Palin's Rural Adviser Quits Over Native Record

JUNEAU, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin's rural adviser resigned Monday amid criticism of the governor's record on hiring Alaska Natives.

Rhonda McBride, who is not an Alaska Native, made the announcement in an e-mail to several Native leaders, saying there need to be more Native voices in Palin's administration.

"I definitely think it would help to have an Alaska Native in this position," McBride told The Associated Press.

Many Alaska Natives have said they felt neglected when Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, made appointments to her administration, including the rural adviser post.

State Sen. Al Kookesh, a Democrat, said Palin left the position unfilled her first year in office and ignored Native leaders' suggestions on the selection process.

"We were really disappointed when an Alaska Native wasn't appointed," said Kookesh, a Tlingit Indian who held the job in a previous administration.

Natives bristled early in Palin's administration when she named a white woman to a game board seat held by a Native for more than 25 years. An Athabascan Indian eventually was named to the post after protests.

Relations worsened after Palin didn't remove a game board chairman who once suggested that Alaska Natives missed a meeting because they were drinking beer, seen as insensitive since the Alaska Native community has high rates of alcohol abuse.

Alaska Natives make up about 20 percent of the population.

Palin's husband, Todd, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and her 13-member cabinet includes two Alaska Natives.

"In all honesty, I have never felt authentic in my role," McBride wrote in her e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

McBride, who covered rural issues as a reporter before becoming rural adviser last year, said she would return to journalism to help bring attention to Native issues.

She said her last day would be Oct. 23.

Comments

[HeIsTheOne]

McBride is a class act. Too classy for the likes of Palin. She did the right thing: get while the getting is good.

When Sarah goes home with her tail beween her legs, who will want to continue working for her? Two more years to her term. Unless she is impeached for unethical behavior.

[ebanks84]

If they're smart, they will impeach her and get her out of their hair.

[Hedonist88]

mmmm...the resignation just had to come after Palin got selected to run on the ticket.

So how many of her Alaskan mates has Sarah lined up for jobs in DC? Maverick indeed !!!

[valleygent]

More evidence that the Palins are white supremacists.

[RobinSeattle]

Pang of conscience in the Palin campaign. Now there's something I thought I would never see.

[jadedat51]

McBride did the right thing in resigning, as she felt that she never felt "authentic" (whatever she means by that - I don't want to go there). More concerning is why she was appointed to begin with (note the last sentence of the article: she was a REPORTER who covered rural issues before the appointment, and anticipates returning to JOURNALISM....

Oh, I forgot - Palin is a maverick......

Are there not "non-natives" that have worked extensively with, and are respected by the native population, in Alaska?

Even if so, the history of native appointments to this position should have been taken into account. They are "true stewards of the land" - anyone know the non-native to native ratio of urban vs rural populations in Alaska?

[midwesthousewife]

It would vary town by town depending upon which group settled the town. The Inupiat town I lived in was probably 10% white and 10% foreigners. The northern third of the state is a native borough, but only a few thousand people. Some rural towns are predominantly white.

[doremusj]

I was a teacher in an Alaskan village for the past four years and let me tell you Palin's lack of interest in anything off the road system is appalling!

Take a PalinsAlaska.comaska.com

[PepeLepew]

Sarah Palin just strikes me as the type that if you aren't a w h i t e, born-again fundamentalist Christian true believer, then you just don't exist...
... kind of like Bush.

[100YearsOfWar]

Accept Him as your own personal savior or go to Hell!

[RightWingMarine]

why do so many people on HuffPo spread out the letters in words such as white or often Palin and McCain or Christians or whatever? Does typing these words hurt you in some way?

[2008FedUP]

I smell racism all over the room where SOURAH PLAYLIN is present. No race is safe around her folks!

[luvangelHussein330]

Geezz...seems like Phalin has issue with african -americans as well...shame

[Agnim]

Rhonda McBride, you are my heroine for promoting Native Alaskans to take charge of their own destiny, and not being colonized with the Sarah Falin types who call Native People the derogatory, 'artic arabs'.

[hortonhearsawho]

Translated in Sarahs mind....thats okay i don't need the record i have it on cd.

[amaycatbaker]

Alaska Natives deal with prejudice everyday. The seat they had was a way to get heard. I hope another native will be put in that position again.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

And maybe Palin will follow suit and return to being... a sportscaster.

[harriettubman]

Please. What do these people expect from a Republican and someone who has no diversity or cultural experience whatsoever? All Palin knows how to do is brag about her husband's small Eskimo heritage. The man's appearance looks more European so that tells you just how much "Yup'ik Eskimo" is in him.

Any native land should have native people on staff. Someone needs to tell Palin that. McBride left her job because she knows after speaking out Palin will send Todd over there to seek revenge.

[learnsomething]

Yup, yup, Todd is her enforcer.

[classc 1]

Are we surprised? This is the same woman whom allegedly said upon hearing that Obama had secured the Democratic nomionation "So the Sambo beat the B***CH!!" What do you expect?

[ITSDEE]

Yes, Yes, I saw that article about the McPalin woman calling Senator Obama a "Sambo" and Senatoar Clinton, the "B" word. Why hasn't this come out so that the whole U.S. knows the kind of pitbull moose Palin really is. She is racist, elitist, sexist and will only look out for her own if (by some cheater's chance) she makes it into the Whitehouse. I can't stand to look at her and that voice grates on my last nerve. Whenever she's on the T.V., I immediately turn it to another channel.

[midwesthousewife]

That quote was from a waitress who refused to be named--not a reliable story. Now, if it had been on tape...

[bagfed]

http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2002/6/dartslaurels.asp
...Rhonda McBride can bring a breath of fresh air. As the moderator of "Running," a series of pre-election candidate debates on KAKM, the public television station in Anchorage, McBride relentlessly held to the fire the feet of her so-called guests (an ill-advised term if there ever was one, suggesting to some misguided interviewers and interviewees alike that the journalist fulfill the obligations of a host). Hollis French, for example, a Democratic hopeful for a state senate seat who began to equivocate about a state income tax, found himself facing McBride's insistent "yes or no?" For his part, Republican incumbent Dave Donley, pointing proudly to his record on education, clearly wished that McBride had not brought up the issue of fairness in funding Alaska's rural schools. Indeed, so discomfited was Donley that the senator — who, as noted in a story in the Anchorage Daily News, happens to co-chair the finance committee that decides on funding for KAKM — as well as Randy Ruedrich, chairman of the Republican party in Alaska, complained to Paul Stankavich, the station's general manager. The next day Stankavich told McBride to "tone down her questions"; a few days later, citing disagreements "about the direction the program should take," he removed her as the program's moderator. McBride, a veteran of public and commercial broadcasting in Alaska, resigned. And thus was shut another window on crisper, and purer, political air. "

[midwesthousewife]

Thanks for that background. She sounds great. Wish our airwaves were filled with more like her.

[brendanm]

Maybe this woman is just a rare principled person who felt she could do more for Native Alaskans by leaving the government. I respect that.

[scadabout]

Exactly, integrity, a rare commodity.

[Rosie2]

Not if Palin rejects another Alaskan Native for her white cronies.