I am proud of my entire ethnic heritage and strive to instill this pride in my children. I have never used my or my children’s claim to minority status to receive any special benefit or preferential treatment. What I have done is donate my time, effort and money to direct action within my ethnic community and the larger community. These efforts have included:

• Native American prison ministry,
• Moderator of NATIVE-L, an early and historically important Internet forum,
• Ongoing participation in mentoring programs for Native American youth and small business leaders,
• Michael McBride and Jay Brummett, Petitioners, v. Motor Vehicle Division of Utah State Tax Commission. The case went to the Utah Supreme Court, where the court determined that the State of Utah could not allow the use of racial slurs on official Utah license plates.

I am fully against discrimination in all its forms and I believe that affirmative action is one form of it; a color-blind society should not discriminate against anyone on the basis of ethnic heritage, skin color, gender, etc…!

Affirmative action programs, government welfare programs, armies of federally-funded social workers will never solve the problems of my American Indian ancestors or our reservation communities. It has been the dominate culture and this very government who has held us, as minorities, down; what in the world would make minorities believe that these institutions can or will help us now? Self-respect and self reliance which leads to success is the only way that Native Americans and other minorities, and for that matter America itself, can ever ensure the no one holds us down.

I believe that instilling self-respect and promoting self-help, education, enterprise, democracy, and society are the seeds of minority success. As a community we must counteract negativity, victimization, and defeatism, which has eroded values, hopes, and dreams. The truth is that Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are living better than ever, we won the civil rights movement. Now it is time for Utah’s minority populations to take their place as leaders and mentors within our own ethnic and the larger community propelling the success of all Utahans.

I am a proud member of the Republican Party, who as Fredrick Douglass said, “I am a Republican … dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress”. I remember that and celebrate the founders of my party: On July 6, 1854, a group determined to abolish slavery in America met to form the Republican Party. Within four years, the nation would elect Abraham Lincoln as the first Republican president, who often sought counsel and advice from Frederick Douglass.