Lena Andree, Todd Palin's 87-year-old Yup'ik grandmother, is happy to campaign for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).
Andree, a registered Republicans, urged other Yup'ik voters to back Palin during the 2006 election. "I said, 'You know Todd?' All the Natives know Todd. I said, 'His wife is running for Boss Alaska,'" Andree tells The Anchorage Daily News of her pitch.
Palin won the election but voters in rural villages didn't support her. According to the Daily News, she lost by wide margins in Dillingham, where Andree lives, and Manokotak, a village where Todd Palin's ancestors moved after a flu epidemic.
But Palin has continued to tout her husband's Native roots. She introduced Andree at the Alaska Federation of
Natives convention during the 2006 race.
'I look at Alaska as a family, and I want my own family to be used as an example of how it can work," Palin said, the Daily News reported.
Not everyone s happy with Palin's approach. "It's distasteful to say my husband is Native, my children are Native, so trust me. Just tell me what you believe," said former state Sen. Georgianna Lincoln, a Democrat who is Athabascan.
Get the Story:Yup'ik ties give Palins unique Alaska connection (The Anchorage Daily News 10/20)
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