MAY 14, 2024, CORRECTION TO MAY 11, 2024, STORY:
UNDATED (AP)- In a story published May 13, 2024, about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem being banned from Native American reservations in her state, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Yankton Sioux Tribe had banned Noem from its reservation. The leadership committee of the tribe recommended Friday that Noem should be banned, but the tribe’s general council must vote on that recommendation before Noem could be banned from the reservation.
MAY 11, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels.
The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on the heels of the backlash Noem faced for writing about killing a hunting dog that misbehaved in her latest book. It is not clear how these controversies will affect her chances to become Donald Trump’s running mate because it is hard to predict what the former president will do.
The leadership committee of the Yankton Sioux Tribe Friday (May 10, 2024) recommended that Noem should be banned, but the tribe’s general council must vote on that recommendation before Noem could be banned from their land in southeastern South Dakota. That discussion came just a few days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate tribe took the same action. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken action to keep her off their reservations. Three other tribes haven’t yet banned her.
Noem reinforced the divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she said publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.
“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum. “But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ’Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.’ ”
Noem’s spokesman didn’t respond Saturday to email questions about the bans. But previously she has said she believes many people who live on the reservations still support her even though she is clearly not getting along with tribal leaders.
Noem addressed the issue in a post on X on Thursday along with posting a link to a YouTube channel about law enforcement’s video about drugs on the reservations.
“Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.”
The tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. She was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.
And there is a long history of rocky relations between Native Americans in the state and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee massacre as part of a campaign to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.
Political observer Cal Jillson, who is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem seems to be “stoking it actively, which suggests that she sees a political benefit.”
“I’m sure that Gov. Noem doesn’t mind a focus on tensions with the Native Americans in South Dakota because if we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson said.
Noem appears to be getting tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor. Noem also drew criticism for including an anecdote she has since asked her publisher to pull from the book that described “staring down” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a private meeting that experts said was implausible.
After those controversies, she canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour. With all the questions about “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” no one is even asking anymore about Noem’s decision to appear in an infomercial-style video lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas who gave her veneers.
Jillson said it all probably hurts her chances with Trump, who has been auditioning a long list of potential vice-president candidates.
“I think that the chaos that Trump revels in is the chaos he creates. Chaos created by somebody else simply detracts attention from himself,” Jillson said.
University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card said that if it isn’t the vice-president slot, it’s not clear what is in Noem’s political future because she is prevented from running for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.
She could go after U.S. Senator Mike Rounds’ seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.
FEBRUARY 5, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- For the second time as governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem has been banished from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe announced last week (Feb. 2, 2024) that Noem is no longer welcome on tribal lands. That’s after she claimed a gang called the Ghost Dancers is affiliated with border-crossing cartels that are killing people on the reservation. The tribe’s president acknowledges the reservation has crime problems. But he said singling out a gang that takes its name from a Native religious ceremony continues a centuries-long history of white officials using the Ghost Dance to instill fear of Native people.
Extended version:
UNDATED (AP)- For the second time as governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem has been banished from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Last week, the Oglala Sioux Tribe said the Republican governor was no longer welcome on tribal lands, and its leaders referred to her rhetoric linking immigration and crime as opportunistic and dangerous.
“Our people are being used for her political gain,” said Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out.
After Noem suggested last week (Jan. 31, 2024) that the state send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to deter crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, Star Comes Out accused her of trying to garner favor from former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Noem also said drug cartels are responsible for murders on the reservation and that they’re affiliated with a gang called the “Ghost Dancers” — which takes its name from a Native American religious ceremony. Historically, U.S. and state officials viewed the Ghost Dance as a threat of violence and sought to ban it, prompting a painful period of history.
Star Comes Out said the reservation has cartel and gang problems, but singling out a gang with that particular name and history felt like another insult to his people. Noem’s mention of the gang, he said, was the first time he had heard of it or its possible presence on the reservation.
Ian Fury, a spokesperson for Noem’s office, said in a Tuesday (Feb. 6, 2024) email, “All the Governor did was say the name of a gang that in fact exists and is in fact committing the crimes she referenced. She didn’t choose the name of the gang — they named themselves.”
Federal and tribal authorities have criminal jurisdiction on the reservations in South Dakota, and Star Comes Out wants more funding from the U.S. for law enforcement. Noem has previously pushed to expand the state’s jurisdiction. In 2018, as a U.S. House Representative, she proposed legislation that would allow federal authorities to arrest people on tribal lands for state crimes. It was widely opposed by tribal leaders, who saw it as a threat to tribal sovereignty.
Here are key questions and answers about the governor’s contentious relationship with the tribe.
WHAT IS THE GANG THAT NOEM REFERENCED?
Tony Mangan, a spokesperson for the South Dakota Attorney General’s office, said the Ghost Dancers are affiliated with a motorcycle gang called the Bandidos. The office does not know if the group is connected to drug cartels, nor does it know if the Ghost Dancers are present on the reservation, Mangan said.
Noem has cited cartels as responsible for homicides on the reservation, though her office didn’t share recent examples. Fury, the governor’s spokesperson, pointed to a 2016 murder on the reservation that was related to a drug cartel, but he declined to provide any information on other gang or cartel-related murders or any connection to the Ghost Dancers.
“Murders are being committed by cartel members on the Pine Ridge reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the ‘Ghost Dancers’ are affiliated with these cartels,” Noem said last week in a speech to state lawmakers. “They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity.”
Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said he had not heard of a gang called the Ghost Dancers until Noem mentioned it in her speech, and that he was unaware of any presence by this gang on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
WHAT IS THE GHOST DANCE?
The Ghost Dance was a religious movement that spread across Native American communities in the U.S. in the late 1800s, after a Paiute elder had a vision that their homelands would be restored and they would be reconnected with their ancestors if they practiced it. He also foresaw the removal of white settlers, whose violence and spread of disease had devastated tribes.
For many, the practice represented resiliency in the face of the tremendous loss brought on by colonization.
The dance involves holding hands and moving in a circle while singing throughout the night. In the early 1890s, U.S. political and military leaders tried to outlaw the Ghost Dance, fearing the movement was a precursor to an uprising in communities it subjugated. Around the country, tribal nations adopted the practice, and in South Dakota it became part of one of America’s most infamous massacres.
In 1890, hoping to stop the spread of the Ghost Dance, federal agents went to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to arrest Chief Sitting Bull, who they believed was behind its influence there. After a dispute, agents shot and killed Sitting Bull and several other tribal members. Following this, a group of about 300 Lakota men, women and children left Standing Rock hoping to reach safety at the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The group was intercepted by U.S. troops, who killed hundreds of Lakota people in what would become known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.
WHY WAS NOEM BANISHED BEFORE?
Multiple times since taking office in 2019, Noem has been at odds with tribal governments.
In response to her support for anti-protest legislation following the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council unanimously voted to ban the governor from the reservation in 2019.
Months later, the council lifted the ban after Noem and the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota reached a settlement, ensuring the state would not enforce parts of the “riot boosting” laws that Noem had crafted.
She also clashed with several tribes during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. When Noem was unsuccessful in getting the checkpoints dismantled, she turned to the Trump administration for help.
Nick Estes, an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said he sees Noem’s adversarial relationship with tribal nations as an attempt to seize a political opportunity and position herself as a strong Republican leader. “It’s obvious signaling to Trump,” he said.
Noem is considered a top contender for Trump’s vice president pick in his re-election campaign.
Star Comes Out said Noem is the first person he has banished since becoming the tribe’s president in 2022. The ban restricts Noem from visiting the reservation.
IS CRIME A PROBLEM ON THE RESERVATION?
Yes. Star Comes Out declared a state of emergency on the reservation in November because of rampant crime that he said hasn’t been curbed due to the U.S. government’s inadequate funding for law enforcement. The state of emergency is still in effect, he said this week.
Last year, a federal judge ruled the U.S. government has a treaty obligation to support law enforcement on the reservation, but didn’t determine a specific amount of funding.
Star Comes Out said conditions on the reservation have worsened since the ruling, prompting him to sign an emergency proclamation, which said the U.S. government has failed “to fulfill the United States’ treaty, statutory and trust responsibilities to provide adequate law enforcement on the Reservation.”
Gun violence, drug offenses and sexual violence have become increasingly common on the Pine Ridge reservation, which is more than 2.1 million acres (849,839 hectares) or at least 4% of the state. Roughly 33 officers and eight criminal investigators are responsible for more than 100,000 emergency calls each year across the reservation, which is about the size of Connecticut, tribal officials have said.
Oglala Sioux officials have contended the tribe is entitled to federal funding for 120 fully equipped officers for the reservation, something the federal government has disputed.
The tribal nation filed a second lawsuit against the U.S. government last month to put pressure them to act.
FEBRUARY 5, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- The Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota has banned Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation, one of the largest in the U.S. This comes days after the Republican governor gave a speech about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The tribe’s president also says he was “deeply offended” when Noem said a gang called the Ghost Dancers is murdering people on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is affiliated with border-crossing cartels. He says Ghost Dance is a sacred ceremony and was referenced with blatant disrespect.
Extended version:
UNDATED (AP)- A South Dakota tribe has banned Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she spoke this week (Jan. 31, 2024) about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and also said cartels are infiltrating the state’s reservations.
“Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!” Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said in a Friday statement addressed to Noem. “Oyate” is a word for people or nation.
Star Comes Out accused Noem of trying to use the border issue to help get former U.S. President Donald Trump re-elected and boost her chances of becoming his running mate.
Many of those arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are Indigenous people from places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico who come “in search of jobs and a better life,” the tribal leader added.
“They don’t need to be put in cages, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire furnished by, of all places, South Dakota,” he said.
Star Comes Out also addressed Noem’s remarks in the speech to lawmakers Wednesday in which she said a gang calling itself the Ghost Dancers is murdering people on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is affiliated with border-crossing cartels that use South Dakota reservations to spread drugs throughout the Midwest.
Star Comes Out said he took deep offense at her reference, saying the Ghost Dance is one of the Oglala Sioux’s “most sacred ceremonies,” “was used with blatant disrespect and is insulting to our Oyate.”
He added that the tribe is a sovereign nation and does not belong to the state of South Dakota.
Noem responded Saturday in a statement, saying, “It is unfortunate that President (Star) Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion regarding the effects of our federal government’s failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands. My focus continues to be on working together to solve those problems.”
“As I told bipartisan Native American legislators earlier this week, ‘I am not the one with a stiff arm, here. You can’t build relationships if you don’t spend time together,’” she added. “I stand ready to work with any of our state’s Native American tribes to build such a relationship.”
In November 2023, Star Comes Out declared a state of emergency on the Pine Ridge Reservation due to increasing crime. A judge ruled last year that the federal government has a treaty duty to support law enforcement on the reservation, but he declined to rule on the funding level the tribe sought.
Noem has deployed National Guard troops to the Mexican border three times, as have some other Republican governors.
In 2021 she drew criticism for accepting a $1 million donation from a Republican donor to help cover the cost of a two-month deployment of 48 troops there.
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