( – promoted by navajo)
Via Deoliver47 on Daily Kos, Native Times is reporting that Billy Mills, a Lakota Sioux Olympic gold medalist born and raised on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation came out today in support of Barack Obama — all the more notable because Mills is a Republican:
Mills, who won the 1964 Olympic gold in the 10,000-meter run in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, said that he was a lifelong Republican, but that he had been inspired by Obama’s track record of uniting Americans from all walks of life. He also noted Obama’s background as the son of a single, working mom and his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia as predictive of his ability to understand and work for people in underserved communities.
Mills rose to prominence at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo where he came in as a virtual unknown and stunned the world by surging forward from third place in the final lap to capture the gold medal. He has since been inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.
The 1983 film “Running Brave” starred Robby Benson as a young Mills.
Mills concluded his endorsement by saying, “Barack Obama is the right choice for Indian Country and all of South Dakota.”
I appreciate it so much.
here for the record.
YES, it’s very COOL!
Thanks for inviting me over here in the first place.
it is so nice to have folks like you take the time and energy to keep a record at our site.
Please feel free to invite other voices to join our site.
I am slowly trying to grow this forum and I so appreciate your help.
Thank you so much.
We were teammates at Haskell Institute, an Indian boarding School, he was a couple of grades ahead of me. I’ve known him over the years especially when I lived in California. I never suspected he was a republican. Now I’ll have something to tease him about when I see him.