Five people told Michelle Hoffman during her unsuccessful campaign for superintendent of public instruction against Jim McBride in 2006 that she had three strikes against her: She was a Democrat, a woman, and lived on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

But Hoffman has heard and seen far worse discrimination against American Indians as superintendent of the Wyoming Indian School District in Ethete and as a Fremont County resident, she testified on Monday during the bench trial in which five reservation residents are suing the county for violations of the Voting Rights Act.

Some of the worst incidents, she said, have occurred during sporting events in Fremont County and elsewhere when students and adults from competing schools yelled comments such as "go back to the reservation," "white chocolate" in reference to students who are half Indian and half-white, "black Indian boy," and "prairie n -- r."

Students have reported seeing floats in parades bearing phrases such as "teepee burners" and "sack the Indians," Hoffman said during questioning from Laughlin McDonald, who is lead attorney for the Indians and from the Atlanta office of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

In other actions, Hoffman said store clerks have offered to assist her even though Indians have stood in line before her.

Students have reported walking into stores and being followed like they were about to shoplift items, she said.

In restrooms, she has seen people who will not use a stall if an Indian is seen coming out of it, Hoffman said.

She has heard educators for 20 years try to counsel students that such words and actions should make them stronger, and they should act more mature than adults who utter such comments, she said.

But Hoffman admits that begs a question, she said: "Should any other children have to put up with that?"

Besides this blatant social racial discrimination, she as an educator deals with institutional racism, she said.

Of six approved textbooks about American government, history and other social studies subjects, Hoffman said she counted a total of 20 pages devoted to American Indians, with a half page devoted to Sacagawea, a page or two on casinos, and discussions about how disadvantaged they are and live in squalor.

A year ago, Hoffman told a group of state lawmakers, "I'm embarrassed for my state," because of what she has encountered, she said during her testimony Monday.

Better education may discourage the discrimination, she said. "Ignorance is born of fear, fear of the unknown."

During cross-examination of Hoffman by Richard Rideout, an attorney for the county, he recounted testimony earlier Monday from Lucille McAdams.

McAdams told Rideout she hasn't encountered any major racial discrimination for about 20 years, and the Indians who are mostly Democrats have a political disadvantage in a county dominated by Republicans.

However, Hoffman said she hasn't seen much improvement in race relations in the past 20 years.

She agreed with Rideout that Fremont County does not have a hand in selecting textbooks.

Hoffman also admitted Indian participation in politics increased substantially last year.

Rideout explored whether the derogatory comments heard at sporting events may be described better as "trash talk" by fans of one team trying to throw players from other teams off their game rather than overt racist comments.

But under further questioning from McDonald, Hoffman said she doubted fans from two predominantly white schools would be using racial slurs in their "trash talk."

The five plaintiffs - members of either the Eastern Shoshone or Northern Arapaho tribes - are Patricia Bergie, Pete Calhoun, Gary Collins, James E. Large and McAdams.

They claim the at-large, or countywide, method of electing commissioners dilutes Indians' voting strength in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th amendments.

They want an election for a redistricting plan for single-member districts, because the size and population of the reservation is such that it would constitute a single-member district, according to their federal court complaint filed in October 2005.

If that doesn't work, they want the court to implement a redistricting plan, according to the complaint.

The tribal members only have to prove the at-large system dilutes their political power according to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and not whether it was caused by racism, McDonald said.

But attorneys for the county have responded that the dispute centers not on race as required by the Voting Rights Act, but on myriad issues related to the history of American Indians, especially where two separate sovereign tribes occupy one reservation.

Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.