Lawmakers hope to form coalition

By Judy Gibbs Robinson

Published: March 13, 2005

A bronze Indian warrior graces the top of Oklahoma's state Capitol. Another guards a staircase on the second floor. A bronze Indian woman greets visitors arriving at the building's south entrance.

Finding flesh-and-blood Indians in the Oklahoma Legislature is a little harder, two freshmen representatives are learning.

"I just go around asking people, 'Are you Indian?' They probably think I'm crazy," said Rep. Lisa Johnson-Billy, R-Purcell, a former legislator for the Chickasaw Nation now serving her first term in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

She and Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Moore, have taken it upon themselves to identify all the card-carrying Indians in the Legislature. Their plan is to form a loose coalition of Indian lawmakers who can serve as a bridge between the Legislature and tribal communities.

"We want them to know that we are here and that we identify and take pride in our tribes. And we want to build a bridge to their communities," said Wesselhoft, a member of the Citizen Potawatomie Nation.

Nationally, Indians appear to be one of the most underrepresented minority groups in state Legislatures, holding one-half of 1 percent of all seats, according to an informal count this year by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Blacks held just more than 8 percent and Hispanics just shy of 3 percent, the conference reported in 2003, the most recent count available.

The conference count includes only two Oklahoma Indian legislators. Wesselhoft and Johnson-Billy say they have identified seven more, including themselves. That does not surprise Sia Davis, keeper of the conference list.

"Our information comes either from them or from newspaper reports. There could be hundreds more for all we know," Davis said.

Six percent
If Oklahoma's Indian lawmaker count stops with the nine identified by the House Republicans and the national conference, it would mean about 6 percent of Oklahoma's 149 legislative seats are held by tribal members.

"That's outstanding," said Jason McCarty, communications director for the National Congress of American Indians. "I would say that's higher than any other state. There are eight in Montana," he said.

Rep. Ray McCarter, D-Marlow, thinks there are more than the nine identified so far, although he does not know who they are.

"I think there are more Democrats that are probably card-carriers," said McCarter, a Chickasaw and the only Democrat on either list.

The Democratic Party gives Indian voters credit for a number of important election victories, including that of Gov. Brad Henry, who is Cherokee. In the 2004 presidential election both parties courted the native vote, and both had sizeable native delegations at their national conventions, McCarty said.

Party affiliation is less important than getting Indians active in politics and elected to office, McCarty said.

"I think Native Americans being involved, regardless of the party, helps native people across the board," he said.

In Oklahoma, it should come as no surprise that Indian votes are going to Republicans, said former Sen. Kelly Haney, a Democrat who believes he is the only full-blood Indian to ever serve in the Legislature.

"Native American people are much like the general population. There was a time, you remember, when most Oklahomans were Democrats. So you shouldn't expect anything different from native people in the same society, active in the same work force, going to the same schools," said Haney, a member of the Seminole Nation who served in the House from 1980-1986 and in the Senate from 1986-2002.

Take Johnson-Billy, for example. She was a Democrat until five or six years ago when she suddenly realized the Republican Party came closer to representing her pro-family views.

The epiphany came while she was power-walking with fellow Chickasaw Neal McCaleb, a Republican who served as Oklahoma transportation secretary and later as assistant interior secretary, heading the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"I realized my views more fit what I guess you'd call a compassionate Republican or a compassionate conservative," said Johnson-Billy, who also includes former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts, who is black, and the late state Sen. Helen Cole, who was Indian, among her political mentors.

"My mentors were all minorities. Those were all people of color," she said.

It does not bother her, Johnson-Billy said, that the Republican Party is also home to those who oppose Indian sovereignty and who advocate so-called "English Only" laws that might catch native languages in their sweep -- measures she opposes.

"I just say, 'I respectfully disagree. You go on and promote what you believe and I'll go on and promote what I believe,'" Johnson-Billy said.

McCarter, the only Democrat among the identified Indian legislators, said if it comes to forming an Indian caucus, bipartisanship will be important. He believes it can be done, pointing to the successes of a bipartisan caucus of rural lawmakers .

"I don't think it's insurmountable," McCarter said of the party divide among Indian lawmakers.

Black lawmakers have had a caucus for at least 20 years. Women organized one last spring, but Indian legislators have never organized. Haney could not say why.

"I don't have any answer to that. It wasn't discussed," Haney said.