basic health care and education and that's what I will be fighting for as President of the United States of America."
Obama also believes that the problems that plague us, like the lack of good health care and good education, substance abuse, infant mortality rates and unemployment need to be addressed once and for all in an Oval Office meeting among our elected tribal leaders. Not only would he hold our lord and master, the Secretary of the Interior, responsible for our general welfare, but he would meet with our leaders every year to address problems in Indian Country. He has made this pledge to treat us not just as infant children, as every successive president has done, to be patted upon the head, but to be respected as Domestic Dependent Nations that we are as defined by the Marshall Trilogy.
In this tone of cooperation, I challenge Obama-whether he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee-to visit both the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota, as his political forbearers, John and Robert Kennedy, did to assess and address the squalor and destitution that my cousins and countrymen bear every day of their lives and to join the Senate Indian Affairs committee to redress these grievances. After the incontrovertible evidence that our men suffer the worst life expectancy behind Haiti in the Western hemisphere, I expect no less than commitment from Obama. He's challenged us to believe in his presidency and we must challenge ourselves to work to solve our problems by voting and making the right choices.
You may vote for Sen. Clinton, if all you're worried about is a per cap check--based on her big gaming record--but in my experience in the Obama for America campaign here in Reno-Sparks, Obama not only has a bigger future in mind, but a bigger future that involves all our tribal leaders, on every reservation in these United States.
Barack Obama stands not just for change, but for progress in Indian Country, this is why I endorse him with my open heart.