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Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters on his visit Monday to the Crow Reservation.Reznet Photo by April Gregory

Crows Thrilled to Be Obama's 'Brothers and Sisters'

By Mary Hudetz

CROW AGENCY, Mont.—Some Crow tribal members waited in line more than six hours to ensure they would have a good view when the first presidential candidate to visit their reservation stepped to the stage to speak.

Others spent those hours braiding their hair and fastening the ties of their traditional outfits so they would look their best when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama took the microphone and explained his stance on issues that affect hundreds of Native American tribes throughout the country but often go unmentioned by candidates running for national office.

"Somebody finally recognized us enough to come an extra few hours," said Beverly Big Man, a Crow Agency Elementary School teacher. "We're always the forgotten ones."

Big Man, 73, was among the first dozen people to arrive and stake out a place in line around 8 a.m. for the 2:45 p.m. event. Once a Hillary Clinton supporter, Big Man said she decided to vote for Obama after hearing him mention Native Americans on television. She called Obama's visit to the reservation "a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Obama, the front-runner in a race with Sen. Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, became the first presidential candidate to visit the Crow Reservation Monday. He spoke to a crowd of several thousand people gathered at the Apsaalooke Nation Veterans Park on Monday.

To welcome Obama, Crows showered his family with gifts that included a beaded medallion for him to give to his wife, Michelle, and beaded, doll-sized cradleboards for his two daughters, Sasha and Malia. Sen. Obama was adopted into the tribe's Whistling Water clan and given a Crow name, "One who helps people throughout the land."

Joe Medicine Crow, who at 94 is one of the tribe's eldest members and a tribal historian, wore a beaded buckskin vest and pair of pants, and commented on the historic day.

"This man is the first presidential candidate who has made a stop here with the Crow people," he said. "I consider that an honor not only for Crow Indians but for Indian Country."

As the crowd waited for Obama to arrive from Billings, where he held a morning town hall-style meeting, the Black Whistle Singers sang powwow songs and a score of tribal members wearing traditional clothing danced on the lawn of the park that lies just to the south of the Little Bighorn River, which winds through town.

Medicine Crow stood watching, bouncing his knees to the music's beat and smiling.

"It is my prayer that he will go all the way," he said of the candidate who often evokes the word "hope" on the campaign trail. "His door will be open to Indian people. He's going to change things around."

During an 11-minute speech here, Obama vowed to bring change to Indian Country if elected president. While the speech was shorter than the 40- to 50-minute talks the Illinois senator often gives during rallies held in larger venues, he said the Crow Agency stop marked one of the campaign's most important events.

He promised to improve the Indian health care system and noted that he co-sponsored the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a bill approved by the Senate last February. Clinton and John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, co-sponsored the bill, too.

Obama also said he would make sure children on the nation's Indian reservations received a "world-class education" and he would end "nearly a century of mismanagement of Indian trust."

"Too often Washington has paid lip service to working with tribes, while making a one-size-fits-all approach with tribal communities across the nation," he said. "That will change under my administration."

The pledge drew cheers from the mostly Native crowd as eagle-feathered fans and the Obama campaign's blue "Change We Can Believe In" signs waved in the air.

Susan Quilt, a 36-year-old Lodge Grass resident who came for the event, said she hoped that if Obama wins his party's nomination and beats McCain in November, he would keep the promises he made as a candidate.

"Hopefully some of the tribes' needs will be fulfilled," she said. "Past elected officials and past presidents haven't done anything about that."

Before he stepped down from the stage to shake hands with supporters, the Illinois senator pledged that an Obama administration would deliver on the promises he made to Native Americans.

"I will never forget you," he said. "Since now I'm a member of the family, you know that I won't break my commitment to my own brothers and my own sisters."

A group of teenagers chanted "Obama" as the senator made his way toward his bus, shaking hands and embracing supporters before moving on to his next stop in Bozeman.

When he reached for the last hand and waved goodbye, Darrin Old Coyote, the tribe's vice secretary, called out to Obama to tell him Crows say "Shinuk," a Crow expression for "I'll see you later." For the Crows, there is no word that translates to goodbye.

"Shinuk," Obama answered before turning away and climbing aboard his bus.

Mary Hudetz, Crow, is finishing her master's degree in journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula. A graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2006 American Indian Journalism Institute and a Chips Quinn Scholar, Hudetz interned as a reporter at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis last summer. This summer she'll intern as a reporter at the Denver bureau of The Associated Press.