Montana Sheriff’s Candidate a Symbol of Indians’ Increasing Clout in the West

In another sign of growing Indian political strength in the rural West, Thomas Larson Medicinehorse Sr., a 50-year-old Sundance Chief of the Crow Nation, is poised to become Montana’s first elected American Indian sheriff.

Big Horn County, population 10,600, is one of many rural counties where American Indians have made important electoral gains in recent years. Another Indian was elected in 1986 to one of three seats on the county commission.

Medicinehorse has already won the Democratic primary, defeating the incumbent and his boss in the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department, Ed Whaley.

There is a rustic medicinal sweat lodge behind Medicinehorse’s trailer home, testimony to his belief in ancient tribal customs. But Medicinehorse is also an experienced lawman who has served more than 15 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs police and other agencies.

Medicinehorse said he was prompted to join the Sheriff’s Department in 1986 because of the alleged harassment of American Indians by white officers. Now that a handful of Crow Indians have joined him on the once segregated force, Medicinehorse says he wants to spread a message of fairness and toughness to both Indians and the county’s conservative Anglo ranchers and farmers.

“Giving everybody equal treatment makes me feel good,” Medicinehorse said. “I have a basic philosophy. I treat everybody the way I want to be treated. I apply a little bit of our Native American culture to the modern culture and it works.”

Still, Medicinehorse and others agree that it is nearly impossible to avoid the issue of race in Big Horn County these days. Race apparently played an indirect but important role in Medicinehorse’s primary victory this June.

In the days before the election filing deadline, no candidate had stepped forward to challenge the incumbent Whaley in the Republican primary. Two American Indian candidates were running on the Democratic side, however, splitting the Indian vote.

So the sheriff switched his party affiliation only hours before the filing deadline, apparently hoping to take advantage of the split Indian vote to defeat the two American Indians, and avoid a general election campaign.

The strategy backfired. Angered at the sheriff’s abandonment of his party, many Republicans decided to vote in the Democratic primary, as allowed by state law, and supported Medicinehorse. And the Sundance Chief defeated Sheriff Whaley, 764 to 557.

“It’s kind of a unique situation for him,” Medicinehorse said of the lame-duck sheriff. “Especially being defeated by a Native American is difficult for him. This is still a white Sheriff’s Department.”

Whaley could not be reached for comment.

In the November general election, Medicinehorse will face another sheriff’s deputy, George Rogers, who won the Republican primary as a write-in candidate.

Although Rogers and Medicinehorse are good friends and share a mutual respect, Rogers concedes that race will likely become the central issue in the fall campaign.

“Larson and I both want to play down the racial aspect, but it’s always going to be there,” said Rogers, 42. “The bottom line is that the white people of Big Horn County don’t want an Indian sheriff.”

Joining Medicinehorse on the Democratic ticket this fall will be Janet Crooked Arm, a candidate for county clerk. John Doyle, the first American Indian elected to the county commission, said he is confident both Indian candidates will join him in county government.

“We’re the first ones; we have to set an example,” Doyle said. “We’re not asking for special privileges or anything above and beyond our rights. We want everyone to be treated fairly. That’s all we’re asking for.”