As of late, much has been made of the so-called “Real American”. The “Real American”, we are told, watches NASCAR, drinks beer, has barbecues, fears God, works in a “real” occupation like plumbing, and has a very real suspicion of and hostility toward all things intellectual, effete, European, coastal, and most of all, God forbid, liberal. The “Real American” has been so canonized, so lionized, that s/he has almost become a mythological figment of national imagination.

But to some in this country, the term “Real American” conjures up a very different image, one equally if not more mythical and epic...one of people who, while often living in the same regions of the country as those other real Americans, have in many ways traits that might seem almost foreign. They have their own languages, their own religious and cultural traditions, often even their own laws and governments.

Oh, and one other thing–these “real” real Americans aren’t white. (Which, no matter how you look at it, is what those other “Real Americans” are implied to be). Like Sen. Obama himself, they’re members of a racial ‘minority’ group, one who’s been discriminated against as severely as any other in this country.

I am speaking, of course, of the Native American Indians. And it is this marginalized group of Americans who could prove to tilt this election in certain swing states later today. Obama has made a concerted effort to reach out to tribal nations, hiring full-time paid vote coordinators in the Dakotas and Montana, opening six reservation field offices in those same states, and meeting privately with tribal leaders to discuss their concerns, as well as holding a rally at the Montana Crow reservation. McCain, by contrast, not only has not made such efforts, he even ignored an invitation to meet with tribal leaders in South Dakota when he was there, opting instead to focus all his attention on a speaking engagement at a motorcycle party.

Apparently, the efforts of Sen. Obama are paying off. The Native American Times, by far and away the most influential press in the community, has officially endorsed Barack Obama, saying that, “We have been waiting a long time for someone like Barack to come along. He inspires us to want and to dream of more”. First-time voters from remote rural reservations have been coming out to register for their first federal government election. From co-sponsoring the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to gaining the support of the Native American Caucus of the Democratic Committee and the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska, he has made more inroads within this community than perhaps any other presidential candidate.

It isn’t just McCain or the Republicans who’ve ignored this sect of the population. Even other Democrats have overlooked them most severely. Only true progressives on the left wing of the party such as Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson and Mike Gravel have paid any attention to the Native community at all. With reservations plagued by joblessness, meth-amphetamine and alcohol addiction, and some of the worst grinding poverty in the U.S. (Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota is officially the poorest area in the U.S., with living conditions as poverty-stricken as those in any developing world country), Native issues need to be at the top of the national agenda, but due to the small size of the population they are largely ignored year after year.

This year, Barack Obama has not made that same mistake. What’s surprising, however, is that John McCain has. It’s yet one more way in which the better aspects of this senator’s record have been sold on a dime in the mad race for presidency, only to backfire on him in the end. Long before McCain ever ran for president, he worked with Bill Richardson to ensure that the Defense Dept. return 89,000 acres of land to the Ute Tribe. He is also the only Republican to sit on the Committee of Indian affairs. For these reasons, he still has many supporters in the Native community, and some friction has been building on this issue between newbie Obama supporters and old guard McCain supporters. “Native American National Healthcare/Education/Poverty Rate–A Sick Joke!” shrieks the Native Americans Against Obama website ( www.nativeamericansagainstobama.com ), which urges that a vote for Obama is a vote for no real change.

On the other hand, dig a little deeper into Sen. McCain’s background on this issue and you’ll find that, like many things about his ‘maverick’ reputation, it doesn’t all quite add up. Ever the champion of Big Business above and beyond all else, in 1996 McCain sponsored the bill in his home state of Alaska, which passed the Senate but never made it to the House. This bill, which many referred to as a bid for “An American West Bank”, called for a forced removal of Navahos from their lands as a way of freeing up the Black Mesa for mining by the Peabody Coal Corp. , a continuation of a prior bill McCain was also involved with sponsoring which did, in fact, result in the forced removal of Navahos from Arizona to Nevada. ( www.nativeamericanroots.net ). This situation was so dire, in fact, that it prompted a UN Human Rights Investigation.

And so, in the end, it comes back Obama, the wild card who promises a chance to “want more, to dream more”, and whether Native people are willing to trust him as more than just another politician who’ll promise them a dream and then shove them into a nightmare. And it also comes down to whether the media and the general public will care enough about the issues of Native people to continue to make them newsworthy after the election passes, no matter who ends up in office, as to whether these issues get the attention they deserve.

One way of finding out how much the rest of America is paying attention to Native America is by visiting the website perspctv.com, which tracks how much publicity a person or an issue is getting through a unique method of tracking the number of times it’s mentioned in the news media and in the blogosphere. In this election season the site’s been focusing on the buzz generated by the candidates, but after tomorrow it will expand to include individual issues, something that is especially useful when seeking to understand how much attention some of the lesser discussed issues, like Native American concerns, are getting.

As for the election later today, we will see who most of the “real” real Americans decide to vote for. But one thing is fairly certain–unlike those other “real” Americans, this group can’t be distracted with smoke-and-mirror culture war tactics.

Then again, it looks like many of the other type of “real American” won’t be so easily misled this year, either. Perhaps this time around, the term Real American can take on a new meaning altogether.