John McCain and Native American Indians

John McCain and Native American Indians

As Senator of Arizona, many of John McCain’s constituents are Native American Indians. As such, he has been involved with the different tribes in and around Arizona. For the most part, he has been an advocate for the Native American people. For the most part ….

John McCain’s POLICY toward Native American Indians.

- Principle sponsor of the Tribal Indians Self Governing Act (Title II P.L. 103-413)
- Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Protection Act (Title IV P.L. 101-630)
- Reauthorized the Indian Health Care Improvement Act read here
- Helped enact the American Indian Trust Management and Reform Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-412)
- Sponsored legislation to protect natural and cultural tribal resources.
- Sponsored Reservation Employment Tax Credit
- Sponsored Accelerated Depreciation Allowance for reservation business.
- He believes in Tribal Self-Determination and Self Governance.
- He supported Indian housing assistance programs under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act.
- Supports the BIA schools construction initiative which has provided $1 Billion for construction of new schools and refurbishments on reservations.
- Has led Congressional efforts to build a Native American Veterans Memorial.

John McCain says that, when elected president, he will closely consult with tribes when things arise that concern them. He acknowledges America has a long history of misuse and abuse of Indians and their assets.

John McCain is the Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and is working to help resolve Cobell v. Norton.

John McCain supported Hopi attorney Diane Humetewa for US Attorney for the district of Arizona. She was confirmed .

John McCain is helping to save Native American Indian Languages . He has called what is happening to the Native American Indian language – language genocide.

Jon McCain – aware of the Native American Indian struggle – blurbed wilkinson’s book – Blood Struggle . A book that, instead of tired stereotypes, sets the record straight.

The Violence Against Women Act – which had particular importance to the Native American Indian population which suffers an exceptionally high amount of violence against women.

More Information can be found here as to some of the programs that John McCain (and others) have been working with in order to help Native American Indians help themselves.

The California Chronicle discusses how Native American Indian Veterans support John McCain for president even when most of them do not support the Republican party.

BUT .. there is that ‘little business’ that required some Navajos and Hopis to have to relocate. This was in regards to Public Law 93-531 (HR 953 is being discussed to freeze P.L. 93-531). They were relocated and Peabody Coal Company, a McCain contributor in the 1990’s, was able to come in and strip mine Black Mesa. (small contributor – $3,000 in 1996) Information on the coal and water supplies in the area, from the viewpoint of the Native American Indians, can be read about here . The tribes recognized the potential for the coal being mined. At one point they were not against mining. The Hopi Tribal Council approved of the mining. So did the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Also – it looks like the land is being leased by Peabody Coal Company. I couldn’t find where they actually bought it or were ‘given’ it. If they are leasing it – that means they are paying rent. Who gets the money?

John McCain was one of the founders (not the right word - but you get the idea) in regards to Indian Gaming He was right that gaming would be a fantastic income for Native American Indians and would go a long way toward self determination. Jobs, income, and educational funding for Native Americans are just some of the benefits from Indian Gaming. He co-wrote the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 and tried in recent years to amend it to impose more limits on tribes. Some Native Americans aren’t happy about it. Others are. It was written to help stop these kind of illegal scandals from happening. The fact is … where there is big money … criminals will come in to try to take over – mafia style. His Regulatory Act is an effort to help Native Americans keep their income safe from criminal enterprises, although some Native Americans don’t see it that way. As Senator, John McCain has a duty to protect the people of Arizona. All people. He helped Native Americans get gaming off and running, but he has to protect all the citizens of Arizona from criminal activities that smell the gaming money.

There was something about John McCain and the protection of Native American graveyards … but I couldn’t find anything on it either way. I know it’s out there .. just can’t seem to find it at this point.

So .. is John McCain an advocate for the Native American Indians living in Arizona? The answer is … mostly. The Peabody Coal Company and the relocation of some Native Americans is a sticky situation. But it isn’t as anti-Native-American as the Native Americans say. It also isn’t as hunky-dory as McCain says. It’s probably 65/35 against the Native American Indians – IMHO.

All in all, John McCains record in regards to helping the Native American Indians is pretty good. He manages, for the most part, to help the Native American Indians in Arizona without subjecting the non-Indian population of Arizona to undue hardships or financial burdens. It's a delicate balance. The business with Peabody Coal and Black Mesa is the only real potential sticking point. Neither McCain, nor the Indian Council, are 100% right on this. All things considered, I give John McCain a grade of B+.



[edit on 4/7/2008 by FlyersFan]

I deleted my original post, it was useless.

Wanted to say:

I'm glad McCain is working towards helping Native Americans. I currently live near a reservation and it's a bad state of affairs on it.

We owe it to Native Americans to help them out of the hole we dug them.

[edit on 8-4-2008 by Sublime620]

There are a number of things I like about McCain, although I'm voting Democratic. You've done a lot of research on his support for many Native American interests, and overall his record looks very good. I wonder how other tribes view him. The Republicans could do a lot worse than McCain.

Originally posted by Sublime620
I'm glad McCain is working towards helping Native Americans.

Me too. It looks like he has a pretty good record on this.

The one fly in the soup could be Peabody Coal ... but that isn't clear enough to be able to make a determination. If the land was so 'holy', then why did the tribe want to mine it to begin with and why did they agree to it? It seems that it suddenly became a whole lot 'holier' when things weren't going their way. I could be wrong .. but that's what it looks like to me at this point.

From what I have found so far, John McCain gets the grade of B+ on this matter. At least from me.

It all seems to look good on paper, but after spending so much time at this site, I would have to question the underlying motives. Frankly, I've never held much trust in this guy. The only thing that would make it ok for him to be Pres. is that we'd get to see his hot wife a whole lot more

Originally posted by RabbitChaser
I would have to question the underlying motives.

He either

A - wants to help people
or
B - wants to help them to further his own career somehow.

Most politicians seem to just want to further their own career.
Either way - I still give him a B or a B+ on this issue.

I have to say, this is a deeply moving policy for John McCain. Yet again, FlyersFan makes another amazing political thread

For far to long, the Native Americans have been ignored by the mainstream political class in America. It is great news for a President candidate to speak out and stand up for them.

reply to post by FlyersFan


hey I wrote an incredibly long piece here about how important this is and asked you to go to NATV with this stuff.

www.natv.org...

Every vote counts--blog about this so people can be informed. yeah this is much shorter because after three times the "captcha" doesn't seem to get that I am a "breathing person." Please take the info on McCain public!

reply to post by FlyersFan


You Have to remember the tribe did not speak ,understand, read, or write english. Just something to think about.

reply to post by FlyersFan


i guess he's ok, i mean he could have been evil and helped to take away our treaty rights and sponsored a bill to open up federal trust native lands to anyone.
but that doesn't mean he's all peaches and cream, just because you are not one-hundred percent bad doesn't mean you're all great.
because of his public laws regarding the bennet freeze lands of the navajo's and hopi's in regards to the peabody mess, there are people, mainly elderly that live in conditions of not even in a third world. because of his public laws i have to build an outhouse for my gma, work double to pay for needed 'upgrades' before the coming winter, etc. they can not upgrade their houses to continue living there. how can any one receiving a six-hundred dollar a month pay check, herding sheep, living without electricity, and running water live? imagine your house falling apart, you have no where to go and don't wish to because it's 'your home' where you have memories and where you wish to grow old and live, is all falling apart with no outlet.
well that's just a glimpse. also, if you want further understanding, don't just read about natives, or the conditions or rely on the media (the little amount of light they shed on us), actually stop and stay at least two weeks with us. live with us, no electricity nor running water, so be sensible in what you pack.
also, the hopi governing body were led by a man who 'represented' them in the peabody debacle. he persuaded them in to approving the peabody mining, but after getting it approved and before the fallout really showed he quit his role and became a chief person in the peabody company and was paid rather nicely. later, the hopi people's natural springs because toxic, as well as their land, several animals died the next day from drinking at the springs, etc.
next.. with the navajo people, the bia governing board have always been corrupt, from the first day it was created all the way to the 'leader's of the navajo people. the 'leaders' were picked by the companies that wanted 'rent' if now ownership of the rich natural resourced land. hand-picked and paid generously. which of course only led to positive outcomes for the companies and more-than-generous deals in favor of the companies. yes, the peabody company is rented the land from the navajo tribe, but if there ever was a short end of the stick in history, let it be that of company deals with the 'little people' being that the slice of pie was a crumb for the entire tribe of people to share.
therefore, in exchange for land that is sacred to both tribes, navajo's and hopi's, we have contaminated natural springs, strip mining, tearing nava-hopi families apart because of the land disputes, and people living in extremely poor housing conditions with memories of their dead sheep who drank from springs just the morning before.

i just dream of fairness and equality, and people to lead us that do right by the people no matter what they look like and how much potential lucrative income is under the surface of their reservation.