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Convention Offers Chance to Recruit Native Leaders

By Kevin Abourezk

As police officers and young professionals walked past him toward downtown Denver Monday night, Henry Swimmer stood outside the Denver Convention Center selling $2 Barack Obama pins.

You might think his trade on this cool summer night might give some indication as to the Lakota man's politics.

"I'm just selling them for extra income," he said of the pins. "They're made by a friend so I'm just selling them for him."

Not that he doesn't like Obama. He likes the idea of a black man serving as president, any minority for that matter.

In the end, he's just not all that into politics. But he feels like change is in the air, and he thinks it's about time.

So do dozens of Native leaders gathered this week for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

They are state representatives, tribal council members, national Democratic Party activists and tribal advocates. They include more than 140 Native delegates from state party delegations and four Native Democratic National Committee members.

They are leaders like Scott Bighorse, an Osage and Cherokee, as well as an Oklahoma state representative.

Bighorse said he's excited to be part of the convention.

"This is the first time I've seen this kind of energy by every race, every walk of people that there are out there," he said. "This is the first time I've seen our Native people so engaged, so involved in white man's politics."

He said Native people have earned the right to take a more commanding role within the Democratic Party as their votes have been crucial in winning key political offices across America.

Bighorse works with the Indigenous Democratic Network, or INDN's List, a grassroots political organization devoted to recruiting and electing Natives to local, state and national office.

He said INDN's List has succeeded in getting many young Natives involved.

"That's the only way that we're going to move forward," he said of the effort.

Kalyn Free, president and founder of INDN's List, said this year's Native representation at the convention represents a 45 percent increase over past years, making it the largest gathering of Native Democrats and supporters in the party's history.

"This is clearly, clearly a historic convention, not just for America but a historic convention for Indian Country," she said. "The excitement at the Pepsi Center is palpable, but the excitement in Indian Country is even more so."

On Monday, more than 300 Native leaders and others gathered for a Native American Caucus meeting, which will be followed by a second caucus meeting Wednesday.

Free is hopeful the convention will lead to great things for Indian Country, which she said is looking for a leader with innovative ideas.

"America is looking for a leader that will unite this country, but Indian Country is looking for someone who will bring new and progressive ideas to solve the decades- and centuries-old problems that we've had," she said. "I believe that Barack Obama is that leader."

With 28 tribal members running for elected state and local offices across the country, Indian Country is on the move, but much work remains to truly give Indians a voice, Free said. For her, the convention is an opportunity to introduce potential Native leaders to politics.

Potential leaders like Peter Coser Jr., a half-Creek, half-Choctaw graduate student at the University of Oklahoma.

Free, he said, has tried to talk him into taking up public service. Has his experience at the convention convinced him?

"It's a possibility," he said. "We'll see. We'll see."

Kevin Abourezk's "Red Clout" columns are available for syndication. Please contact reznet to purchase republishing rights.

Kevin Abourezk, Rosebud Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. He writes reznet's "Red Clout" political blog and teaches reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. Abourezk was awarded a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in 2006.

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