At primaries' end, American Indians in rare focus

LAME DEER, Montana (Reuters) - Often paid scant attention in U.S. presidential elections, Native Americans are taking an unusually high profile in the final stretch of the Democratic primary campaign.

Both Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and front-runner Barack Obama recently have visited remote Indian reservations in the rugged Western states of Montana and South Dakota, which hold the final contests in the drawn-out state-by-state battle on Tuesday.

One Montana tribe, the Crow Nation, has ceremoniously adopted Obama, giving him a name which means "one who helps people throughout this land."

"Never before have we had such hope for a candidate, except maybe a Kennedy," said Crow Chairman Carl Venne, who said Obama was the first U.S. presidential candidate ever to visit his tribe in southeastern Montana.

In previous elections, the party's candidate has been decided long before primary voting in Montana and South Dakota. Obama is looking to wrap up the nomination in these two final contests June 3.

Just above 1 percent of the U.S. population is Native American, but the numbers rise to more than 6 percent in Montana on the Canadian border. Depending on turnout, they could represent as many as 15 percent of Montana's Democratic voters, numbers that could tip the state's outcome although Obama appears poised overall to win the national contest.

Poverty is widespread among many tribes -- especially in remote areas of the Western states -- and many Native Americans see Democrats as more sympathetic to issues important on the reservations including more jobs and better health care and education.

But should the Democrat lose in the November general election, some say Republican Sen. John McCain represents a better-than-usual second choice for Indians.

"Hillary and Obama are getting up to speed on Indian affairs, while McCain in Arizona already represents the largest Native American community in the country, the Navajos," said Clara Caufield, an assistant to the Northern Cheyenne president in Lame Deer, Montana.

McCain has twice served as the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and is knowledgable about the complex issues facing Native Americans. Many also respect his past military service.

As for the adoption of Obama by the Crow tribe next door, Caufield scoffed: "We take our traditions more seriously than that. The Crow adopt people at the drop of the hat."

As among all voters, Indians are divided. Within her own office, Caufield's boss, Northern Cheyenne president Geri Small, has endorsed Clinton, a New York senator.

INDIAN LEADER CRITICIZES MCCAIN

One prominent Native American who has worked with McCain is Elouise Cobell, a Montana member of the Blackfeet Tribe. She is leading a multibillion-dollar lawsuit again the U.S. government, charging that tribes were cheated for more than a century out of payments made for the rights to mine, farm and graze on their land.

"He's sympathetic, but that's the problem we have here with Indian issues," Cobell said about McCain. "We really get a lot of promises, especially around election time: oh gosh, they have been treated so horrible. But then nobody does anything about it, so what good are all these words and promises?"

For Charlie Vaughan, chairman of the Hualapai nation in the wilderness flanking a 100-mile (160-km) stretch of the Grand Canyon's southern rim in Arizona, the big issue for members is the high price of gas.

"Given the remoteness of a lot of reservation lands and the tribes that live on them, and how they are impacted by rising fuel costs ... we think that a McCain presidency would be more harmful," Vaughn said. "He favors continuing the war and that's going to tend to drive up fuel prices, and it will hurt us."

Tribal members in these parched lands have a 50-mile (80-km) drive to the nearest town to buy groceries, fuel and clothes, distances not uncommon for remote reservations.

Many Native Americans, who have long suffered discrimination, also say that either Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, or Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, would better understand their plight.

"We have had the same mind-set for 500 years, with white men running the country," said Ofelia Rivas, a tribal elder of the Tohnono O'odham Nation on the Arizona-Mexico border. "I prefer the idea of either a woman or a so-called minority person in the White House, so that we will have a different perspective."

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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