With offer to uphold treaties, Sanders finds support on reservation

PINE RIDGE, S.D. — He had the crowd won over before he walked into the gymnasium.

As Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders took the stage Thursday morning, the nearly 1,200 supporters gathered in Pine Ridge High School had a good idea of where the Vermont senator stood on the issues they cared about.

He believes in climate change, wants to improve health care and to expand education, supporters gathered on wooden bleachers said of the senator from Vermont. And above all, they said, he'll respect the treaties with Native American tribes.

“These treaties aren’t being upheld. We fight for education every single year, and it doesn’t get better,” Alli Moran, a South Dakota delegate backing Sanders and Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member, said.

And Sanders got right to the point during his hour-long conversation with the group, calling out the problems in Pine Ridge and other reservations. He listed off poverty, job shortages, inadequate health care and lacking infrastructure as just a few. And the crowd cheered loudly at each of his suggestions that the federal government ought to do more to help Native Americans, especially as part of its treaty obligations.

"We owe a great debt that can never be repaid," Sanders said. “If elected president we will keep those promises."

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In a call-and-response style dialogue, he asked why tribal members were arrested in higher than average numbers, why students didn't finish high school and why health care was substandard on the reservation.

With each question the audience enthusiastically yelled out responses and shared individual stories, especially when Sanders proposed his plan to provide free public college and university access.

Matt Gist, 33, and his father-in-law John DuBray, 58, of Allen, said they were glad to hear Sanders talk about his plans to make education more accessible. They said students on the reservation had trouble finding motivation to make it through high school, let alone to college.

Both said they were big fans of Sanders and hoped that he would continue fighting for the Democratic nomination.

"After West Virginia, we've seen right through Hillary," Gist said. "Now I just hope Bernie will win South Dakota, that he won't quit."

Gist isn't the only one hoping Sanders pushes onward.

"There are a whole lot of things we've been promised and never delivered," said Sally Apple, an Oglala Sioux tribal member from Manderson.

"We're just excited to see that Bernie will follow through," Apple said as she enthusiastically waved her sign.

As he launched his three-stop journey across South Dakota on Thursday morning, Sanders came out strong. He appealed to almost every concern among the Native American voters that came out for the meeting, and he left the gymnasium to the sound of supporters who hoisted signs that said "Natives for Bernie" and chanted his name.

And Sanders locked up a key endorsement from Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele before walking through the doors of Pine Ridge high school.

"I endorse Bernie Sanders and I encourage all Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribal members out there to vote for him too," Steele said. "The reason we need to vote for Bernie is to give him some more power. Bernie needs the power of our vote to work on our treaties."

Absent from his speech, however, was a mention of the Keystone XL pipeline. Some left the school expressing their disappointment.

Sanders spoke at Pine Ridge on Thursday afternoon before planned stops in Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson