Democratic ticket wins Navajo endorsement

Farmington Daily Times – Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/30/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
FARMINGTON — Democrats Barack Obama, Tom Udall and Ben Ray Lujan have won the endorsement of the Northern Navajo Agency Council. Councilors voted to support Obama for president, Lujan for U.S. House and Udall for U.S. Senate.
Councilors voted 54 to 0 on a resolution to endorse the Democratic candidates because the leaders support the Navajo Nation’s need for better health care, economic development, education and benefits for Navajo veterans, according to the resolution.
“These leaders are committed to address the needs of Navajo veterans and all Native Americans who served in the Armed Forces,” it stated.
–The Farmington N.M. Daily Times

Another Alaska Native Speaks Out About Palin

Story Published: Sep 26, 2008
Story Updated: Sep 25, 2008
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/letters/29766074.html
Unlike Mr. [Ben Nighthorse] Campbell, who remarks that he is Northern Cheyenne, a former senator, and a leader in the McCain campaign, I am an Athabascan Indian, I have lived in Alaska all my life, and I actually know firsthand what Gov. Sarah Palin has done.

Contrary to the former senator’s remarks, Alaska subsistence hunting and fishing issues are not complicated. As the former senator concedes, however, they are deeply “political.” My point exactly: consistently, Sarah Palin has politicized subsistence and sought to advantage urban hunters and fishers over the rural people who actually live a subsistence way of life. It is a stunning hostility, given that subsistence fishing, as one example, consumes a mere 2 percent of all consumptive uses of fish in our state.

Nor are Alaska Native people “divided” on this issue. To the contrary, in the late 1990s Alaska Natives held a special statewide convention in Alaska and overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for rural subsistence.

Palin cannot dodge her responsibility for continuing lawsuits that her predecessor began. She is against federal agency protection for subsistence. She is against subsistence fishing in many navigable waters that are critical to Native people. She is against subsistence hunting in many areas our Native people depend upon for their survival. She is against subsistence rights that prefer rural users as the federal law favored by Alaska Natives demands over urban users.

It is true that Alaska is disabled by its own constitution from extending rural subsistence rights to state lands and waters. But a governor committed to Alaska Native people would press the federal government to do everything in its power to protect those subsistence rights as broadly as possible on federal lands and waters. Instead, Palin has chosen to attack those rights with lawsuits – and “attack” is indeed the fair word here. How else to characterize Palin’s lawsuit brought to defeat subsistence? And how else to explain Alaska Natives’ overwhelming support for the Obama/Biden ticket?

Sarah Palin has built a solid record opposing subsistence and tribal sovereignty in Alaska. That truth may be inconvenient to the former senator, but that does not change it.

Native Americans Against Palin: Another Alaskan Native Speaks Out

More and more Native Alaskans are coming forward to tell about their direct experiences with Gov. Palin and her lack of regard for them.  Here is a letter I received today that speaks for itself…

An Alaska Native’s take on his Governor
By Matt Gilbert

Hello. My name is Matt Gilbert. I am originally from Arctic Village, Alaska. I am Alaska Native: Gwich’in Athabascan. I visited Sarah’s campaign office and spoke with her before she became Governor. We talked about the hunting & fishing rights of Alaska Natives. We didn’t get anywhere. She sided with sport & commercial interests, so I never spoke with her again. I knew we’d get no where. She didn’t want to listen. In general, I believe Sarah Palin is another version of Bush, just as inexperienced, but more impulsive. She is very dangerous and scary. People are continuing to support her because she’s beautiful, and this should be a Red Alert for the world. Her purposed policies is to include Georgia into NATO and that would mean all the European countries with all their armed forces will have to go to war with Russia. So she’s willing to ruffle the feathers of a country right next door to her home. Is this who you want as President? You know the scene in the movies when a car or stage coach is about to go over a cliff and you see yourself sliding over? Scary image isn’t it? That’s’ what I’m seeing if Palin gets elected Vice President. Wake up America! Send her back to Alaska. She has plenty of un-finished work here. She hasn’t even gotten funding to move the town of Shishmeraf. It’s falling into the ocean from an eroding coast due to Global Warming, which she wants to fuel more by encouraging more coal and oil development. She fuels the fire, and now they want her to do it on a national level.

Palin has done a lot of irrational things up here as Governor. In the summer of 07’, she Line Item Vetoed a lot of infrastructure projects in rural Alaska. The small town of Eagle spent years trying to get a community center built when they finally got funding, Palin shut it down by her Veto. Even Lawmakers are baffled by her Vetoes. They’ve had Bills well-debated on both sides of the aisle, yet she cuts, cuts, cuts. She supported $15 million to Anchorage’s University’s Sport Complex and cut $1.5 million to an expansion of the runaway teen center. How do you justify that? She supports drilling Off-Shore which would utterly destroy the livelihood of the Inupiaq people on the North Slope. They rely on Whale for subsistence and the development would detrimentally impact those whales. She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My people, the Gwich’in have kept this area closed from development for 30 years. No other American Indian tribe has ever accomplished such a feat. If she drills in the Arctic Refuge, it’ll be the end of my culture. We rely on the Porcupine Caribou Herd and if drilling takes place in the Arctic Refuge, our caribou goes and so does our culture. We Gwich’in Athabascans are the last American Indian Tribe in the US that hasn’t been majorly disturbed, heavily impacted, and assimilated. We are the last pure Native American tribe left. We are the last stand for Indian Country. We are the last chapter in American Indian/Anglo American relations. The prior chapters were bad, so make this last chapter a good one and vote for Obama.

Alaska Natives in general are the last group of Native Americans in the United States still depended on a hunting & fishing-based lifestyle where kids and grown-ups go out to fish and hunt to supplement their western diets. It’s crucial we have food off our land because the western foods, processed foods, give us diabetes if we eat them alone. The subsistence foods not only feed our bodies, but our culture, spirit, social lives, and minds. The Western World calls it Subsistence, but we call it our Way of Life. I’m using the word against my well. It gives our lives meaning and keeps us busy. With God’s help, hopefully everyone can understand. Our way of life off the land is everything to us. If we don’t have that we’re nobody, just another group living off the grid, consuming McDonalds, and buying Brand-Named items. We add diversity and richness to the world. Sarah Palin doesn’t care about this. She wouldn’t care if our culture eroded before her eyes. She’s like Nero, sitting in Juneau putting on lip-gloss as Alaskan villages suffer. We’re suffering from fuel costs. We’re suffering from strangulating Fish & wildlife regulations that keep us from surviving off the already scarce wildlife. She has done some things, but not enough. She can ease the Fish & wildlife regulations in order to improve food security in the villages. She can subsidize the villages with the rising fuel costs. The US Government has a Trust Responsibility with its First Americans, the TR requires the Federal/State Governments to ensure we, Alaska Natives, have everything we need to survive. Mrs. Palin has failed miserably at this task. She has a lot more work to do back home.

Her hometown Wasillia has been a hot-bed for racist and Anti-Native attitudes. Anchorage is bad too. Alaska Natives fight discrimination on a daily basis there. Palin isn’t there for them. I read in the Anchorage papers once that a homeless native man froze to death in downtown and some man called it in sounding all casual about it. It’s like the South before the 60s up here. It’s bad. This is the Alaska Sarah Palin maintains and waters for growth. She’s never bothered to change anything because she thinks nothing is broken. As Mayor, she didn’t think anything was wrong with an atmosphere where a native woman had beer bottles thrown at her as she walked down Wasillia. So you have to ask yourself, if she’s willing to ignore the plights and issues of an ethnic group within her town and state, than how much more horrible do you think it’s going to be when she ignores the issues of that same ethnic group or another on a national level?

I believe her popularity comes from her beauty. This society has got to shift itself away from a National Inquirer-based lifestyle to an NPR or New York Times-based lifestyle. Our very world may depend on it. Our hurricanes and disasters are getting worse due to Global Warming, our Stock Market is dangerously shaky, our healthcare is getting so bad it may cause a revolution soon, and the War in Iraq is draining our resources and working families to depression-levels. We need a Change! We need Barack Obama. Not somebody whose reputation is based mainly on image and charm. As an Alaska Native, I see that she doesn’t support our way of life, as a Gwich’in I see that she is willing to end my culture and people for only six more months of oil, and as a Global citizen I see that she is impulsive and inexperienced. Do you want someone like that in charge of a nuclear arsenal? It’s probably already going to take our lifetimes to recover from Bush, if you elect Palin, the consequence are too scary for me to even think about. Please vote for change. Vote for Obama. Vote for Obama.

McCain-Palin? No, thank you!

FIRST AMERICANS TAKE A PASS ON THE MCCAIN- PALIN TICKET; TRIBAL LEADERS RESPOND TO ABRAMOFF CRONY FUNDRAISING FOR MCCAIN
Reed Fundraiser Today Follows Pattern of McCain Putting the Special Interests Ahead of the Native American Community
Chicago, IL– Today, leaders in tribal communities responded to Senator John McCain’s decision to accept fundraising help from Jack Abramoff crony Ralph Reed.  Later today, Ralph Reed, who has close ties to corrupt Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is scheduled to host a fundraiser for Senator John McCain in Atlanta, GA.  Reed, on behalf of a firm, received more than $5 million from Abramoff, now serving a six-year prison term for his corrupt activities defrauding Indian tribes and others.  
“John McCain’s decision to cozy up to one of the central figures in the Republican culture of corruption shows how far he is willing to go to win,” said Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. “Despite all of his rhetoric about reform, McCain’s willingness to accept money raised by tainted Abramoff cronies like Ralph Reed shows that McCain simply cannot be trusted to bring change to Washington politics.”
Many in the Native American community expressed dismay at McCain’s decision to work closely with Reed as well.  “I’m not sure how he justifies this in his own mind.  After all, McCain more than most understands that Reed profited and supported Abramoff’s defrauding activities which devastated numerous tribes – devastation that they are still reeling from. I think for a lot of Native people, this will send a loud and clear message that Senator McCain is not on our side,” said Suzan Harjo, President of the Morning Star Institute and former Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. 
Jonathan Windy Boy of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana said, “I think a lot of people in Indian Country, with increased frequency over the last couple of years have asked ‘who is this John McCain?’  It’s not the same guy we thought we knew.  Abramoff hurt all of Indian Country and because of the scandal, we were often locked out of the political process since. It doesn’t make sense to me that you can claim to be for tribes and associate yourself with those who defrauded us.”  
“It is profoundly disturbing and it adds insult to injury that McCain has refused to accept tribal contributions but has actively sought out contributions from those who lobby on behalf of tribes,” added Wizi Garriott, Obama campaign First Americans Director.  “Senator McCain has it 100% backwards.  The Abramoff scandal happened with the willing participation of men like Ralph Reed, and tribes were the victims.  Yet he locks out tribes from supporting him and at the same time actively seeks the support of Washington lobbyist and men like Reed.  Senator Obama doesn’t take a dime from Washington lobbyists.  This just further shows that the Obama campaign is about people at the grassroots – not the special interests.”
Garriott added:  “Senator Obama has a comprehensive plan to strengthen our tribal communities and make this campaign about bringing all people into the process.  Senator Obama understands that when we reject the old politics of lobbyist money and special interests running the show, we can bring positive change and break the cycle of partisan ideology.  American Indians are painfully aware of the need for change. Tribes have experienced firsthand the lack of progress under prior administrations, but together we can bring the kind of change we need in our tribal communities and across the country.”
See more about Obama’s Tribal Communities plan here: http://tribes.barackobama.com/page/content/firstamshome

The candidate I support is:
 
–The candidate who has been endorsed by both Principal Chief Chad Smith and Former Chief Wilma Mankiller.

–The only candidate whose campaign includes Native American advisers; specifically a Native American Outreach Coordinator and a 30-member Tribal Steering Committee comprised of tribal leaders from across the nation.
–The only candidate who has plans to include a Native American as part of the Presidential cabinet.
–The only candidate whose website has direct and obvious links to information and specific plans for the Native American community.
–The only candidate who consistently makes reference to and speaks directly to Native Americans during campaign speeches.
–The only candidate whose campaign with literature specifically for the Native American community.
–The only candidate whose autobiography expresses concern for the Native American community and tribal sovereignty.
–The candidate who met with leaders of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation in the infancy of his campaign, to listen to their concerns and discuss improvements to the community going forward.
–The candidate who is an original co-sponsor of specific amendments to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and who called for passage of the act that has been stalled in congress for 14-years.

I support Barack Obama.