Indian Country fails to show for big Obama-Clinton showdown in South Dakota

By Joe Kafka, The Associated Press | Monday, June 09, 2008

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Hillary Rodham Clinton paid special attention to South Dakota's American Indians before the state's primary election Tuesday, but the reservation vote was not a major factor in her race against Barack Obama.

Clinton, who won in South Dakota but has since conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Obama, got 4,017 votes in 11 counties that contain Indian reservations or tribal headquarters. Obama received 5,380 votes in those counties.

The total number of Democratic votes cast in the 11 counties comprised less than 11 percent of all votes received statewide by the two candidates.

Clinton still would have beaten Obama without getting a single vote in reservation-dominated counties and those where tribes have their headquarters. Her statewide victory margin was 10,452 votes over Obama. Without any reservation-area support, she would have defeated Obama by 6,435 votes.

Both Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made several appearances on South Dakota's Indian reservations during the campaign, including Pine Ridge. Obama met with several Indian leaders in Sioux Falls.

The Indian vote was not a major factor in the campaign because voter turnout was very low in most of those areas.

For instance, Democratic turnout in Shannon County — home to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation — was just 27 percent. Clinton got a mere 772 votes in Shannon County, while Obama got 835.

Democratic turnout in the other 10 counties: Buffalo, 35 percent; Charles Mix, 49 percent; Corson, 29 percent; Dewey, 36 percent; Jackson, 33 percent; Lyman, 40 percent; Moody, 56 percent; Roberts, 55 percent; Todd, 30 percent; Ziebach, 34 percent.

Statewide, voter turnout in the primary averaged 37 percent. For Democrats, the average was nearly 51 percent; for Republicans, it was 28 percent.

Minnehaha County, the most populated in the state, had nearly twice as many Democrats go to the polls and vote for the presidential candidates than the 11 reservation and Indian headquarters counties combined: 20,055 Democratic votes, or 50 percent voter turnout in that county.