Last fall, South Dakota gained national attention with its drug awareness slogan, Meth. We're on it.
Now, Noem wants to deal a someone different hand to South Dakota's native communities.
The spotlight's on Governor Kristi Noem again in a fight with Native American nations in the state who are using the doctrine of sovereignty to protect their citizens from COVID-19. At CNN, a team of staffers reported Monday morning in South Dakota's governor threatened to take two tribes to court over coronavirus checkpoints. Here's what to know:
A group of 17 South Dakota legislators urged the state's governor to try to reach a compromise with two tribes that have added checkpoints to help control the spread of the coronavirus.
The lawmakers said in a letter dated Saturday that they did "not wish to be party of another lawsuit that will ultimately cost the people of South Dakota more money.
>"We wish to work with all parties involved for a reasonable, legal, and appropriate solution that addresses the concerns of all sovereigns involved."
Instead, the lawmakers asked the governor to meet with members of both tribes "to negotiate a resolution that reflects our combined goal of keeping all people healthy and safe."
Tribe leaders say the checkpoints were put in place to control the spread of the virus and keep their community safe. But South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's office said Sunday checkpoints on US and state highways are illegal and threatened to take the matter to federal court if they aren't removed.
Read the rest at CNN. At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger reported Sunday on a possible motive on the governor's part in Noem Demands Tribes Remove Coronavirus Highway Checkpoints; Sovereign Lakota Leaders Decline:
Having two large chunks of South Dakota enforce stricter pandemic control measures and report notably lower rates of infection than the paler parts of the state upends Noem’s effort to say that her hands-off wish-it-away approach to coronavirus works well. But how Governor Noem would bring the tribes in line with her preferred ideology and force the removal of tribal checkpoints from roads on reservation territory is unknown. In a conference call with legislators on May 5, Governor Noem herself appeared to concede that she does not have jurisdiction over the tribal checkpoints…
To paraphrase the old state slogan: Death. We're on it.
The BBC News gets on the story with Monday's Coronavirus: South Dakota Sioux refuse to take down 'illegal' checkpoints:
Sioux tribes in the US state of South Dakota are refusing to remove coronavirus checkpoints they set up on roads which pass through their land.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem wrote to several tribal leaders last week saying the checkpoints were illegal.
But the Sioux say they are the only way of making sure the virus does not enter their reservations.
Their limited healthcare facilities would not be able to cope with an outbreak, they say.
At present, people are only allowed to enter the reservations for essential business if they have not travelled from a Covid-19 hotspot.
They must also complete a health questionnaire before doing so.
Ms Noem is threatening to take the two tribes - the Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribes - to federal court if they do not comply.
In a letter sent to their representatives on Friday, she demanded the checkpoints be removed.
"The checkpoints on state and US highways are not legal, and if they don't come down, the state will take the matter to federal court, as Governor Noem noted in her Friday letter," her senior adviser and policy director, Maggie Seidel, said in an email sent to the local Argus Leader newspaper on Sunday.
Tribes are meant to get permission from state authorities if they want to close or restrict travel inside their reservations. . . .
The chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, Harold Frazier, issued a statement in response to the governor on Friday, saying: "We will not apologise for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death."
"You continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation," he added.
"We will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death": Chairman Harold Frazier @CRSTChairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe responds to #SouthDakota @govkristinoem over #Coronavirus checkpoints. #COVID19 #Sovereignty https://t.co/5T9xqj0jVj pic.twitter.com/vuQwjIqG83
— indianz.com (@indianz) May 8, 2020
Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner says Ms Noem's decision "threatened the sovereign interest of the Oglala people".
"Due to the lack of judgment in planning of preventative measures in response to the current pandemic, Covid-19, the Oglala Sioux Tribe has adopted reasonable and necessary measures to protect the health and safety of our tribal members and our other residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation," he is quoted as saying by the Argus Leader.
Mr Frazier says the main purpose of the checkpoints is to monitor and try to track the virus. "We want to ensure that people coming from 'hotspots' or highly infected areas, we ask them to go around our land," he told CNN.
"With the lack of resources we have medically, this is our best tool we have right now to try to prevent [the spread of Covid-19]," he added.
He says the reservations are ill-equipped to deal with a coronavirus outbreak, with the nearest critical care facilities three hours away.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe only operates an eight-bed facility on the reservation and no intensive care unit for the 12,000 people that live on the reservation, he adds. . . .
On Sunday, Aliana Beautiful Bald Eagle reported in the West River Eagle Story, State Legislators to Noem- State has no jurisdiction over the highways running through Indian lands, cite 1990 ruling and blogger Heidelberger on Monday in 17 Legislators Defend Tribal Coronavirus Checkpoints.
Seventeen legislators have signed a letter to Governor Kristi Noem telling her to drop her demand that the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe remove their coronavirus protection checkpoints from highways entering their reservations. The letter, dated May 9, defends the tribal public health interventions as legal under treaty, federal law, and case law . . .
The case to which the legislators refer appears to be Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of South Dakota (1990), in which the Eighth Circuit held that “Absent tribal consent… the State of South Dakota has no jurisdiction over the highways running through Indian lands in the state.” The court began its ruling by quoting the following passage from the South Dakota Constitution, a passage so nice we wrote it twice, in Article 22 and Article 26:
…we, the people inhabiting the state of South Dakota, do agree and declare that we forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundary of South Dakota, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States; and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States… [excerpt, South Dakota Constitution, Article 22 and Article 26 Section 18].
Subsequent federal law opened the door for the tribes to cede jurisdiction, but the Governor of South Dakota cannot impose state jurisdiction on Indian land without tribal consent. Given Governor Noem’s antagonistic stance toward the tribes and the deep and justified historical fears Native people harbor of white folks bringing disease, it’s unlikely any such tribal consent will materialize. Governor Noem is threatening to sue the tribes, but shaking her Jason Ravnsborg doll at the tribes will inspire tremblings of laughter, not fear.
Tribal communities are more remote, have less access to health care, and have many members who are more susceptible to illness. The tribes thus have a keen interest in taking stronger measures than Governor Noem to stop the spread of coronavirus. The legislators standing up for that Indian sensibility include all sixteen members of the Democratic caucus and one Republican, Rep. Tamara St. John of Sisseton.
Three of the signers, Senator Susan Wismer, Steve McCleerey, and St. John, represent Senate District 1 where we live. St. John is the tribal archivist for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation, and has broken with Noem on community issues like Noem's riot-boosting laws in the past, so her signature on the letter isn't a surprise.
Read the letter at either article.
It's not an idle concern. On May 1, Danielle Ferguson reported in the Argus Leader article, 'It will be our Smithfield': Tribal leaders worry of COVID-19 spread on Lake Traverse Reservation:
Leaders of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe in northeast South Dakota are worried about rapid spread of COVID-19 on the Lake Traverse Reservation because people aren't following social distancing recommendations.
The reservation has the most COVID-19 cases of all South Dakota tribes, said Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate public information officer Tom Wilson. At least five have been confirmed in the district, three of which are in one household in the Enemy Swim District.
"It's giving the community a scare," Wilson said Friday.
The reservation has an indefinite stay-at-home order, but some people haven't been taking it seriously, he said.
In a Facebook Live event Thursday, tribal chairman Donovan White said people in the reservation's seven districts need to stay home . . . .
The Watertown Public Opinion reported on May 4 in COVID-19 cases hit Enemy Swim housing site:
One teenage boy is on a ventilator at a Sioux Falls hospital and another four Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate members have confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to Tom Wilson, spokesman for the tribe task force dealing with the coronavirus.
The outbreak has occurred in a tribal housing area near Enemy Swim Lake. A checkpoint has been established at the entrance to the development, and tribal officials are restricting who can enter or leave.
Wilson said all tribal members are under a 24-hour curfew except those with essential jobs or having to travel to grocery stores for supplies.
He said the source of the current outbreak has not been identified. He said there have been previous confirmed cases in and around Sisseton but didn’t believe those were the cause of the latest cases. . . .
That being the case, we respect the actions of our Lakota neighbors to the West--and wish the Governor could do the same. As Harold Frazier said, no one should "apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death."
But just two hours ago, South Dakota Public Radio's Lee Strubinger reported in Noem Doubles Down On Lawsuit Over Tribal Checkpoints:
Governor Kristi Noem is reiterating her commitment to taking two tribes within South Dakota state lines to federal court over checkpoints on highways entering their reservations.
The two tribes are declining her request, saying the checkpoints will help them contact trace the COVID-19 pandemic if it reaches tribal communities.
In a letter to the press over the weekend, Maggie Seidel—senior advisor and policy director for Governor Noem, says the state needs unobstructed access to state and US highways for thru-traffic.
Both the Presidents and Chairmen for the Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes say they’re not only allowing traffic through the reservation, but have consulted with the state about their checkpoints.
Seidel says the lawsuit threat by the state comes after hours of communication behind the scenes with tribes. However, they do not consider that as consultation with the tribes. She says no agreement was reached.
The state points to a department of interior memorandum that states it’s unlawful to interrupt the flow of traffic on state and US highways within reservation boundaries. A 1990 ruling by the Eighth Circuit Court finds that—absent tribal consent, the state has no jurisdiction over highways running through “Indian lands.”
Troy Heinert is a democratic state lawmaker whose district covers the Rosebud Reservation. He, along with four other native state lawmakers, are asking the governor to let them help facilitate communications with the tribes.
“Instead of working with tribes—or saying ‘Okay, that’s not how we’re doing it, but if that’s what you guys need to do, then more power to you,’” Heinert says. “But, getting us involved in—whether it’s a lawsuit that, I’m tired of paying for lawsuits that the state of South Dakota loses—or creating distrust and animosity. That is not helpful to the greater good either.”
Heinert says the state is not recognizing the inherent right of tribal sovereignty handed down by treaty, congress and the supreme court.
He says he hopes the governor gives him a call.
Sovereignty. The lawmakers and the tribes are on it. Noem? Not so much.
For some background on Noem's relationship with South Dakota's tribal communities, check out Levi Rickert's Even Before the Road Checkpoint Issue, Tribes Faced a Rocky Road with South Dakota Governor. at Native News Online.
Related post:
Logo: We took some liberties with South Dakota's notoriously tone deaf anti-meth messaging. That tone-deafness seems to be a problem for the governor. Perhaps she could talk to the lawmakers and the tribes and get some much needed help.
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I don't live in South Dakota, or belong to a tribe, but I'm horrified that the S.D. governor will further reduce the tribes' ability to take care of their people's health and safety.
Posted by: Edna Garte | May 11, 2020 at 02:59 PM