Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy addresses the crowd at a rally in Bozeman alongside Gov. Greg Gianforte on Aug. 9, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
More than 200 individuals and churches across the state have added their voices to a recent letter by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes that call for U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy to apologize for remarks he made about the Crow Indian people.
The petition to put pressure on Sheehy, a Republican, to apologize comes after an organization of tribal governments called on Sheehy to do the same, and after a debate between Sheehy’s opponent, three-term incumbent Jon Tester, a Democrat.
In at least four different audio recordings, Sheehy was heard making disparaging comments about the Crow nation, including that many are drunk by 8 a.m., and some threw beer cans at him while he rode through the annual Crow Fair parade — allegations which drew the quick condemnation of tribes and state leaders.
Tim Sheehy and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester participated in a debate on Sept. 30, 2024, hosted by Montana PBS. (Screenshot courtesy Montana PBS)
During a debate last month, Tester pressed Sheehy on the issue, and Sheehy admitted that his comments were both “insensitive” as well as being “off color,” but stopped short of issuing an apology.
Originally, two recordings of Sheehy at events last year were published by Char-Koosta News, the official newspaper of the Flathead Indian Reservation. But on an interview with Fox News, Sheehy didn’t apologize for the remarks, saying the tapes were “chopped up” and edited to make him look “evil.”
Char-Koosta News released the full audio transcript for those two previous events, plus two previously unreported recordings in which Sheehy appears to make similar remarks about Crow people.
After those tapes were released, the CSKT Tribal Council members rebutted the claims of the tapes being doctored, and called on Sheehy to take responsibility for his words. Since that time, some of Montana’s religious leaders and members of congregations from across the state have joined the call for Sheehy to apologize.
“Sheehy’s disrespectful comments about Native people send a dangerous message — that he is OK using negative and tired stereotypes about Montana Indians in an attempt to get elected,” the letter said. “CSKT’s Tribal Council stands in solidarity with the Crow Tribe who were on the receiving ends of Sheehy’s remarks. Our elders have described his words as hateful and we listened. Sheehy said nothing of the many great achievements in our communities, of ever-increasing numbers of Indian people making their way through college to earn advanced degrees, to learn our languages and culture, and support our communities.”
Tribal councilman Michael Dolson signed the letter.
The letter also said that the Tribal Council had listened to the full audio recordings after Sheehy questioned the legitimacy of them.
“We have listened to the full audio,” Dolson said, “and Sheehy’s hateful rhetoric is just as unacceptable as it was before.”
More than 200 Montanans threw their support behind the CSKT letter and added their own, saying that it was the role of church and civic leaders to stand in solidarity with the Native American community, an increasingly powerful bloc of voters, often courted by politicians of both parties.
Montana is home to seven reservations and 12 recognized tribes.
“We endorse Chairman Dolson’s letter while fully acknowledging that historically all of us — including faith communities — have been complicit in imposing injustices on Native American tribes,” the letter said. “We commit ourselves to joining with our Native neighbors in doing more to correct the wrongs of the past that unfortunately continue to the present day. As non-Native allies, we need to speak out. If we do not, our silence gives agreement to Sheehy’s demeaning remarks and show indifference to the harm he is doing.”
The letter was started by the First United Methodist Church in Missoula, but has grown since then. Two other groups that joined with signatures included the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Great Falls as well as the Bozeman chapter of the National Organization of Women.
“Sheehy shared these damaging stereotypes to his largely white audiences as representations of who we are as Indian people, apparently thinking he could elicit some laughs about his experiences in tribal communities,” Dolson’s letter stated. “We aren’t laughing.”
The Daily Montanan reached out the Sheehy campaign, but it did not respond to requests for comment.