I learned a couple of interesting things from a
recent Mother Jones article. One is about why Native Americans don't have much use for former Republican Senator Larry Pressler, currently running as an independent for the open South Dakota senate seat.
The reason Pressler is a former Senator, in a mostly Republican state, is because Tim Johnson, the retiring Democrat, beat him by a mere 524 votes in 1996. Pressler was instrumental in pushing through legislation that limited tribes' abilities to acquire land. Not only did it block the transfer of public lands back to tribes, it also required property taxes for any lands tribes acquired by other means.
This didn't sit well with tribes, with several tribal leaders publicly denouncing Pressler and urging votes for Johnson.
The last county in the state to report its votes was Shannon County, which is mostly comprised of most of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It wasn't until 5am the morning after election day, with the votes from Shannon County in, that Tim Johnson emerged the winner.
Shannon County is poised to play a role again in this year's senate race in South Dakota. And not just because of Pressler's anti-Indian legislative history. (More beyond the squiggle.)
As kos himself says: Now's about as good a time as any. It's either that, or you cede the floor to the NRA.
Thing is, there's an initiative on the ballot to change the name of Shannon County to Oglala Lakota County. It requires 2/3 of the votes to pass. More than 90% of the population of Shannon County is Indian, and this initiative is a motivation for them to turn out and vote, as sure as initiatives to hike the minimum wage draw Democratic-leaning voters to the polls elsewhere.
The county, which includes much of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, is named for former Dakota Territory Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Shannon, who was instrumental in the passage of the Dawes Act, which separated American Indians from their land. The proposed new name: Oglala Lakota County, after the tribe that calls Pine Ridge home.
In the
half-century the Dawes Act was in effect (1887-1934), about 2/3 of all Indian lands passed to non-Indian ownership.
It is certainly not guaranteed that Democrat Rick Weiland will win the three-way race to replace Tim Johnson. But it's also true that the GOTV efforts on the South Dakota reservations will get more voters to the polls.
It's a good effort to support.