Montana
Montana Free Press: ‘White farmers’ ad airs amid racial baiting in U.S. Senate race
About that ‘white farmer’ ad
The Discrimination Financial Assistance Program was designed to address generations of racial injustice in federal farm policy.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Montana Free Press
This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter featuring expert reporting, analysis and insight from the reporters and editors of Montana Free Press. Want to see Capitolized in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here.
The Crow community was still fuming over a leaked audio recording of Senate candidate Tim Sheehy talking about tribal members “drunk at 8 a.m.” when a new TV ad began circulating about “white farmers” being excluded from a federal farm aid program.
“They’re just saying it out loud, now,” Rae Peppers told herself in disbelief. The ad struck the Crow tribal member and former Democratic state legislator as blatant race-baiting, and it arrived as Tribal Chairman Frank White Clay was being pressured to call out Sheehy about a campaign anecdote that had offended many Indigenous Montanans.
Though the ad never identified the aid program, Peppers recognized it. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had set up a booth at Crow Native Days in June. Tribal members with small farm and ranch operations inquired about debt forgiveness. Peppers said she collected USDA literature to learn more about DFAP, short for Discrimination Financial Assistance Program. In the American West, the 228 Montana farmers who qualified for the assistance are second only to California’s 1,059, according to USDA data.
Just as the ad said, Montana’s incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester had voted for the program, twice, the second time to fix it. Senate Leadership Fund, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s $124 million unaffiliated super PAC, used for supporting candidates and non-coordinated expenses, paid for the ad.
“You know, the USDA runs more than 60 direct and indirect programs for farm aid. And we’re talking about two, possibly just one, for Indians, farmers that have Indianness in them,” said Susan Webber, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe. Webber, a Democrat, serves on the Agriculture Committee in the state Senate. “They [non-Indigenous farmers] get direct payments, they get crop insurance. In 2019 they received $22 billion in government payments. Indians don’t get that.
“The average market value for products sold by a Native American-owned farm is around $50,000 a farm, compared to white-owned farms and ranches, which is approximately $187,000. They’re not the big conglomerates,” Webber said of Indigenous farmers. “They’re just regular farmers. Really, it confirms that Native Americans are just eking out a living. And the commercial has these white disadvantaged farmers saying they’re disadvantaged? They got $22 billion.”
Montana ranks 18th nationally as a recipient of farm aid, according to the Environmental Working Group, a subsidy watchdog. Payments to Montana farmers in 2023 totaled $450 million, with crop insurance accounting for 48%. Ten different programs issued payments to 20,377 applicants, some of whom are counted in more than one program. Two of them are featured in the “white farmer” ad. Still, 61% of Montana farmers received no subsidy.
In eastern Montana, where 82% of the state’s agricultural products are produced, the 2022 ag census counted 640 Indigenous farmers and 29,053 white farmers.
The Discrimination Financial Assistance Program wasn’t a slam dunk for Congress. The first version — the one referenced by McConnell’s leadership fund ad, stalled in court. The $4 billion program was part of the American Rescue Plan, which passed in March 2021.
Scott Wynn, a white farmer in Florida, sued USDA because he didn’t qualify under DFAP’s race-specific loan forgiveness terms, which were designed to address generations of racial injustice in American farm policy. The U.S. District Court, Middle Florida District, blocked the program before it started. Later, Wynn prevailed.
Congress then retooled the program and passed a smaller version within the Inflation Reduction Act in late summer 2022. The terms were broadened to accommodate non-racial forms of discrimination. Tester voted for the Inflation Reduction Act.
The decades-old backstory of the loan-forgiveness program’s funding involves lawsuits filed by minority farmers who suffered decades of discrimination. For Indigenous farmers, the case was George and Marilyn Keepseagle v. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The Standing Rock Sioux couple proved that because of race they had been denied low-interest loans and other USDA services. The government settled, agreeing to forgive $80 million in loans, while also paying $680 million in damages to 3,600 Indigenous farmers.
Two years before Keepseagle was filed, Black farmers sued on the same grounds in Timothy Pigford v. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, leading to a $1.06 billion settlement for nearly 16,000 Black farmers.
Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
Brian Miller won the Democratic primary Tuesday for the U.S. House seat in Montana’s eastern district.
The Associated Press called the race for Miller, an attorney in Helena, who fended off a challenge from state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, a longtime legislator from Box Elder, and Sam Lux, a farrier from Great Falls.
In the Republican and rural eastern district, any Democrat will be an underdog, and Miller will face off against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who was unopposed Tuesday.
Libertarian Patrick McCracken is also running.
In the primary, Miller took 58% of the vote. Lux took 27% and Windy Boy took 16%, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s website.
In April, Windy Boy paused his campaign amid “serious sexual abuse” allegations raised by the Montana Democratic Party — but Windy Boy restarted his campaign and later called the allegations “political attacks.”
Miller is representing the victim of the alleged abuse and her mother, although he said he didn’t take on the role until after Windy Boy initially suspended his campaign.
-
Lifestyle38 minutes agoHow having zero points in tennis — or ‘love’ — came to sound so sweet
-
Technology50 minutes agoAmazon develops a warehouse robot workers can speak to
-
World53 minutes agoAlbino buffalo nicknamed ‘Donald Trump’ becomes sensation at Bangladesh’s national zoo for its blond hair
-
Politics58 minutes agoThe growing list of controversies threatening Democrat Graham Platner’s Maine Senate bid
-
Health1 hour agoNew cancer vaccine delivers stunning result against one of the deadliest skin cancers
-
Sports1 hour agoFan disrupts NBA Finals Game 1 while trying to take selfie with Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama
-
Business1 hour agoHow Google’s 32-million mosquito project could change California’s battle against dengue
-
Entertainment1 hour agoAfter ‘Barbie’ success, Mattel looks to He-Man for another box-office lift
