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Department of Tourism Helpfully Discouraging Reservation Travel During Sturgis Rally

With Sturgis about to become the largest coronavirus experiment in the country (something like phone booth stuffing, but with far greater risk), Governor Kristi Noem has apparently decided to get on board with the isolation measures South Dakota’s tribes have adopted to protect themselves against the disease reckless white folks bring. Instead of fighting the highway checkpoints tribal leaders maintain at the borders of the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge reservations, Governor Noem is now advertising them and encouraging Sturgis-bound bikers to stay away from them:

Two state government agencies are advising motorists headed to the Sturgis motorcycle rally they will face tribal traffic checkpoints on two reservations in South Dakota.

…The state Department of Tourism is asking businesses to relay to travelers the Pine Ridge Reservation is allowing traffic through, but people should expect to be stopped at checkpoints.

The state Department of Transportation has published maps showing checkpoint locations….

Tourism officials have distributed information about the checkpoints and about COVID-19 [Bob Mercer, “Sturgis Rally Travelers Shouldn’t Go Through Cheyenne River Reservation,” KELO-TV, 2020.08.03].

Coronavirus creates a weird world in which our state Department of Tourism can justify discouraging tourists from visiting certain areas of our state. Certain Second Floor staffers may take some perverse pleasure in diverting visitors and dollars from Indian Country. But reservation residents may be more than happy to have the Governor’s help in keeping tens of thousands of unwanted visitors away from their vulnerable populations. There are plenty of Sturgis and Black Hills residents who wish the Governor would encourage 250,000 bikers to avoid Sturgis, too.

11 Comments

  1. John

    A friend of a sister recently completed a national park vacation tour – from Utah to Glacier to the Badlands – 7-9 in total. She reports that everywhere they went folks wore masks — except South Dakota. Here the luddites almost never wore a mask.
    It’s long past the time for a national mask mandate complete with $500-1000 spot fines.
    Bury the mask slackers before they bury us.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/mask-protests-1918.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200804&instance_id=20953&nl=the-morning&regi_id=99709970&segment_id=35161&te=1&user_id=28a88da2e4cbab4e64445987168ba610

  2. mike from iowa

    It certainly doesn’t hurt to question the motive of the state steering visitors away from the Rez. This wouldn’t be near the first time wingnuts showed animus towards POC.

    Maybe this will make wingnuts happy….

    Coronavirus Cases:
    4,874,786
    Deaths:
    159,401

    I mean, they and their scumbag orange whiner in the kremlin annex, are totally responsible for this hoax.

  3. Tim Higgins

    2,366,721 Recovered Corona Cases

  4. mike from iowa

    drumpf body count…

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    4,918,389
    Deaths:
    160,287

  5. jerry

    2,366,721 Dead men walking. No such thing as recovered with Covid.

  6. Debbo

    Tim, while they’re out of the hospital, they may likely have damage to their lungs, heart, brain, spleen, kidneys or other organs. Oh yeah, and blood clots ready to fire off to the heart or lungs or brain and kill them in a few minutes.

    So not “recovered,” just discharged from a hospital.

  7. Eve Fisher

    Between Huset’s speedway, the Sioux Empire Fair, and the Surge from the Sturge – we should have a lot of COVID-19 to take into the school year.

  8. Debbo

    Editorial cartoonist Steve Sack on the idiocy of the rally.

    is.gd/8nUpKi

  9. Good cartoon, Debbo. The Aberdeen American News ran that cartoon in this morning’s edition. We should post that cartoon on our local gas station bulletin boards, see how long they stay up.

  10. Or maybe we should work on some Rushmore replicas with Trump’s face added, along with a Reaper’s hood and scythe.

  11. Debbo

    Both ideas are good. Go for it.

Comments are closed.