The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council has voted unanimously to ban Governor Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation in response to her corporate fascist laws rushed into place this winter to criminalize protest against the Keystone XL pipeline. President Julian Bear Runner sent Noem a letter yesterday explaining that until she admits that she was wrong and that the ACLU is right about the First Amendment, she is not welcome on the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe:
Pursuant to a unanimous Oglala Sioux Tribal Council Action as of May 1, 2019, I am hereby notifying you that you are not welcome to visit our homelands, the Pine Ridge Reservation, until you rescind your support for SB 189 and SB 190 and affirm to your state and this country that First Amendment rights to free, political speech are among the truths you hold to be self-evident. Your newly fabricated, unconstitutionally vague notion of “Riot Boosting” is being litigated against and will not stand. We are particularly offended that you consulted TransCanada before introducing these bills but failed to consult the Oglala Sioux Tribe, or any of the sovereign bands of the Sioux Nation, though our treaty lands would be traversed and endangered by the Keystone XL Pipeline.
According to 97% of scientists, climate change is a very real existential threat to humanity – likely the greatest we’ve ever faced. In light of this, it is clear that the First Amendment – which trumps state law – was intended to protect speech of exactly the type your laws attempt to abrogate. The Keystone XL Pipeline was even deemed by a previous president to be so dangerous to our sacred lands and atmosphere that he shut it down. How can you presume to criminalize those who would agree with that previous presidential judgment and hence take vigorous action to resist dangerous infrastructure?
Water and air are sacred; they are required for our continued life on planet earth. Our institutions of politics and economy must evolve beyond their current condition if we expect to continue the human project long into the future. Indigenous nations have honored and defended the sacred since the dawn of humanity.
We have superior legal title to all the land west of the Missouri River that you and/ or big oil seek to trespass and aggress on. These are our lands and our waters. Before you presume to visit our homelands again, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council must rescind its action as of May 1, 2019. If you do not honor this directive – for example, if you were to repeat your recent visit absent permission from our tribal government – we will have no choice but to banish you [President Julian Bear Runner, letter to Governor Kristi Noem, 2019.05.02, transcribed by KELO Radio].
Governor Noem responds that this unanimous tribal council vote is “inconsistent with the interactions she has had with members of the community” and suggests that Indians are hypocrites for asking for flood relief but then being mean to her on the Twitters:
The governor has spent considerable time in Pine Ridge building relationships with tribal members, visiting businesses, discussing economic development, and working with leadership. This announcement from Oglala Sioux tribal leadership is inconsistent with the interactions she has had with members of the community.
It’s unfortunate that the governor was welcomed by Oglala Sioux’s leadership when resources were needed during the storms, but communication has been cut off when she has tried to directly interact with members of the Pine Ridge community.
The governor will continue working to engage with tribal members, stay in contact with tribal leadership, and maintain her efforts to build relationships with the tribes [Office of Governor Kristi Noem, in DeLainey LaHood, “Gov. Noem Responds to Oglala Sioux Tribal Council Decision to Ban Her from Pine Ridge Reservation,” KNBN-TV, 2019.05.02].
We have here a remarkable test of tribal sovereignty: can an Indian tribe station its police at the reservation border and turn away elected officials and other Americans it finds objectionable? Banishment is a constitutionally questionable principle: we can tell the Duke boys they can’t leave the county, but can President Bear Runner really treat Governor Noem the way Bill Janklow treated Canadian hogs?
In related news, on Tuesday, the South Dakota Supreme Court heard a case in which a principal fired from the Marty Indian School argues that tribes don’t enjoy full sovereignty.
Where is the Secretary of Tribal Relations these days and on these matters?
Well, if I am not mistaken, the
Oglala Sioux could ban Gov.
Noem from the entire state of
South Dakota per the Ft. Laramie
treaty because after all they do
Own the entire state.
They could just go round her up
with a hemp rope.
I think this is great, way to go Oglala Sioux, stand up for your rights! I’m worried this will increase the rampant racism problem in SD though.
Another good MPR story. Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz would be fighting for the Reservations there, not going against their wishes. The former Pine Ridge teacher is a true friend to the Native Americans. He wouldn’t be going there weeks after the devastating flooding for photo ops, he would have immediately requested flood recovery money for them. He would have sent the SD National Guard immediate to the Reservations not to the Border. This is what a true caring Leader does, not SDs wishy washy fake leadership.
https://www.leechlakenews.com/2019/04/05/governor-walz-signs-executive-order-expanding-tribal-state-consultation/
Learn from Gov Walz, Kristi.
https://www.minnpost.com/environment/2019/02/walz-in-his-own-words-an-explanation-of-his-line-3-decision/
Walz is the real deal when it comes to respect for the Tribes.
Precursor: I’m an issue by issue voter – party platforms are for suckers in my view. I fall more on the conservative side of issues, but really have no home politically.
The rub:
Noem is a hollow vessel, typical of SD flag waving RINO Neocons who have never really though through the history and impetus of The Constitution. In my opinion, it is philosopher queens like Noem that choose to take advantage of the openness of our society to do horrible things. She is the perfect proxy, a beautiful dashboard for global interests that need low IQ politicians to facilitate resources extraction and export.
This doesn’t mean the tribes are perfect in my opinion (I feel there is a lot of anti-white racism on the reservations that is used to leverage control over non natives), but it does mean Noem is not helping.
Hemp has got to be Noem’s political Waterloo. Why did she chose that hill on which to sacrifice her political cluster of grapes?
Uf da.
Gee, elected tribal representatives are not reflecting constituent wishes you divined by your thorough knowledge and experience on the reservations, kristi? You got barred so your response is ‘divide and conquer?” What’s that t-shirt you wear say? You are never wrong?
Perhaps the tribe shouldn’t have taken the pipelines access money before they decided to make this token gesture.
Well, she got her name in the Washington Post! Ain’t that sumpthin?!?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/03/oglala-sioux-tribe-tells-south-dakota-governor-she-is-not-welcome-their-reservation/?utm_term=.adb548383114
Banned????? Unprecedented! You’ve got to really try hard to piss people off that much.
The two pieces of legislation were horrid, but the insult of talking with the fat cat, nonresident interests before consulting your home state people who would be affected is more horrific and amateurish. It’s an outright betrayal of your own state. Is Steve King moonlighting from Trump and giving political advice to Noem, too?
Noem will be a one-term governor with the string of gaffes she’s committed since taking office. She is not strongly supported by her party, and she appears to be making new enemies every month. She might find a primary opponent on her trail in the next couple years.
The OST has more integrity than the SDGOP. Sorry to insult the OST by using so low a bar.
Hear, hear Debbo. A valid culture, also.
George Stratton, Noem says the pipeline does not cross Indian land. Why then, would the Sioux have accepted access monies?
Noem also said that is the reason Indian tribes weren’t consulted. Trash Can was allowed to help write the riot bill.
Huh?
SB 189 makes the rioters financially responsible for cleaning up their own mess. Looks pro-environment to me.
Trump acolyte and Energy Transfer Partners prostitute greasy governor Krisco isn’t welcome in my house either, and I’m a white guy who doesn’t live on the rez.
Huh?
SB 189 makes the rioters financially responsible for cleaning up their own mess. Looks pro-environment to me.
Figures. It is okay for Trash-Can to not have to pay into the cleanup fund to clean up their messes, why should protesters be charged for legal constitutional acts?
Super Fund clean up tax law expired in 1995 and wingnuts refused to renew it. They shifted the burden of cleaning up korporate environmental disasters onto the backs of taxpayers. Trash-Can does not pay cleanup tax on dilbit because congress decided it is not crude oil for the purpose of taxes.
Littering isn’t constitutionally protected mike.
Steve Hickey, thanks for the question. Noem replaced Daugaard’s tribal affairs man, Steve Emery of the Rosebud, with David Flute of the Sisseton Wahpeton. The Department of Tribal Relations has put up Secretary Flute’s bio, but the most recent information on the DTR’s website appears to be this March 2019 newsletter. The last Department event publicized on the website is a Feb. 26–27 event held at the Capitol. They haven’t updated the Wacipi schedule with any 2019 events.
When I Google “Flute ‘South Dakota’ Noem”, I get a smattering of articles since inauguration with Noem saying what she claims Flute told her in support of her opposition to hemp and her rushed corporate-fascist anti-protest bills, but no direct comment from from Flute yet on the Pine Ridge travel ban.
Mark, notice that President Bear Runner claims legal title only to the land west of the Missouri. She’s safe in Pierre… but perhaps only to the extent that President Lincoln was safe in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.
Hey, 96! Is she as bad as Jason Gant yet?
Yeah, Mike, I’m not seeing the substance on Stratton’s little shout, either. Can anyone find an example of the money he’s talking about that somehow justifies Noem’s corporate-fascist anti-protest bills or condemns the Oglala Sioux response thereto?
No, Greg, we already have littering statutes and other provisions that say people who break stuff have to pay the price. Noem’s anti-protest bills say that if I oppose Keystone XL and I encourage other people to oppose Keystone XL, and if a lot of people show up in West River to protest Keystone XL, and if Noem trumps up some charges on which to arrest all those people, even if they are engaged in peaceful protest, she can then come and charge me for her police-state costs. That’s the real issue to which the Oglala Sioux Tribe is responding.
Care to take another run at your critique?
Curious: I still haven’t heard much opinion on whether the Oglala Sioux Tribe or any other tribe in the state can restrict the travel of any specific individual on public roadways, state or tribal, passing through reservation land. Imagine if the Standing Rock Tribe shut down Highway 12 to Noem Administration officials, or if the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe said we colonialists can’t use I-29 to get from Sioux Falls to Fargo. Can they do that?
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5956614/Mueller-Report-Subpoena-4-18-19.pdf
In related news here is HJC chair NADLER formally requiring AG Barr appear with the unredacted Mueller reports and all evidence thereunder. We know Barr violated the subpoena. Consequences?
Kristi similarly has burned a bridge over the Missouri River. That’s the Cheyene River Reservation filling the western horizon as far as she can see from her office. Like Red Cloud threw out the 1880s Indian Agent, the sovereign Oglalas, who now have the nation’s attention over SD’s flagrantly racist unconstitutional riot “booster” law, are insisting she dump these ill-considered laws and recognize the First Amendment, rather than forcing litigation. Consultation Kristi. Just like Trump you leap before you look. Consequences.
A lot of this going around lately. Trump walks out on Kim Jung Un so North Korea shoots off missiles at Japan. We already fought that war Trump. Republicans don’t do their homework. Consequences.
This is what we get letting Republicans run the table.
Here is a bright light shining upon Native American ingenuity and hard work. Inspiring as well.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/native-american-winemaker-tara-gomez-is-making-history?ref=home
Only Native American winery. think of the possibilities. Hemp or pot wines?