S.D. county elects Native leaders

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2002

An unprecedented campaign among Native Americans in a South Dakota county has been successful.

Voters elected Gerald Bettelyoun as Bennett County commissioner and Charlie Cummings as sheriff. Both ran because Indian residents felt the old leadership, mostly run by whites, treated Native Americans heavy-handed.

The Indian population of the county is 52 percent.

Get the Story:
Frustrated Indian voters enter fray (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 11/8)

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Indians mobilize to defeat white leaders (10/31)