MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press writer | Posted: Saturday, May 24, 2008 12:00 am
BILLINGS, Mont. - Criticizing the Bush administration for ignoring the needs of American Indians, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that she would seek more money for health care and housing on reservations if elected president.
The New York senator outlined her agenda for Indian country in a conference call with reporters four days after her rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, visited the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana.
A political analyst said the maneuvering for Indian support revealed the candidates' eagerness to capture a voting block that consistently votes Democratic.
The party's final primaries are set for June 3 in Montana and South Dakota - both of which have large Native American populations. With neither candidate now holding enough delegates for the nomination, both are eying the contests as a way to gain momentum heading into the summer Democratic convention.
Clinton said Friday the country had been "on the right track" with American Indians in the 1990s, when her husband was in the White House.
But she said President Bush has since neglected Indian country. That allowed high rates of poverty and disease, particularly diabetes, to grow worse, she said.
"We have such a history of broken promises and failed policies that we've never adequately provided the assistance Indian tribes deserve to have," Clinton said. "I will pledge my cooperation and support for Indian country."
In addition to more money for health care and expanding housing programs, Clinton said the government should play a greater role in economic development on reservations - "from casino gambling to energy production."
Only with increased federal assistance, she added, can tribes in Montana and elsewhere move down the path toward self-sufficiency.
Indian voters were considered a key factor in the 2006 U.S. Senate race, when Democrat Jon Tester narrowly defeated Republican incumbent Conrad Burns.
More than 60,000 people belong to Montana's seven federally recognized Indian nations. An eighth, the Little Shell Chippewa, is recognized only by the state.
"Here you have a block of voters that could turn out in decent numbers and almost certainly will vote overwhelmingly Democrat," said James Lopach, chairman of the political science department at the University of Montana.
He said that in the last days leading up the primary, the candidates "are going to spend their time in places with a fairly good chance of payoff."
"For both of them, Indian reservations have that promise," he said.