20 years before I was a McCain convention delegate to the 2008 GOP National Convention in Minneapolis, I remember that US Senator John McCain was the featured speaker at the 1988 Republican State Convention held in Watertown that year, my first of being involved in politics.
And the hot topic of the year for South Dakotans was the Bradley bill, a measure from Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey to give the Black Hills to the Sioux. Nevermind the people who were actually living in the hills, who weren’t consulted.
The newspaper article (June 25, 1988) covered his political message, as he was mentioned as a possible VP for George Bush at the time. But it was his compelling tale of being a prisoner of war in Vietnam that touched and stood out to many of the delegates in attendance.
And your point is? Bill Clinton in February of 1992 did the same, during a Democratic Presidential debate at the Sioux Falls Ramkota, after claiming he had spoke to Janklow as part of his debate preparations.
That issue has always been a political football that people like to toss around just for the sake of its “wedge” qualities….
I was an active Democrat at the time in Custer, working for Custer Lumber Co. sawmill. Believe me. Democrats in Custer were not in favor of giving the Black Hills back to the Sioux.
Interesting that the same song and dance has been politicizing our Reservations since inception. Socialism has never worked.