DURANT — A super delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is an activist for Indian voters and candidates said the Republicans are obtaining Native American votes and that the tribes in Oklahoma do not wield the political power that they could.

Kalyn Free is a 1984 Southeastern graduate, a member of the Choctaw Nation, and founder and president of the Indigenous Democrat Network, INDN’s List, an organization that recruits, trains and funds Indian candidates and staff, and also mobilizes the Indian vote throughout the country.

Free spoke before the Bryan County Federation of Democratic Women at its regular meeting Tuesday at Sherrer’s Restaurant.

INDN’s List is dedicated to electing Native American men and women to offices across America, according to a pamphlet distributed at the BCFDW meeting.

Free talked about Indian voters and politics, and how Republicans are gaining Native American voters.

“We’ve seen the Republicans making tremendous inroads into Indian country and with the new-found wealth of some tribes, not just here in Oklahoma, but across the country, I decided that we need an organization ... to support American Indian candidates running for office,” Free said.

“I think that in order for us to have the best body politics possible, that we need a diverse body politics,” Free said. “We need people of all stripes and colors, African-Americans and Asians, Hispanics, and we still need some white men out there too.”

According to Free, the Indian vote is powerful in many places, including South Dakota Washington state and Minnesota, but not as powerful as it could be in Oklahoma. She said there are elected officials who will say they won due to the Indian vote.

“But collectively, unfortunately the tribes in Oklahoma don’t wield the political power that we can,” she said.

Choctaw Nation Executive Director of Public Relations Judy Allen was in Washington D.C. with Chief Gregory Pyle when contacted this morning about Free’s statement. Allen said the tribe is very active in lobbying efforts and encouraging tribal members to vote.

She said that Pyle is in Washington D.C. now lobbying to obtain medals for all Indian “code talkers” who transmitted radio messages in their native languages during both of the world wars.

“We do encourage tribal members to get out and vote,” Allen said.

Free said her organization endorsed 28 Indian candidates in 2006-07 and of those, 22 were elected in state houses across the country.

According to Free, the Democratic National Convention is being held in Colorado because the western states will determine the outcome of the presidential election. She mentioned New Mexico and Arizona, and said the Democrats could lose Florida and Pennsylvania but still win the race.

Native American voters in western states will help determine the winner, according to Free.

“What’s in New Mexico and Arizona? A bunch of Indians, right?” Free said.

Free said it is very important that the Democratic party reach out to all minorities, and that the two presidential candidates are doing that, although she is disappointed they did not attend an INDN- sponsored presidential forum held last August.

She said she is not bitter and the candidates have since reached out and issued Native American policy statements.

“But I am personally taking it as an affront that they don’t do more for Indian country ... but whoever our nominee is, there won’t be anybody out there fighting any harder for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton than Kalyn Free, once we get our nominee.”