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<?/smaller><?/fontfamily><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>Boston, Massachusetts - As Native delegates prepare for high visibility at the upcoming Democratic National Convention here, the Platform Committee is hearing a call to highlight tribal sovereignty in a document that party activists say is already rich in references to Native issues.

Members of the Platform Committee, including two Native delegates, are meeting in Miami July 9 and 10 to brush up a draft version of the document, the basic statement of party principles. Although the draft included specific mentions of Native needs in many of its domestic planks, it needed a more prominent affirmation of tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship between tribes and the United States, said Gwen Carr, a long-time party activist and member of the committee.

"I would very much like to see that," she said. "It is one of the things that will be done."

An endorsement of tribal governments as the legal equals of states is not expected to be a problem for the prospective Democratic ticket.  

 

<?/color>Both Senators John Kerry from Massachusetts and John Edwards from North Carolina included strong sovereignty language in their campaign position papers and have had excellent relations with tribes in their states.

Kerry’s selection of Edwards as his prospective running mate on July 6 drew an enthusiastic response from leaders of the Lumbee Nation in Robeson County, North Carolina. Lumbee Vice Chairperson Pearlean Revels said, "I was rather awed when I got the news about Senator Edwards because of the close ties we have with him here in Robeson County."

Tribal Administrator Leon Jacobs said Edwards "would be a strong voice for all American Indians, not only for the Lumbee but for Indians nationwide."

The Kerry-Edwards campaign is expected to have a strong impact on the final version of the platform, as press reports say it did on the draft.

 

The chairman of the drafting committee, however, is U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro of Connecticut, who has joined with other members of her state’s delegation in sponsoring measures that many Native leaders in the region believe have fostered an anti-Indian atmosphere. According to a Kerry campaign aide, sovereignty language has been drafted for the platform.

 

As of now, she said, it appears on page 34 of the draft under the heading "Strong American Community."

The Platform Committee also includes two strong Indian voices, Carr herself and Governor Stuwart Paisano of the Sandia Pueblo of New Mexico.

 

Carr, a Cayuga from New York state, is head of the American Indian Caucus of the Wisconsin Democratic Party and a veteran of Democratic Party efforts to reach Native voters.

 

She praised the platform for including Native concerns in its main domestic planks, such as housing, jobs, health care and the environment.

 

She also praised the Democratic Party for involving Indians in every phase of drafting policy, not just adding them as an afterthought.

"I don't believe the Republicans do that," she said.

Both Carr and Kerry campaign workers say that Indians will be strongly represented at the Boston Convention.

 

At least 87 delegates -- and possibly more than 100 -- will be Native, including well-known tribal leaders like A. Brian Wallace, chairman of the Washoe Tribe and Frank DeMars, vice chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party and member of the Democratic National Committee.

An American Indian caucus will hold two meetings during the Convention on the mornings of July 26 and 28.

 

On July 27, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall will host an evening "Tribute to our Native American Communities."

 

The Boston urban Indian community and the federally recognized Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe will also sponsor events.

Carr singled out the involvement of the Boston Indian community center. "That’s a wonderful thing that started in Chicago in 1996," she said, referring to that year’s Democratic Convention. "It involves the off-reservation, urban Indians. Most Indian people live off-reservation."

One issue looming behind the platform, however, is the federal recognition process.

 

Much of the mainstream press and some hostile politicians of both parties have characterized it as a front for establishing casinos.

 

But leaders of petitioning tribes reject the charge as a smear and a denial of their historic existence.

 

The Lumbee, for instance, have sought federal recognition under several names for more than a century.

 

They are now pinning their hopes on a Congressional bill initiated by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and endorsed by Senator Edwards.

"If Edwards is elected vice-president," said Jacobs, "we will have a strong voice in getting federal recognition, if we don't have it before then."

The Nipmuc Nation, based in Sutton, Massachusetts, now hopes that a Kerry presidency would reverse the recent denial of its recognition petition by Principal Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary -- Indian Affairs Aurene Martin.

 

The Nipmucs briefly won a positive finding from acting BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs] head Michael Anderson in the last days of the Clinton Administration, but the decision was frozen and later reversed by the Bush administration.

 

As Senator, Kerry along with the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation, supported the Nipmuc petition.<?/smaller><?/fontfamily>