“Here in the middle of Pablo, we have Hillary Clinton walking around,” the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal council member said. “That’s pretty impressive. I’m glad she made it here.”
Clinton’s appearance on the campus of Salish Kootenai College, a week before Montanans go to the polls for the June 3 primary, underscored just how serious she and her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, are about capturing the majority of the state’s handful of delegates.
“I understand the obligation the United States government has to the tribes who represent the first peoples of the United States,” Clinton said to cheers.
She decried the average lifespan of American Indians, which she said is five years less than the rest of the population, and called for significant increases to the Indian Health Service budget n as well as universal health care for all Americans.
Mathias, who got to shake Clinton’s hand after she spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 and answered questions, said he took the opportunity to encourage the senator to do more for all people in need.
“When I go to D.C., all I see are homeless people, mentally ill people living on the streets,” he said. “All I heard today was a lot about middle-class people. Nobody talks for the poor people living on the streets.”
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