"One of my students told me the other day that the presidential race makes her feel like she’s living in a B movie, and Samuel L. Jackson is about to step out and deliver his famous and profane line about the snakes on the plane. Indeed.

We are in a war longer than World War II with no end in sight and an economic downturn directly caused by federal policies, and we are supposed to care whether one candidate did or did not call another candidate a pig? Those are just the mainstream issues; the tribal issues are as urgent. Thinking of tribal issues, my best guess for the last time Indian policy moved a presidential election would be William Henry Harrison, who ran as the killer of Tecumseh.

I was discussing the idiot level of the campaign ads with my 80-year-old mother and I remarked, “If the American people are fooled by this nonsense, they will get the government they deserve.”

“Maybe so,” she said, “but we will also get the government they deserve!”

Right. So maybe when mainsteam Americans feel this way in this election they will understand how Indians feel in every election."

Get the Story:
Steve Russell: Presidential snakes on the Indian plane (Indian Country Today 9/18)

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