A South Dakota tribe barred Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation this week for proposing to send razor wire and security troops to Texas to stop immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and saying cartels are entering the state's reservations.
Effective immediately, you are hereby banished from the Oglala Sioux Tribe's homelands for Oyate safety!" Noem received a Friday statement from Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out. “Oyate” means people or nation. Star Comes Out accused Noem of using the border issue to help re-elect Donald Trump and position herself as his running mate.
Indigenous people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico come to the U.S.-Mexico border “in search of jobs and a better life,” the tribe head said. “They don't need to be caged, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or cut up by razor wire from South Dakota,” he stated.
Star Comes Out addressed Noem's Wednesday speech to lawmakers in which she said the Ghost Dancers are murdering Pine Ridge Reservation residents and are affiliated with border-crossing cartels that use South Dakota reservations to spread drugs across the Midwest.
The Ghost Dance, one of the Oglala Sioux's “most sacred ceremonies,” was exploited with apparent disrespect and is demeaning to our Oyate, according to Star Comes Out. He stated that the tribe is autonomous and not part of South Dakota.
Noem said Saturday, “It is unfortunate that President (Star) Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion about the effects of our federal government's failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands. Working collaboratively to overcome such difficulties is my priority.
“I told bipartisan Native American legislators earlier this week, ‘I am not the one with a stiff arm, here. “You can’t build relationships without spending time together,” she said. "I stand ready to build such a relationship with any of our state's Native American tribes."
Star Comes Out declared a Pine Ridge Reservation emergency in November due to rising criminality. Last year, a court decided that the federal government has a treaty obligation to support tribal law enforcement, but he did not rule on the tribe's money request.
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