Presidential hopefuls hot on the trail of Native American vote

AMERICA:AT THE very end of the presidential nominating race when both parties have usually decided on their standard-bearer, South Dakota's primary seldom matters and candidates often ignore it, writes Denis Staunton.

This year's Democratic race is so close, however, that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have spent much of the past two weeks in the state, lavishing special attention on the Native Americans who make up almost 9 per cent of South Dakotans.

American Indians, as most Native Americans call themselves, account for less than 2 per cent of the US population and they have never before been a significant factor in a presidential election, partly because they vote overwhelmingly and predictably Democratic.

This year could be different because for the first time, a number of states with big Indian populations will be battleground states that could be decided by a few thousand votes. And in John McCain, the Republicans have a nominee with a long history of engagement with Indian affairs who is popular and well known among Native Americans.

Indians form 10 per cent of the population of New Mexico, a key swing state in November and they could make a difference to tight races in Colorado and Nevada - and even in California, where 700,000 Native Americans live.

Clinton had a head start among Democrats in Indian Country, drawing on affection for her husband, the first president since Franklin D Roosevelt to visit a reservation and on her own relationship with tribes as New York senator. Obama has worked hard to catch up, however, using former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle as an ambassador to Native Americans.

Obama has hosted a conference call with more than 100 tribal leaders, met privately with tribes more than a dozen times and sought to persuade Indians that his own racial background helps him to understand their challenges.

"I know what it is like to struggle, and that's how I think many of you understand what's happened here on the reservation, that a lot of times you have been forgotten just like African-Americans have been forgotten or other groups in this country have been forgotten," he said at the Crow reservation in Montana last week.

"Because I have that experience, I want you to know that I will never forget you." Both Clinton and Obama have promised to increase funding for Indian healthcare and education and Obama says he will appoint an American Indian policy adviser to his senior White House staff.

The American Indian median income is two-thirds of the national average; one in three Indians has no health insurance; almost a third of Indians drop out of high school and only 12 per cent have college degrees.

Reservations are plagued by unemployment and alcohol abuse and American Indian men in South Dakota have a life expectancy of just 55 - more than 20 years below the national average.

A large-scale focus group study by Public Agenda last December found that although most non-Indians acknowledge the injustice done to Native Americans, few know anything about Indian history after the end of the 19th century.

"Many non-Indians we spoke to, particularly those living far from concentrated Indian populations, had a vague, simplified knowledge of Indian history, almost as if their thinking ended with the battle of Little Big Horn," the report noted.

"To most non-Indians we interviewed, American Indian history has decisively ended, much as the Roman Empire ended."

Tribes have become more assertive in recent years about enforcing the hundreds of treaties agreed with the US over everything from land and fishing rights to exemption from taxation. The supreme court has ruled that the treaties, most of which date from the 18th and 19th centuries, should be interpreted as the Indians would have understood them when they were signed.

American Indian votes have been decisive in a number of congressional elections in recent years and they were an important factor in Montana's 2006 Senate race when Democrat Jon Tester defeated Republican incumbent Conrad Burns.

This year's presidential contest could offer American Indians their most valuable political platform yet, however, highlighting the issues that affect their communities and perhaps expanding the general US public's knowledge of Indians beyond Pocahontas and Crazy Horse.