South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said that Mexican drug cartels are making it easier for crime to happen on Native American land in her state. As a result, a third Native American group has told Noem she can’t visit their reservation.
In a news release on Wednesday, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said that Noem would be sent away by the tribe’s council. A few weeks ago, Janet Alkire, the chairwoman of the tribe, spoke out against Noem’s comments in a statement posted on social media. She said that the governor’s “crazy and irresponsible attempt to connect tribal leaders and parents with Mexican drug cartels is a sad reflection of her fear-based politics.”
Noem was banned from two other Native American reservations earlier this year after telling the South Dakota Legislature in January that some drug cartels “have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity.” Noem was a close friend of former President Donald Trump.
A town hall meeting in March was where she repeated her claims. She said that some Native American leaders were “personally benefiting” from Mexican cartels working in their land and that kids who live on these reservations “don’t have parents who show up and help them.”
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Council sent Noem away on April 2 and the Oglala Sioux Tribe in February. Both of these tribes are based in South Dakota. The reservation at Standing Rock is in both North Dakota and South Dakota.
Instead of making false and poorly researched claims, Alkire said, Noem should work with tribal leaders to get more money and tools for tribal education and law enforcement. The statement was posted on March 22 to Standing Rock’s account on X, which used to be called Twitter.
Noem has become a leading Republican voice in the fight to stop people from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. She has previously responded to calls to remove her from tribal land by telling X in a video statement last week that what she said about drug cartel activities on South Dakota’s reservations was “true.”
“There are dangerous cartels in South Dakota, and they’re instigating drug addiction, committing murder, rape, human trafficking and so much more,” Noem told us. “Because of this, I told all of our tribal leaders to get these drug cartels off of tribal land.” Instead, some people want to send me away. “That doesn’t make our problems go away.”
According to a February story by NBC News, some Mexican drug cartels had made deals with Native American tribes in Montana to get illegal drugs into the state. According to the report, law enforcement officers and tribal leaders said that Indigenous women were “often prime targets” of drug cartel members, who would use the women’s homes as “bases of operations” after getting to know them.
President 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 on Wednesday. He said that drug cartels “are specifically targeting Indian country because of a dangerous combination of rural terrain, history of addiction, and under-resourced law enforcement.”
During his opening remarks, Stiffarm also said, “I put the blame for the drug cartel crisis squarely on the shoulders of the federal government.” He also said, “The FBI doesn’t do anything on the reservation unless there is a death or serious crime.” Also, he said that a different tribal leader from Montana didn’t want to appear in front of the House committee because cartel members had “death threats” against him.
“The Mexican drug cartels should be sent away right away by tribal leaders,” Noem told Newsweek on Friday. “They are responsible for murders, rapes, drug addiction, and many other crimes on tribal lands.” “Every day, people in the communities have to deal with unspeakable horrors and tragedies. Banning me for telling the truth about the pain doesn’t help solve the problems.”
“It may play well for the leftist media, but in reality, it’s pointless,” she said.
Due to the “well-document shortage” of officers on Indigenous land, Noem’s office revealed a new plan on Thursday to train tribal law enforcement officers.
In a statement, Noem and state Attorney General Marty Jackley said, “This hurts all of South Dakota’s nine reservations, so we are taking the lead on training more officers as soon as possible.”
Jackley and Noem told Algin Young, the police chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services, in a message that the new training program would take place in South Dakota this summer. According to the letter, people who want to become police officers are currently trained for 13 weeks in New Mexico.
“We look forward to working with you to accomplish this history-making opportunity and providing desperately needed law enforcement for South Dakota communities,” it said.
