American Indian voters and Indian organizers gave N.D. Senate edge to Democrat Heidi Heitkamp

Heidi Heitkamp (right) at the Fort Yates, North Dakota, Pow-Wow,
on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, July 2012. When Democrat Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota takes her seat in the U.S. Senate come January, she will owe her margin of victory to American Indians. Heitkamp defeated Republican Rick Berg in a tight race, with her tallying 160,752 votes and Berg 157,758, a slim margin of 2,994. The four North Dakota counties with the highest percentage of Indians gave the former state attorney general a margin of 4,352 votes.

On a per capita basis, North Dakota ranks seventh among the states in terms of citizens who are Indian, with five federally recognized reservations. The Indian population is about 36,200, 5.4 percent of the state's total, of which three-fourths lives on reservations. Here's a breakdown of the vote in the Heitkamp-Berg Senate contest for the four counties (with the names of reservations in those counties included in parentheses). Reservation boundaries in two cases extend over parts of more than one county:

' Sioux County (Standing Rock Sioux Reservation) with 85 percent Indian population: 962 votes for Heitkamp; 184 for Berg
' Rollette County (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) with 73 percent Indian population: 3,660 votes for Heitkamp; 900 for Berg
' Benson County (Spirit Lake Tribe) with 48 percent Indian population 1,451 votes for Heitkamp; 707 for Berg
' Mountrail County (Fort Berthold Indian Reservation) with 30 percent Indian population 1,742 votes for Heitkamp; 1,672 for Berg

Some of the credit for the Indian turnout for Heitkamp goes to Prairie Rose Seminole'an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) who serves as native vote director for the Democratic Party-NonPartisan League of North Dakota'and to Heitkamp's campaign staffer Diane Johnson, who is also enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Prairie Rose Seminole A native of Fargo, Prairie Rose is no rookie to politics. Her parents, she says, were good models as activists on American Indian issues. She began knocking on doors in 1998, served on the Fargo's Human Relations Commission, including a stint as its chairwoman, and was employed as a lead organizer for Change that Works ND for two years. That non-profit grassroots campaign focused on passing health care and financial reforms as well as the union-friendly Employee Free Choice Act. She has worked nationwide with the White House Project, the Native American Leadership Program and Wellstone Action to train and empower activists, campaign workers and individuals seeking elected office. She is a member of New Generation North Dakota, young progressives determined to bring new ideas and new candidates into the state's political mix. (She is also registered at Daily Kos and attended Netroots Nation 2011 in Minneapolis.)

In 2010, Prairie Rose herself sought elective office, running for a four-year term as one of the two representatives serving District 45 in the North Dakota House of Representatives. One of those representatives was Rick Berg. But he gave up that seat when he ran for Congress that year. He won. She lost. But defeat just made her stronger.

One of Prairie Rose's key influences, she says, is Barry Nelson. Himself a community activist, he has "known me my whole life and as a mentor, he's helped me connect the dots of my journey. He's empowered me, by affirming the values of honesty, hard work, determination and a positive attitude." Nelson must have been very happy with news about Heidi Heitkamp Wednesday morning. In 2006, he also had run for one of the District 45 seats then occupied by Rick Berg, missing the mark by 103 votes.

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