{"id":2338,"date":"2004-08-16T09:30:57","date_gmt":"2004-08-16T14:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2338.html"},"modified":"2004-08-16T09:30:57","modified_gmt":"2004-08-16T14:30:57","slug":"sovereignty-bushism-flap-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/sovereignty-bushism-flap-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sovereignty’ Bushism flap continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all had some fun last week laughing at Bush’s inability to answer a question about what he believes tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century. The president looked<\/a> (and sounded<\/a>) pretty foolish when he said, “Tribal sovereignty means just that; it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity.”<\/p>\n

Most of us chuckled because it was another example of Bush clearly not knowing what he’s talking about. But for American Indians, the gaffe had far more meaning<\/a>. One word from Bush’s comment struck a particularly troubling chord: “given<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

As the continent’s first societies, American Indian tribes hold their status as sovereign nations with an almost sacred reverence; an inherent standing as self-governing, independent bodies dating back millennia, something that’s always existed.<\/p>\n

Sovereignty is “the nearest and dearest, No. 1 issue in Indian Country,” said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Congress of American Indians. “It’s not something that was given to us. As tribes, we see sovereignty as something we’ve always had.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s possible this is one answer in which Bush’s poor choice of words may change some votes in the fall.
\n
\nThough not as well-known as “soccer moms” and “office-park dads,” the American Indian vote often has an impact on statewide races.<\/p>\n

In Washington’s U.S. Senate race in 2000, Slade Gorton arguably lost his re-election bid due to Indian voters and those sympathetic to issues affecting them — thanks in large part to a negative ad campaign against Gorton run by the First American Education Project, an Olympia-based political advocacy group founded by several prominent tribal leaders.<\/p>\n

And in South Dakota in 2002, Tim Johnson squeaked out a 524-vote victory for a U.S. Senate seat — a win he has since credited to the strong voter turnout among that state’s prominent Indian population.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush and Kerry are no doubt aware of this and are working aggressively to rally support within the community. The “given” response has not only been a setback for Bush, it’s given Kerry another area of effective criticism.<\/p>\n

Alyssa Burhans, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon and the Native Americans organizing director for National Voice, a non-partisan get-out-the-vote project, and Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Congress of American Indians both agreed that Bush’s answer to the question on sovereignty has created a “buzz” within the American-Indian community.<\/p>\n

The president’s words likely will strengthen individual Indian voters’ support of the candidate they already support, said Ron Allen, longtime chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, and a Republican who opposes the president.<\/p>\n

“It was disappointing to hear his statements,” said Allen, who also serves as NCAI’s treasurer. “It was clear to us that he didn’t know what he was talking about.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all had some fun last week laughing at Bush’s inability to answer a question about what he believes tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century. The president looked (and sounded) pretty foolish when he said, “Tribal sovereignty means just that; it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}