Some Native-Americans - including high-profile figure Russell Means - are dissing the Democratic Party, in South Dakota. With Republican John Thune challenging incumbent Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in November, core values are Topic One.

Bruce Whalen is a college student who speaks his beliefs with conviction, but his message aims to turn the political status quo on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on its head. The Pine Ridge man's mission is to persuade people to do something they don't do here: Vote Republican.

...Whalen, 41, grew up in Pine Ridge, moved to Utah as a teen, and returned to South Dakota to raise his family and try to build a career. He is one semester away from a business degree. In Utah, Whalen said he realized the Republican Party more closely mirrored his traditional Lakota values than the Democratic Party: respect for life, limited government, sovereignty and local control.

Whalen believes government-funded programs and tribal politics that dole out the money are the root of the reservation's poverty, alcoholism, abuse and other problems. 'I see how the social programs are devastating the people around here,' he said during a recent break from classes at Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota College. 'The Democrats are hurting us.'

...Though Indians in South Dakota traditionally vote Democratic, Thune's campaign has picked up some well-known support.

Indian activist-turned-politician Russell Means is campaigning for Thune and telling Indians the virtues of becoming truly sovereign and free from government rule. The Democratic Party helped establish a system that makes Indians beholden to the federal government, and Daschle helped create such an environment, Means said.

'I mean, it's pure communism, and it's an abject failure - just like it was in the Soviet Union. It's failure. You've created a dictatorship by the Bureau of Indian Affairs,' he said.

Another early warning here. More often, African-Americans, Latinos, and now perhaps Native-Americans, are beginning to question the Big Government approach to every social ill. Many African, Asian and Caribbean immigrants to the U.S. share similar values. Before long, the Mule's national constituency may shrink to Labor, Hollywood elites and the Hate-Bush Left.

Article via Rapid City Journal (free registration required).

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 5, 2004 09:24 AM

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