Indian Congress pushing unity (2004 candidates will appear)

[eileen_d]

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/11/14/build/nation/46-indiancongress.inc

Indian sovereignty. Trust reform. Political influence in the 2004 elections.

They are among the thorny issues to be tackled by 3,000 Indian leaders when they gather for the National Congress of American Indians' 60th annual convention. The weeklong convention begins Sunday.

<snip>

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark were expected to appear, while other candidates planned to address the group via satellite.

The organization started its vote and registration drive - Native Vote 2004 - earlier this year and made an early effort to contact the candidates.

There's some interesting stuff here about Indian voters and the 2002 elections, and the key issue of trust reform. For some background on that issue, see http://www.indiantrust.com

[eileen_d]

1. kick

:kick:

[gottaB]

2. thanks for the headsup

There's some good campaign info from from this ncai page.

The bios are softball, but if you have broadband (or can download overnight without getting disconnected) the National Women's Alliance election guide is rather fabulous.

There's also the ncai draft platform (a much smaller file), which talks about sovereignty and trust reform--duh.

Do you know, eileen, who has said they will participate by satellite? Also do you have any idea about who's generally doing well with American Indian voters? MB at Wampum supports Edwards, but you never know how representitive any blogger is. I'd imagine Kucinich and Braun would be of interest--once people got to know them. Actually I'd like to see them all debate trust reform--that has been such a rip off!

[eileen_d]

3. I looked at the agenda - thanks for the NCAI link

http://www.ncai.org/main/pages/national_calendar/NCAI/annual2003/draft_agenda.pdf

Here are the scheduled appearances:
Monday: Kucinich (who will actually be at the conference, so the article was wrong :( ) then Kerry, Edwards & Lieberman (all three taped/video)
Wednesday: Dean

Clark wasn't mentioned but it was a draft agenda; perhaps he and other candidates made arrangements after it was printed. All of the presidential candidates were invited to make presentations.

As for your more general question about American Indian voters, I don't know anything unfortunately. It might be interesting to watch the papers in Albuquerque for reactions to the live appearances.

Edit: Just went to Clark's site, and he will be addressing the conference on Monday.