Daschle Gains Support of Rival: Indian Activist Drops Senate Bid

[Freddie Stubbs]

By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2004; Page A06


RAPID CITY, S.D., April 19 -- When Tim Giago, a native of the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, decided to run for the Senate as an independent, he did more than shake up the state's tight, closely watched race between Senate Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle and John Thune, a former Republican representative.

He made South Dakota's Indian Country the focal point of the campaign.

Daschle, who had the most to lose from Giago's run, now has the most to gain. After a meeting with Daschle on Saturday, Giago, a nationally syndicated columnist and advocate for Indian causes, said he is withdrawing and throwing his weight behind the Democrat.

Giago, founder of the Lakota Journal and Pueblo Journal, said in an interview Monday: "I laid out what is considered most important to the tribes of South Dakota. I went there as a sounding bell for them. And Tom listened."

MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25541-2004Apr19.html

[swag]

1. Thank goodness. We definitely need

Dem majorities back in both the Senate and the House.

[liberalhistorian]

2. Giago is a good man and

a wonderful advocate for his people. Every summer while vacationing in the Black Hills (I live in Ohio, but spent five years of my childhood in Aberdeen, S.D.) I pick up his paper and my own local paper runs his op-ed pieces once in awhile.

He is fair-minded, and a strong advocate for the Lakota without being a we're-always-right-and-you're-always-wrong militant.

[munchie]

3. What?!

What do YOU know about the Lakota in SD?

[liberalhistorian]

4. A lot more than most of my fellow white Americans.

Most of them couldn't even tell you who the Lakota are. Let alone the fact that they've pretty much heen completely ignored by the government and the BIA, that the unemployment, alcoholism, and suicide rates on their reservations are through the roof, that too many of them are living in Third World conditions right in their own country and nobody gives a damn, certainly not any elected officials in South Dakota or even most South Dakotans.

Look at the popularity of Janklow, when that arrogant, bigoted, hateful piece of shit SOB did everything he could to screw the Lakota hard, to grind them into the dust, to dehumanize and belittle and ridicule them, to destroy their culture, to keep Leonard Peltier in prison for something he didn't do, to keep them down and totally out. Look at how he actually laughed about the Lakota being deliberately screwed out of their own land, the Black Hills, and how too many whites seemed to think that was just hilarious.

I also lived in SD as a child and still vacation there and have friends there, and I well remember what the Lakota went through and what they're still dealing with. My parents had many Lakota as students (my stepdad taught at a college, my mom a high school) and I remember how badly they were treated by everyone else (read white).

[Tamiati]

6. Encouragement

I agree with you. I am white I live within 50 miles of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation....attitudes change slowly here....but I feel that there is change in the air....

Many white people need to be taught how not to discriminate against any people let alone the indians.....Many of the residents have never left SD, and so have not been exposed to any other way of thinking.

The "Janklow" effect you speak of runs deep here in this state. It will be a hard change for many to accept, some will never change. Many whites who try to overcome these obstacles are met with distrust, fear & loathing....can't say as I blame any for that genre of thinking when they have been kicked around (literally), ostracized, ridiculed for their cultural heritage and so much more. I grew up in this area, left for many years & have returned. Much has changed, but certainly more needs to be done.

Not all white people are of the same thinking. Many, are for all people regardless of color, we encourage any persons who are being oppressed.

Please read my poem that I recently wrote...you can find it posted elsewhere in this site.....pass it on if you like....

[liberalhistorian]

7. I will certainly try to find your poem.

I do understand how hard it is for many people to change the way they've thought for a lifetime, especially in areas like SD. It's encouraging to hear that it is, indeed, changing, even if it's a slow change.

[RapidCreek]

5. Wow that was a brilliant post.

RC