1976 Great Sioux Reservation Tribal Elections

←  1973 November 3, 1976 1980 →
Turnout	83.2% [1] 5.3 pp
Nominee Russell Means Richard A. Wilson Tapa Machunashi Party American Indian Movement Independent National Amerindianist American Redman's Party* Popular vote 46,201 2,100 12,992 Percentage 75.38% 3.4% 21.2%

The 1976 Great Sioux Reservation tribal elections were the first elections held in the newly recreated Great Sioux Reservation, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976 to elect a tribal chairman (also called president). Russell Means won the election against the opposition of former tribal chairman Dick Wilson and Tapa Machunashi. Russell Means officially ran as an independent but received broad backing and support from the American Indian Movement who endorsed him as the tribal chairman. In addition, Tapa Machunashi and the NAARP also ran in the elections but officially endorsed Russell Means following his defeat. In the run up to the election, due to the ongoing Prairie Troubles, a wide coalition of native organisations formed a popular front in the election involving AIM, the NAARP and the Maoist Native Alliance for Red Power.

Following the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 and the start of the Prairie Troubles after the murder of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, tribal elections were held on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Despite AIM winning the primaries, Dick Wilson won the election as a result of electoral fraud. At the same time, Bobby Kennedy's administration began to respond to AIM's demands for the restoration of broken treaties. By 1975, the Great Sioux Reservation was re-established prompting new elections to be held across the reservation. The election was marred by violence as part of the Prairie Troubles. GOONers, native militants, and Neo-Nazis and white farmers participated in political violence involving riots, armed clashes, arson, and bombings. A total of 23 people died, most of whom died in the 1976 Diamond Head bombing, in the leadup to the elections and over 300 were injured.

Ford promised to continue Nixon's political agenda and govern as a moderate Republican, causing considerable backlash from the conservative wing of his party. This spurred former California governor Ronald Reagan to mount a significant challenge against him in the Republican primaries, in which Ford narrowly prevailed. Carter was unknown outside of his home state of Georgia at the start of the Democratic primaries, but he emerged as the front-runner after his victories in the first set of primaries. Campaigning as a political moderate within his own party and as a Washington outsider, Carter defeated numerous opponents to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Ford pursued a " Rose Garden strategy" in which he sought to portray himself as an experienced leader focused on fulfilling his role as chief executive. ^[2] On the other hand, Carter emphasized his status as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington. ^[3] Saddled with a poor economy, the fall of South Vietnam, and the political fallout from the Watergate Scandal, including his unpopular pardon of Richard Nixon, Ford trailed by a wide margin in polls taken after Carter's formal nomination in July 1976. Ford's polling rebounded after a strong performance in the first presidential debate, and the race was close on election day.

Carter won a majority of the popular and electoral votes. He was able to carry several Midwestern and Northeastern swing states, as well as most states in the Democratic-dominated region of the South. Ford dominated the Western states. Carter's victory at the polls was due in part to the backlash against the Watergate scandal that still was deeply hurting Republican candidates. Ford became the only vice-president to become president and subsequently fail to win election for a term in his own right.

As of 2020, this is also the last election in which the Democratic candidate won the majority of states in the South, carrying the states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas (mainly due to Carter's southern roots), and the most recent election in which the losing candidate carried more states than the winning candidate. This is the only election in which California voted Republican while Ohio voted Democrat.

Since the death of George McGovern in 2012, this is the earliest election where at least one of the major party nominees for president (Carter) or vice president is still alive. Ford died in 2006 and both Mondale and Dole died in 2021.

This is the only election in which all 4 major presidential and vice presidential candidates would be their party's nominee for president and lose. In addition to Ford losing this election, Carter would lose reelection to Reagan in 1980, Mondale would lose to President Reagan in 1984, and Dole would lose to President Bill Clinton in 1996.