Tim Sheehy disparages Crow Tribe members in newly unearthed audio

At a fundraiser for his campaign in November 2023,  Sheehy spoke of working with rancher Turk Stovall on the Crow Reservation: “I rope and brand with them every year, you know, down there. So it’s a great way to bond with all the Indians being out there while they’re drunk at 8 a.m. and you’re roping together. Every heel shot you miss, you get a Coors Light can on the side of your head.” 

The recordings were first published by Char-Koosta News, a news publication of the Flathead Reservation in the west of the state.

Sheehy made similar comments at another campaign event a few days later.

He said: “Six weeks after our launch, one of the first things I did was that I strapped a Sheehy sign to a horse and rode through the Crow Res Parade, and if you know a tough crowd, you want to go to the Crow, that’s — they let you know whether they like you or not. There’s Coors Light cans flying by your head as you’re riding by. But, you know, they respect that. You go where the action is, they say, , Hey, that guy’s not that bad. Got on a horse, rode through the parade. That’s pretty cool. And I threw a beer can at his head, didn’t even flinch.”

Sheehy’s use of what the Char-Koosa news called questionable and racially tinged language trades on stereotypes of Native Americans as “drunk Indians.”

American Indians and Native Alaskans experience alcohol-related deaths at higher rates than the rest of the U.S. population, according to a 2022 paper published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 

“Deaths attributed to alcohol increased significantly at a rate of 4.0% per year from 2000–2017; this increase was also highest for AIANs compared to Whites and other ethnic and racial groups,” the paper said. “More recent analysis found that in 2019, the alcohol-involved death rate among AIANs was five times higher than that in the general population.”

Montana has a sizable Native American population, with 9.3% of the state identifying as either American Indian or part American Indian, according to the 2020 Census. 

Tribal leaders sent a letter to Sheehy Sept. 3 urging him to apologize for his comments, saying “The Crow people are not your punchline.” 

“We have listened to you and have taken seriously your run for office. But we find your recorded remarks to be a betrayal of the good faith of Montana’s Native Americans,” Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council Chairman Bryce Kirk wrote in the letter. “You come into our homes, and you ask for our votes and then you go to your fundraiser … and you insult us with a stereotype that only seeks to severely diminish and dishonor our people.”

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, a member and former chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, has spent years working to address substance abuse issues in the Native American community, including fighting for funding to keep drugs out of the state and to treat those suffering from substance abuse disorder.

In May, Tester helped secure $1.4 million in funding to help support state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement drug prevention efforts.