Chicken Kristi never followed up on her threat to take the tribes to court for setting up sensible coronavirus checkpoints at the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Reservation borders. But the Cheyenne River Sioux are taking their checkpoints to court to protect them from the sneaky machinations they allege the feds deployed on legally hapless Governor Noem’s behalf to thwart their superior public health interventions:
The tribe filed the lawsuit Tuesday alleging that since Noem’s White House plea, the federal defendants have been abusing their power to coerce te tribe to dismantle its checkpoints. Alleged coercion against the tribe included potential monetary penalties and threats to cut off its law enforcement contract and COVID relief. When that didn’t work, the tribe contends the defendants have tried to take over tribal law enforcement, “imperiling tribal public safety as well as public health” [“South Dakota Tribe Sues Feds to Keep COVID-19 Checkpoints,” AP via U.S. News and World Report, 2020.06.24].
The tribe is suing Donald Trump, White House officials, and leaders of the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. According to Arielle Zionts’s read of the complaint, the rot includes Trump chief of staff Matt Meadows and White House coronavirus doc Deborah Brix:
[Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold] Frazier and other staff had a June 15 call with Meadows, Dr. Deborah Brix—the coronavirus response coordinator—and other White House officials. The head of the Indian Health Service and a representative from the Centers for Disease Control were also on the phone.
Brix said the checkpoints should be removed because South Dakota’s infection rate had already peaked and the tribe should instead focus on testing people who live on and visit the reservation. She did not acknowledge tribal barriers to health care nor the success of the tribe’s comprehensive COVID-19 prevention plan [Arielle Zionts, “Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Sues Federal Government to Keep COVID-19 Checkpoints,” Rapid City Journal, updated 2020.06.24].
The White House official coordinating our response to this resurging pandemic is telling an Indian tribe to drop an effective pandemic prevention plan and instead adopt a less far-reaching plan for which the tribe lacks resources to guarantee comparable effectiveness and for which the White House is actually withdrawing its financial support. Wow—it’s one thing for Trump’s failure of leadership to produce an incompetent federal response. It’s another thing (one possible term for it: genocide) to try stopping other governments from taking effective action against coronavirus.
But watch out, tribes: with word out that tribes plan to protest Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore (and yes, tribes and allies, please do, as nothing could be more American than vigorous protest on the anniversary of our Founding Fathers’ ultimate protest), Noem and Trump may send their jackboots to commandeer the checkpoints next week to prevent Indians from leaving the reservations to head west for the celebration of the Great White Fathers.
jerry addressed this story on another DFP thread and I posted some legal discussion there. It looked to me like the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) made incorrect claims about the contents of federal regulations and that Noem relied on those mistaken claims to support her efforts to force the Tribe to bend to her will regardless of the cost to Native lives. Essentially the BIA wrote that an agreement between the Tribe and the State was required by the regulations, although it appears there is no such requirement in the sections of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) cited by the BIA memo.
Here is the link to that earlier analysis of the BIA memo and the CFR provisions:
https://dakotafreepress.com/2020/06/22/italy-recovering-nicely-from-coronavirus-u-s-stuck-in-stupids/#comment-210183
White folks who live in South Dakota are so blinded by their racism and hate for Indians that they cannot see GNOem is killing them with her lies to feather her nest. Pennington County lost another one today from Covid and more sick here also. We now know that the numbers nationwide, including South Dakota, are wildly off to the tune of 10 times higher. So GNOem has to invent something that will take the stank off her and her dealings with the Covid. Enter the Indians, perfect for South Dakota. GNOem could solve this very easily, test test test.
“The White House removes states with the limited spread of COVID-19, like Hawaii and Wyoming, from its list of places of concern, despite their high percentage increases, because they are seeing just several dozen cases.
The US is testing about 500,000 patients per day. On a per-capita basis, the US rate falls behind several other countries, including Spain, Australia, Russia and Iceland, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
There is no scientific consensus on the rate of testing needed to control the virus. But many experts say the US should be testing roughly one million to three million people daily to catch new cases and prevent flareups.”
South Dakota is on the verge of many more unnecessary deaths and long term health issues because of GNOem’s failed leadership. White people of South Dakota will look the other way while they die and sicken because of their blindness to the racism and hate of Indians. Why do the rest have to walk on the same path? Wake up South Dakota, GNOem is killing us all.
The Roger Cornelius Memorial Cartoon by Marty Two Bulls,
https://www.gocomics.com/m2bulls/2020/06/25
Addresses this problem.
I can’t wait to see the courts drop bombs on Noem and Trump on this issue. I would think that Dr. Brix’s direct involvement in trying to kill Indians would draw some serious national protest. Maybe we’ll see some Red Lives Matter caravans coming to raise heck next week.
Will the court expedite the hearing on this suit? It seems to be an urgent matter; how soon could a judge take up the complaint?
Jerry you’re spot on. Corey when I get my small acreage I’m naming the first hen Kristi.
I wonder if she’s sleeping well knowing that 1. the Rez is doing better at COVID prevention 2. and forest fire prevention (see the news re: pine ridge ban on fireworks) with her little 4th of July party coming up at the six grandfathers. I guess she can at least say she won’t be in Russia on the holiday.
You love to see it. Native Americans standing strong, guided by their cultural roots, against imperialist forces all around them. Young people know the Tribes are right, both morally and legally. Look for Zoomers and Millenials to join them in solidarity … that would be beautiful.
The fallacy Jason is that tribes don’t have legal budgets Republicans, the GOP, the Trump administration we pay for, Red states, Red associations !(RAGA), industry, and right wing funding, billionaires and politicians’ re-election resources-which defeat the underdog EVERY time. Neither does the left have the ability to fund such massive legal battles. Legal horsepower wins every time.
Take money out of politics, elections and cronyism. The power of ideas might then prevail.
Tunkasila-speed to the Indians.
Watching old time TV, 50s-60s, of cowboys and Indians stories. Issues of those times are depicted: exploitation of treaties, western migration and opening settlement, military failure to enforce treaties and white treaty violations. Civilized but foolish white ladies, likely with a Gone With the Wind accents and manners, supping w/ honorable officers. Miners shooting anyone and everyone with ubiquitous rifles and hip shooters. The Indians are made out to be stupid and primitive, even the honorable Chief losing knife fights to the handsome wagon boss. The ordinary soldiers and the inept rogue officer, stupid and greedy too. The morale movie star, always the white male, does the right thing. The surprises are that the weighty issues and answers conveyed for the last 60-70 years by this mass media form have not taken root in the white supremacists of today. Very instructive-Val Kilmer.
Yet the television media, the major networks vilified mostly on the right, still brought the uncomfortable truth to the surface, despite being in business for profit.
At this moment Trump/GOP/Republican party is creating its own lying “fourth estate” of propaganda to stay in power and keep Trump out of prison for four more years. Sinclair. Fox News. Rupert Murdoch. Rush Limbaugh. Voice of America world wide. RT. They are still messaging that the pandemic is a political hoax! Very expensive tragedy for the rest of us.
The top national law enforcement officer, appointed DOJ traitor Bill Barr denies evidence of continuing racism in public safety but says it is “obvious” Mueller, the House, the FBI, CIA and the rest are wrong about Trump’s corruption by Putin and many other foreign influences. https://billmoyers.com/story/russian-military-intelligence-put-bounties-on-american-soldiers/
All Kristi knows about governing she learned from Gun Smoke.
Who yah gonna call? The press.
drumpf body count hits another new milestone today…..
Deaths:
128,089
On February 26, President Trump boasted that the coronavirus was about to disappear altogether from the United States. “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” he insisted.
It was also a hoax. The laughs are on us, I guess.
It’s not surprising that few have their panties in a bunch over the Blackfeet Nation barring the eastern access to Glacier National Park.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-closed-border-pandemic-weary-tourists-and-a-big-bottleneck-at-glacier-national-park/2020/07/10/607694f2-c2c0-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html
It makes sense protecting vulnerable populations. NOem, get a clue.