Former president campaigns on Pine Ridge Reservation

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By The Associated Press

PINE RIDGE, S.D. — Former President Bill Clinton told about 800 people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Wednesday that his wife will fight for the “overlooked” and “mistreated” if she is elected president.

In a 25-minute speech, he also said Hillary Rodham Clinton will wage a war on diabetes among American Indian youth.

Clinton said his wife knows more about Indian Country than any other candidate.

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Former President Bill Clinton speaks to Native Americans at Pine Ridge High School on Tuesday in Pine Ridge, S.D., as campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. (AP)

Former President Bill Clinton speaks to Native Americans at Pine Ridge High School on Tuesday in Pine Ridge, S.D., as campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. (AP)

“It’s easier to make a promise than it is to make progress,” Clinton said. “You have lived with that for decades.”

On his way to the reservation, the former president swept through Chadron, Neb.

Crowds lined some streets about 2 p.m. as the motorcade passed through the Panhandle town.

On Wednesday evening, the motorcade came back through to the Chadron airport so the former president could fly to his next campaign stop.

Bill Clinton paused briefly at the airport to chat with some well-wishers.

Hillary Clinton is the first candidate to present an agenda for American Indians, the former president said in his speech at the reservation. The agenda will restore respect for tribal sovereignty, end the No Child Left Behind law and improve Indian Health Service funding and services, Clinton said.

The Indian Health Service initiative would include a campaign to reverse increasing diabetes among Indians nationwide, he said.

“It is disgraceful that there is no serious effort to reverse the explosive growth of diabetes among Native American people when they are young,” Clinton said.

He said gains in aid to Indians during his administration have faltered under George W. Bush and that his wife would reverse the trend.

He urged the crowd to believe his wife can win the Democratic nomination and the general election. “Don’t tell me she cannot win this election,” Clinton said.

Clinton also had visited Pine Ridge on July 7, 1999.

“It was a historic moment,” Leatrice “Chick” Big Crow said of that visit. “It was also hot. I remember sitting in the sun, getting burned. The people I know remember his visit. They remember that he took time to come to Pine Ridge.”

Big Crow is director of a boys and girls club dedicated to the memory of her daughter, SuAnne, a star athlete and honor student who died in an automobile accident in 1992.

The new SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club at Pine Ridge was built because of Clinton’s 1999 visit and the subsequent federal grants that he directed to the project. The center opened in June 2001.

“It’s because of him. It was a presidential initiative,” Big Crow said Wednesday morning. “The club is doing really great things for the kids. A lot of times something gets built for the kids and it turns into an adult place. But we’ve made sure that doesn’t happen.”

“It’s good to see him again,” Nick Piper, a 17-year-old Pine Ridge High School senior, said. “Last time, there were lots of metal detectors, snipers on the roof, lots of security guards and everything. But I shook his hand and my mom got his autograph.”

Sadie Janis, 97, a granddaughter of Chief Red Cloud, shook the former president’s hand Wednesday. She also shook his hand on Saturday, when Clinton campaigned in Rapid City.

“She still hasn’t washed that hand,” said Tom Shortbull, Janis’s son-in-law.