Bluestem's been following the conflict South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem started when, in a late January speech to the state legislature. she claimed drug cartels were operating out of reservations in the state.
Most recently, I posted Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate bans Governor Kristi Noem from Lake Traverse Reservation.
The SWO and four other tribes were joined today by the Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate, the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, in Charles Mix County.
At the South Dakota Searchlight, John Hult reports in Sixth tribal nation bans Noem for comments on cartels, Native children:
Six of the nine Native American tribes in South Dakota have now voted to ban Gov. Kristi Noem from their lands.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe Business and Claims Committee voted unanimously on Friday to ban the governor, citing her comments about drug cartels, Native American children and what one tribal council member characterized as performative rather than substantive efforts to engage tribal leaders.
The committee is the primary elected body for the Yankton Sioux Tribe, whose lands are situated in southeastern South Dakota.
“It’s about standing in solidarity together, all the Oceti Sakowin,” said Council Member Ryan Cournoyer, referencing the name for speakers of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota languages.
Earlier this week, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate voted to bar the governor from the Lake Traverse Reservation for similar reasons. Previously voting to ban Noem were the Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes.
Calls and messages to the leadership of the remaining tribes in the state — the Flandreau Santee, Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux tribes — were not immediately returned Friday.
Gov. Noem’s spokespeople also did not offer an immediate response to the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s vote. Noem has been busy reacting to the fallout from her new book, “No Going Back,” in which she sparked a national backlash by revealing she had fatally shot a dog and a goat. Noem also faced criticism for claiming in the book that she had met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — a claim she and the book’s publisher ultimately retracted.
Beyond tribal solidarity, Cournoyer told South Dakota Searchlight that the governor’s comments during town halls in Mitchell and Winner earlier this year were particularly offensive.
In Mitchell, speaking of tribes, Noem said, “Their kids don’t have any hope. They don’t have parents who show up and help them. They have a tribal council or a president who focuses on a political agenda more than they care about actually helping somebody’s life look better.”
Comments suggesting that Mexican drug cartels have “set up shop” on the state’s reservations have been a sticking point since her delivery of a speech about the U.S. border with Mexico on Jan. 31. Since the speech, delivered to a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature, the governor has written an op-ed column titled “banish the cartels” and claimed without offering evidence that tribal leadership is “personally benefitting” from the cartels.
Noem also angered some tribal leaders during a meeting between the tribes and the federal government in early April in Rapid City. The meeting was about Pè Sla, a stretch of prairie land in the Black Hills considered sacred by the tribes.
She hadn’t been invited, and Oglala Sioux Tribal Council President Frank Star Comes Out criticized her surprise arrival as an unwelcome distraction and a “publicity stunt” meant to bolster her chance at becoming Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Cournoyer was at that meeting, and said the governor “charging in there” with her team made her words about working with tribes to solve problems ring hollow.
“It was more for the media than to show she wanted to work with us,” he said.
The news was heard around the world. Reporting for the British newspaper. The Independent, Josh Marcus writes in Kristi Noem now banned from over 90 percent of tribal land in South Dakota after sixth tribe bars entry:
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is now barred from entering six of the nine Native American reservations within the state, after a vote Friday by the Yankton Sioux Tribe.
Most of the tribes within the state have voted in recent months to bar the Republican leader from their territory, leaving her unable to access more than 90 per cent of the state’s tribal lands and more than 16 per cent of South Dakota’s total landmass.
The bans come in response to controversial recent comments from Ms Noem, accusing tribe members of being absentee parents and in cahoots with drug cartels. . . .
Here's the video from Dakota News Now, which published Gov. Noem banned by 6th Native American tribe in South Dakota:
The South Dakota Searchlight article was republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Photo: From Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan.
Related post
- Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate bans Governor Kristi Noem from Lake Traverse Reservation
- Tensions continue between Noem, tribes
- News update on Noem's pairing reservations, tribal leaders with cartels; Rep. St. John's reply
- Noem calls for audit of tribes; ICT News/Rapid City Journal reporter finds the receipts
- Malice: she's on it. Tribal leaders insulted after Governor Noem claims they "are personally benefiting from the cartels being here
- In Winner, Noem links tribal leaders to cartels
- SWO Dakota to Governor Noem: don't single out reservations when drugs are a statewide problem
- Noem banned from Pine Ridge Reservation over remarks in border speech to state legislature
- Explaining and gaining? Noem concedes Texas costs were gift to Lone Star state; meets with two South Dakota House tribal members
- Drug cartels have infiltrated reservations, Noem says, but some tribal voices call speech ‘political’
- Noem to address Legislature on ‘potential South Dakota response’ to Mexico border situation
- No word on who paid or if she packed razor wire: Noem travels again to Texas-Mexico border
- South Dakota Searchlight: Tribal leaders urge legislators to support reestablishment of Lake Traverse Reservation boundaries
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