On April 2, Noem was sent away by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Council. In February, the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota did the same thing. It is in both North Dakota and South Dakota that the Standing Rock tribe is located.
In her March 22 statement, which was shared to Standing Rock’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter), Alkire said that Noem should stop making false and unsupported claims and instead work with tribal leaders to increase funding and resources for tribal education and law enforcement.
The head of the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniih) Nations of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in northern Montana, Jeffrey Stiffarm, spoke to the House Committee on Natural Resources about his worries on Wednesday. Stiffarm says that drug cartels have been focused on Indian country on purpose because it is dangerous there because it is mostly rural, people there have a history of addiction, and there aren’t many police officers there.
As he began his speech, Stiffarm said that the federal government was to blame for the drug cartel problem. He made it clear that the FBI only acts on the reservation when someone dies or there is a major crime. Stiffarm also said that a tribal leader from Montana wouldn’t appear in front of the House committee because members of the cartel had threatened to kill him if he did.
Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota says that tribe leaders need to get rid of the Mexican drug cartels from tribal lands right away. In an interview with Newsweek, Noem stressed how important it was to quickly deal with the crimes that these gangs were committing, such as murders, rapes, and drug abuse. She said she felt bad for the towns that were living in constant fear and going through unimaginable tragedies. Not facing the truth about the pain, according to Noem, won’t help, so she thinks that strong action is needed.
She says that it might appeal to the leftist media, but it doesn’t really do anything.
Noem’s office announced on Thursday a new plan to help with the lack of police cops on Indigenous land. The main goal of the initiative is to teach tribal police officers how to deal with this problem successfully.
“This affects all nine of South Dakota’s reservations, which is why we are taking the lead to train more officers as soon as we can,” Noem and state Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a statement.
They told Algin Young, the police chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services, in a letter that they are going to start a new training program this summer in South Dakota. In New Mexico, people who want to become police officers go through a 13-week training program.
Finally, the letter said, “We are excited to work with you to make this groundbreaking opportunity happen and provide much-needed law enforcement services to the communities in South Dakota.”
