Montana Senate candidate sparks outrage with references to Crow Indians, alcohol

U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy’s repeated references to Crow Indians and alcohol have sparked outrage and demands for apology from Indigenous community leaders in Montana.

Both the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council and the Montana American Indian Caucus described the candidate’s repeated retelling of a tale in which Crow tribal members, allegedly intoxicated at 8 a.m., threw cans of beer at Sheehy’s head while he worked on a reservation ranch.

Audio recordings of four instances in which Sheehy shared the remarks at campaign events were first published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation, on Aug. 29.

Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Montana Free Press.

“Your words perpetuate the damaging and racist stereotype of ‘the drunken Indian.’ This stereotype, and others like it, hurts our young people and contributes to limitations on their opportunity to succeed. It also highlights how important it is that we continue to provide Indian Education for All to help end these kinds of anti-Indian prejudices in Montana,” members of the caucus wrote in a letter to Sheehy.

The letter is signed by state Sens. Susan Webber of Browning, Mike Fox of Hays, and Shane Morigeau of Missoula and state Reps. Tyson Running Wolf of Browning, Sharon Stewart-Peregoy of Crow Agency, Donavon Hawk of Butte, Jonathan Windy Boy of Fort Belknap, and Frank Smith of Wolf Point, all of whom are Democratic members of the state Legislature’s American Indian Caucus.

At issue is an anecdote repeatedly told by Sheehy, the Republican candidate in a Montana race that could determine which political party has majority control of the U.S. Senate. In the anecdote, which drew laughs from Sheehy’s audiences, he describes being heckled by drunken Crow tribal members while on horseback roping calves.

In one clip, Sheehy describes roping calves on the Crow Reservation as “a great way to bond with Indians while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.”

“I’ll tell you, if you don’t make that double heel shot on the Rez, the Coors Light cans fly at the side of your head. They let you know right away,” Sheehy said at campaign events in Superior, Hamilton, Helena, and Shelby. At one stop, the candidate does an impersonation of one of the alleged hecklers.

Alcohol is banned on Crow Reservation. Sheehy told his audience that he has a Crow business partner, Turk Stovall, and runs cattle on tribal land. Stovall appears in TV commercials endorsing Sheehy and has participated in events produced by Americans for Prosperity that blame Sheehy’s opponent, incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, for inflation.

The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, which speaks for leaders of every Montana and Wyoming tribe, demanded that Sheehy apologize publicly.

“He can’t understand the road we have walked,” said Thomas Rodgers, a spokesperson for the council and enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe.

“He cannot understand. You have to live it daily. You have to experience it. In order to do that, then you have to have empathy, and then you have to have compassion, and then you have to have action. And what it is truly about is restorative justice. I truly believe this about him. When somebody shows us who they are, we’ll believe them. He showed us his face. He has one face for public statements, and he has one face for his private world and his private friends.”

Rodgers, whose tribal name is One Who Rides His Horse East, said Blackfeet tribal members recognize that Sheehy’s telling of the anecdote in Shelby occurred just a few miles from the site of the Marias Massacre, where 200 Blackfeet women and children were killed by the U.S. Army in 1870.

Susan Webber, a state legislator and Blackfeet member from Browning, said word of Sheehy’s remarks has been circulating through the Native American community for some time. The anecdote had been delivered as early as last November.

“Tim Sheehy is not unique in any way,” Webber said. “All these people buy into these stereotypes about the drunk Indian that have been around for a long time. Or they say we ‘get a boat-load of money from the federal government.’ That’s laughable. If that’s the case, why are we a third-world community living in the richest nation in the world?”

There aren’t many governmental relationships that matter more to Native Americans than tribal relations with the federal government, which are established by treaties, now more than a century old, that tribes are frequently compelled to defend in court.

“Even our children know more about the federal government than our state colleagues in the Legislature,” Webber said. “Our children know all about our treaties.”

Crow tribal member and former state legislator Rae Peppers said rumors have been swirling about Sheehy donating money to Crow Fair, the tribe’s multiday end-of-summer festival, frequently visited by white politicians. TV ads featuring Stovall discussing his partnership with Sheehy had raised concerns about the candidate running cattle on tribal land without the awareness of tribal leaders.

When the Char-Koosta News article began circulating, people were already upset, Peppers said. Tribal members understand that the Indigenous vote helps determine statewide elections in Montana.

Crow Tribal leaders over the past decade have endorsed Republican candidates, one of the few tribal leadership groups in the state to do so. Crow leaders have yet to endorse Sheehy, and with Crow tribal government elections in October, they might not, Peppers said. But Montana’s candidates for federal office are still asking for the endorsement.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, now in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is focused on getting Sheehy elected and controlling the Senate, is the first Republican who sought the Crow vote, Peppers said.

“Daines was the one who first came in. He actually thought, ‘OK the Native vote really counts.’ And he grabbed onto that fact. Our vote is the one that turns Montana politics,” Peppers said.

Daines, a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, responded to Sheehy’s remarks Wednesday afternoon, saying in a text to MTFP: “Tim Sheehy will be the next Senator from Montana and will do a great job for Indian Country.”

This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Montana tribal leaders criticize U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy