CQ: Franken win ushers in a new political era for American Indians

By Chris Steller
Wednesday, December 02, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Photo: Chris Steller, MnIndy

“This has probably been the best year for Native Americans” says Tom Cole, the only person now both elected as a member of Congress and enrolled as a member of an American Indian tribe. The latest sign of success, says CQ Politics: American Indian voters helped elect Minnesota’s Al Franken.

Increased voter registration and turnout among tribal members helped push Franken to his 312-vote victory, writes CQ Politics-Roll Call reporter Kerry Young.

Indeed, Franken took 95 percent of the votes on the Red Lake Indian Reservation last year.

Native Americans in Minnesota were celebrating Franken’s win at a pow wow days ahead of rival Norm Coleman’s concession last summer.

Franken also won a seat on the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

A greater role in government under the Obama Administration means a new chance for Native American communities to tackle persistent problems like poverty, unemployment and crime. But the nation’s hard times may hamper those efforts, Young writes:

While American Indian advocates say they are pleased with such changes in tribal fortunes, some with long experience worry that the attention may be fleeting, especially during hard fiscal times.

“Native Americans have the ability for the first time to sit at the table with competing interest groups,” said Diane Humetewa of Arizona, the first American Indian woman to serve as a U.S. attorney and who is now a principal with the Squire, Sanders & Dempsey law firm in Washington. But she said maintaining that momentum “is going to be the challenge, because of the fiscal situation that the nation is in at the moment.”

Comments

10 Comments

Mill
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 4:46 pm

Unfortunately, it will take much more than one senator of good will to improve on the relations of the varied tribes with the US government

Fortunately, Senator Franken is a rare, thoughtful, pol who’s star will continue to rise as his public service career unfolds.

We’ll ALL be better off as a result – the “Original Settlers”, and the rest of us more recent arrivals in the US part of the new world

Anon Y Mouse
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

Those poor American Indians, they were already brutally killing each other and we came along and happen to promote a system of laws that now protect them from these brutal acts of violence.

Native American’s gain enormous revenues from casinos, thanks to us pathetic anglo-saxon idiots here in MN who believe that it is our God given right to; squander wealth, murder babies, mock God, advance the causes of our enemies in America, and apologize for our Divine blessings. What a tragic end that awaits us white people in America for rejecting righteous authority that God had put in place for our protection.

So much for assimilation into a society that was based on the principle that all men are created equal.

Here cometh judgment. Get ready and get right with God because antichrist Obama will lead the charge to an American holocaust.

Lazercat
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 8:26 pm

Native Americans are not allowed to govern their own lands. We need to grant the Native Americans their own Sovereignty.

Lazercat
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 8:29 pm

American Indian tribal powers originate with the hisotry of tribes managing their own affairs. Case law has established that tribes reserve the rights they had never given away.1

http://www.airpi.org/pubs/indinsov.html

Progressively Queer
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 10:23 pm

Dear Anonymous,

You’re the antithesis to a Christian, and a prat to top it all off.

Kthxbye,
-PQ

Dave
Comment posted December 2, 2009 @ 10:29 pm

“Get ready and get right with God because antichrist Obama will lead the charge to an American holocaust.”

Seriously?

John Steiner
Comment posted December 3, 2009 @ 12:14 am

@ Anon Y Mouse

Ah, hey apeman. Your god isn’t from Europe nor america. He’s from the middle east. And on that note the bible says nothing about abortion. What the old testament says about causing a miscarrage is that the offender is responsible for property damages equal to one goat of good quality. That’s it. Jesus himself actually advocated a separation between religion and government by saying, “render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar.” He also says you should offer up your wealth to the poor [as does the U.S. Constitution; Article I, Section VIII... even using the word "welfare"]. And from what I gather Jesus insisted your god’s blessing applied to all people everywhere on the Earth.

Then again I guess you KKK head hunters in your bed sheets and dunce caps aren’t literate enough to read that for yourselves.

You likewise missed the fact that the United States of America is FIRST and FOREMOST a secular nation. The freedom of religion cannot exist in a country governed by theocratic mandate. If you want god in government move your anti-American attitude to Iran where it belongs.

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