"American Indians — I’m just gonna run wild here and use all kinds of names for the giant crowd of tribes, more than 500, who inhabit the United States — are not a monolithic group. Over 60 percent of us live in cities. Our life experiences and politics vary widely.

This latter fact was brought home to me vividly when I was recently jerked up for assuming there are no Republican Indians. (See my story in the Yonder here.) Not only are there Republican Native Americans, there is an American Indians for McCain Coalition. Furthermore, a home girl, Aurene Martin, Bad River Ojibwe, Menominee and Oneida tribes from Wisconsin, is a member.

Aurene is no ordinary home girl. She’s past Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and currently works as a high powered lobbyist and attorney in Washington, D.C. Raised on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin where the word “keen” has unfortunate overtones, she now sashays with authority and ease among the politically powerful. A long-time Republican, she points to McCain’s track record in protecting Native rights and his support of tribal self-determination. She brushes aside perceptions that his party has not exactly been pro-Indian.

Despite our political differences, it pleases me to imagine this cosmopolitan Indian, with her undergraduate degree in Italian, deftly navigating the Washington scene."

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Mary Annette Pember: Republiskins (The Daily Yonder 10/2)