Posted on 03/26/2004 6:47:17 AM PST by ConservativeMajority
(Talon News) -- The toughest campaign of Sen. Tom Daschle's (D-SD) 25-year career keeps getting tougher. The Senate Minority Leader is not only running neck and neck with former Republican Congressman John Thune, Daschle is facing a primary challenge.
Tim Giago, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe will compete for the Democratic nomination for Senate in South Dakota's June 1 primary.
Giago, the editor/publisher of the "Lakota Journal" said, "The people of the Indian reservations of South Dakota are not ... the top priority of either Daschle or Johnson."
He pointed out, "The unemployment rate on the larger reservations ... is much, much higher than the national average.
"On the Pine Ridge Reservation alone, the place of my birth, unemployment runs as high as 60 percent," Giago noted. "This is unconscionable."
He added, "Pine Ridge, Shannon County, was proclaimed in 1980 and 1990 by the U.S. Census Bureau, as the single poorest county in the United States of America."
"Our two state senators, Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, have done little or nothing to bring economic development or jobs to these very depressed areas," he stated.
Giago continued, "One has to wonder why this is so when we supposedly have two senators working so hard to improve our lives."
Giago dismissed the legendary "Daschle clout" when he said, "Although there are many homeless people on Pine Ridge [and the other reservations] neither Daschle or Johnson have had the influence to bring badly needed housing to this severely depressed region."
His candidacy brings attention to a subject rarely at issue in a statewide contest. Giago said South Dakota has a much-deserved reputation as a state that has a "racist policy against the indigenous people residing here."
He added, "Under the auspices of these two senators the racial problems that exist between Indians and whites has not diminished. Not once have I ever heard either senator talk about the racism in this state."
Giago observed, "The Indian vote put Senator Tim Johnson into office in the last election. He won the state by a mere 524 votes and those votes came from the last precinct counted, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation."
He said, "It pointed out to me that the Indian vote has been taken for granted for far too long. I believe that if the Indians of South Dakota line up behind an Indian candidate and can show the power of their vote, it will wake up politicians across Indian country that the Indian vote is not to be taken for granted ever again."
Republicans have been making gains in the voting block that overwhelmingly supports Democrats. Recently, Thune received the endorsement of Indian activist Russell Means. He is stumping for the GOP candidate and extolling the virtues of becoming truly sovereign and free from government rule.
An Associated Press article quoted Means as saying, "The Democratic Party helped establish a system that makes Indians beholden to the federal government, and Daschle helped create such an environment."
He continued, "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."
Thune is making an effort to court the constituency that provided his 2002 opponent the margin of victory.
He told the Associated Press, "The argument I make to them is, you've had 26 years of Tom Daschle and what has improved? Are your lives really any better? You still have high unemployment, high poverty, addiction and mortality rates that exceed national levels."
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

Her Royal Highness:"Time to contol the Native Americans.
Fetch me our stolen FBI files, I mean our stolen FBI 'badges of honor' on the Lakota""
At least some Americans have caught on to the Democrats....

Evil Times Two
I wish more minority groups would come to this realization.
Anyone who has never visited or driven through a reservation, really should take the time to do so. You may notice new cars in fields with one door wedged open, and the seats sitting in the field next to the car. One would wonder why someone would do that to a new car. The reason is simple. Reservations are a sovereign country, thus the Indians either steal or 'test drive' a new car. This car is taken on to reservation land, and used for a pig shelter.
Take the time to notice the schools, Mission SD had a new school with a full sized indoor/outdoor pool; to provide 'equal education privileges' to the 65 (at that time) American Indian students. The pool became a school dumping ground, as there just aren't too many swim meets in sunny South Dakota.
Sometimes, you reap what you sow. The reservations are govt subsidized ghettos with alcoholism rates far above the national average. Single mothers are the norm, and crime doesn't count when your relative sits on the Tribal Counsel.
As for outside businesses moving near a reservation, that has it's risks as well. For any Indian that decides to rob, or vandalize the store has only to cross the reservation boundaries, and the sheriff may not apprehend the criminal.
Furthermore, with a monthly governmental subsidy (food and money) given to each and every Indian and free housing, free education; there is little need to actually earn a living. You don't see too many American Indian entrepreneurs.
Russell Means has had a very interesting political journey. He filed to run as a Libertarian for Governor of New Mexico in 02, but was barred due to a felony conviction from AIM days. Too bad, as he would have made that race really interesting, and given Richardson a real intellectual tussle. That conviction has now either been pardoned or set aside, so he is free to become involved again. He's a loose cannon, but for the time being he's firing in the right direction. One thing for sure, he will add interest!
Therein lies the problem. I was a summer intern once with the Dept. of the Interior, and my boss told me horror stories from his days working with BIA in Oklahoma. One thing I remember him saying was how every last one of them had a brand-new, full-sized, fully-loaded pickup truck, even though none of them worked. This guy was not conservative in the least - he was just describing what he saw.
Daschle is deeply saddened!
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