Sheehy says comments about Native Americans were old, selectively edited

Since recordings of U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy surfaced characterizing Crow Native Americans as “drunk Indians,” he has been publicly silent about those recordings, despite numerous calls to apologize or explain his remarks.

On Friday, Sheehy made an appearance on FOX News and was given a chance to clarify those comments, but instead told the host that they are old recordings, and suggested they were edited to make him sound poorly.

The cable news anchor begins: “There are reports of you saying some less-than-kind things about the Native American population in Montana. Do you want to address this?”

“As you know, they’ll take recordings from years ago, chop them up and make them sound, you know, evil,” Sheehy said.

Since the story was first broken by the Char Koosta News, which is the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation, it is the first time that Sheehy has publicly questioned the validity of the recordings. Sheehy is also leading in most statewide polling, in some cases, extending his lead beyond the margin-of-error in those polls over three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat. The comments were taken from a pair of recordings, separated by several days.

The first recording was from an event Sheehy held in Shelby:

“My ranching partner and really good friend, Turk Stovall, he’s a Crow Indian and we ranch together on the Crow Reservation. So I’m pretty involved down there, going to the Crow Reservation and their annual Crow parade this year.  I rope and brand with them every year. 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 one that you miss, you get a Coors Light on the side of your head.”

The second event was at an event held in Hamilton in which Sheehy can be heard saying:

“I strapped on a Sheehy sign to a horse and rode through the Crow Parade and if you know a tough crowd, that’s (it). They let you know if they like you or not. There’s Coors Light cans flying by your head as you’re riding by. You know they respect that. You go where the action is and they say, ‘You know, the guy’s not that bad. He rode the horse through the parade. That’s cool.’”

After raising concerns about the recordings and if they were edited, Sheehy went on to say that he’s clocked more hours in Montana’s Indian Country than his opponent, Tester.

“The reality is, you know, I spend more time in our tribal communities than Jon Tester ever has. You know, we rope and run together on the Crow Reservation. You know, we run alongside them,” Sheehy said on Friday. “And the reality is, what they’re trying to do is package a narrative, because they’re desperate. They’re looking at these polls that show them down.”

The Daily Montanan reached out to Char Koosta staff on Friday afternoon, but calls and emails were not immediately returned regarding the handling of the audio recordings.

Sheehy also characterized the recordings as being from “years ago” but both of the recordings were made within days of each other in November 2023, according to Char Koosta’s information.

Earlier this month, Crow Tribe of Indians Chairman Frank White Clay said in a letter Sheehy’s comments contained misinformation and perpetuated stereotypes, saying Sheehy was “out of touch with Indian Country and out of touch with Montana Tribes.”

“Time Sheehy’s racial remarks about the Crow Tribe and Indian Country are deeply troubling and unacceptable,” he wrote in the Sept. 8 letter.

Darrell Ehrlick is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Montanan, a nonprofit newsroom.