Sioux Turnout

[minionofmidas]

is weird and unpredictable. Besides being low.

Here's Census 2000 population, votes cast and Dem percentage, 1996-2008, for all counties (outside Alaska) with a Native majority.

Menominee, WI (Menominee IR. Not Sioux)
pop 4562, 87.3
1996 1350, 73.5
2000 1233, 77.0
2004 1710, 82.6
2008 1448, 86.8

Rolette, ND (Turtle Mountain Ojibwa. Not Sioux. Most of the county is actually offrez technically.)
pop 9983, 73.0
1996 3601, 63.8
2000 4398, 61.0
2004 4044, 63.4
2008 4534, 75.1

Sioux, ND (part of Standing Rock)
pop 3421, 84.6
1996 690, 57.0
2000 1041, 69.6
2004 1140, 70.5
2008 1378, 83.1

Corson, SD (remainder of Standing Rock)
pop 4181, 60.8
1996 1300, 41.5
2000 1243, 44.2
2004 1724, 56.4
2008 1406, 59.5

Dewey, SD (east portion of Cheyenne River. Which borders on Standing Rock)
pop 5972, 74.2
1996 1979, 56.3
2000 1681, 52.4
2004 2564, 62.6
2008 2019, 65.8

Ziebach, SD (west portion)
pop 2519, 72.3
1996 930, 51.9
2000 721, 43.6
2004 1116, 57.4
2008 891, 62.2

Buffalo, SD (app. equals Cow Creek)
pop 2032, 81.6
1996 640, 72.7
2000 408, 62.8
2004 841, 71.7
2008 619, 73.3

Todd, SD (Rosebud)
pop 9050, 85.6
1996 1991, 69.3
2000 1494, 66.5
2004 3524, 72.2
2008 2828, 78.1

Shannon, SD (Pine Ridge. Well most of it)
pop 12,466, 94.2
1996 2284, 84.3
2000 1953, 85.4
2004 4214, 84.6
2008 3350, 88.7

Bennett, SD (between Pine Ridge and Rosebud. Has some trust land, but offrez)
pop 3574, 52.1
1996 1145, 44.3
2000 1116, 33.8
2004 1630, 46.6
2008 1208, 46.1

Mellette, SD (also round about there. Also offrez)
pop 2083, 52.9
1996 798, 37.8
2000 733, 30.3
2004 931, 38.9
2008 843, 44.3

Thurston, NE (Winnebago and Omaha rezs. Not Sioux. Though related.)
pop 7171, 52.0
1996 2114, 45.5
2000 2082, 44.4
2004 2387, 50.8
2008 2126, 52.7

Roosevelt, MT (~Fort Peck. Inhabited by some Sioux, and some - related - Assiniboine.)
pop 13,247, 55.8
1996 3997, 53.0
2000 3813, 54.0
2004 4028, 54.5
2008 4153, 61.7

Big Horn, MT (~Crow. Not Sioux, though related. Also includes mostly uninhabited parts of Northern Cheyenne.)
pop 12,671, 59.7
1996 4239, 57.9
2000 4161, 56.4
2004 4311, 51.4
2008 5219, 67.5

Glacier, MT (~Blackfeet. Not Sioux.)
pop 13,247, 61.8
1996 4095, 56.0
2000 4124, 53.6
2004 4562, 57.9
2008 4971, 68.9

McKinley, NM (part of Navajo. And of the checkerboard. And of Zuni as well IIRC.)
pop 74,798, 74.7
1996 15,526, 65.2
2000 15,879, 64.8
2004 20,623, 63.3
2008 23,207, 71.4

Apache, AZ (also largely on Navajo.)
pop 69,523, 76.9
1996 18,684, 66.3
2000 19,456, 67.0
2004 24,198, 64.7
2008 24,355, 63.2

San Juan, UT (also partly on Navajo.)
pop 14,413, 55.7
1996 4165, 40.2
2000 4744, 38.7
2004 4950, 38.5
2008 5130, 46.9

Nevermind the 2004 increases (2002 Senate race drew more voters here than 2000 presidential); remarkable turnout decline on the Sioux Rezs in 2008 (also on Menominee). Except for Sioux County, what's up with that? And what was up with that in 1996?

[phk]

There were decreases in SD and generally increases everywhere in raw number of votes.

[pbrower2a]

It may be more general in respect to First Peoples -- but the big election involving Native Americans was surely the 2006 US Senate Race in Montana. Conrad Burns had inordinate connections to Jack Abramoff, who bled American Indian tribes, even if not in Montana, for money. That must have played badly in some obvious parts of Montana.

I figure that Burns got crushed at the polls on the Reservations or in any places with large Native-American populations. As close as that US Senate race was, that may have been the margin between a Democratic majority in the Senate in 2007 and a tie to be broken by a vote by Dick Cheney.

[minionofmidas]

It may be more general in respect to First Peoples -- but the big election involving Native Americans was surely the 2006 US Senate Race in Minnesota. Conrad Burns had inordinate connections to Jack Abramoff, who bled American Indian tribes, even if not in Montana, for money. That must have played badly in some obvious parts of Montana.

I figure that Burns got crushed at the polls on the Reservations or in any places with large Native-American populations. As close as that US Senate race was, that may have been the margin between a Democratic majority in the Senate in 2007 and a tie to be broken by a vote by Dick Cheney.

No.

The obvious parts of Montana, when defined as Big Horn, Roosevelt and Glacier Counties (all have White areas as well, and there are other counties with sizable Indian populations, but Indians are a majority, and seem to be casting a majority of the votes, in these three), cast 3.2% of the total vote in the 2006 Senate race and 2.9% in 2008, so turnout there was indeed  quite high even relatively (of course turnout was pretty high for a midterm statewide. 2008 attracted only 11% more voters than 2006 in the three counties.)
But - They cast 4.1% of Obama's vote, 4.0% of Tester's vote, 2.4% of Burns' vote and only 1.9% of McCain's vote. Burns actually received more votes than McCain.
- Tester actually would have won without the three counties, by 249 votes.