"Everybody loves dead Indians -- especially liberals, who seem to want us to remain frozen in the past, stuck in stereotypes of how they believe we once lived. But we are not historical remnants of an imaginary native paradise. We are living communities, with as much reason to live and as much to give as anybody. This is why Indians are beginning to support the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party gives us money and programs that allow us to scrape by. But pennies and programs are no substitute for being self-sufficient, independent and in control of our own destiny.

As [President] Bush noted that day, "Native American cultures survive and flourish when tribes retain control over their own affairs and their own future." That is sovereignty. That is what Republicans offer, and that, for the sake of our future, is what we need."

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Rod Van Mechelem: Bush offers hope to American Indians (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/5)