All nine tribes in South Dakota have officially banned governors Kristi Noem of their country.
The executive council of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe voted Tuesday to banish South Dakota’s governor from their reservation after she made disparaging comments to Native American parents during a town hall in Mitchell earlier this year, saying their children “have no hope ‘.
She has also consistently claimed that Mexican drug cartels “have a presence” on Indian reservations in South Dakota.
This has put Flandreau Santee Sioux leaders under pressure from their citizens to punish Noem for her comments.
Before the decision, Tyler Rambeau, executive administrative assistant for the FSST Homeowners Assistance Fund, said Argus Leader tribal citizens had urged council members to banish Noem.
“A lot of us are really wondering why it’s even a question and why we’re putting it off for so long,” Rambeau said. “A lot of us feel really uncomfortable and angry about that.”
The tribe’s council office was unusually busy on the day of the executive council meeting. Tribal members sporadically entered the tribe’s meeting rooms — open only to Flandreau Santee Sioux citizens — to listen to what one attendee described as a “pretty heated discussion” before heading outside for a smoke break amid a morning-long rainstorm.
More: Who is Kristi Noem? Everything you need to know about South Dakota’s governor
An Argus Leader reporter caught executive council members David Ross and Jonathan Schrader Sr. during a lunch break. In very brief remarks, Ross and Schrader Sr. said. that the council remained undecided.
“We’ll know later,” Ross told the Argus Leader.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is the last Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribal government to approve Noem’s banishment and the eighth to make it official.
“We must stand in solidarity with our fellow South Dakota tribes, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ,” Rambeau said. “We don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history at this point.”
More: A ghostwriter explains why Kristi Noem’s new memoir is hard to find in Sioux Falls
The decision comes after tribal leaders met with Noem
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe released a statement Monday reporting on a May 19 meeting between tribal leadership and Noem in Pierre, which they characterized as “respectful and productive.”
The tribe included a statement from Noem: “It was never my intention to cause offense by speaking the truth about the real challenges facing some parts of Indian Country. I want to focus on solutions that lead to safer communities for all our families, better educational outcomes for all our children, and declining addiction rates for all our people. I hope that the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe will give us the opportunity to work together in a way that can be an example to all.”
The Yankton Sioux Tribe Business and Claims Committee voted unanimously in favor of Noem’s sentence on May 10.
However, Courtney Sully, secretary of the Yankton Sioux, said the tribe’s general council has yet to adopt an official action.
Noem’s cartel-tribal rhetoric dates back to January
The governor began her cartel-tribal rhetoric on Jan. 31, when she held an emergency joint session during the state’s annual legislative session. In an 18-minute speech, Noem described to state lawmakers that “the Texas-Mexico border” was under an “invasion” by migrants. She also claimed, “The cartels are using our reservations to facilitate the spread of drugs throughout the Midwest.”
More: Kristi Noem says drugs from the southern border are infiltrating South Dakota reservations
Noem ramped up the rhetoric in March when she suggested without evidence that tribal leaders “personally benefit” from the cartels during a town hall event in Winner. She later called on tribes to “ban the cartels” in a press release in April.
On Friday, the second-term governor spent part of a 51-minute news conference in Pierre deploring the seven previous banishment measures and continuing to emphasize her claim that Mexican cartels are using South Dakota’s Indian lands as “safe havens” to move drugs distribute in the region. stands.
The Argus Leader contacted Noem spokesman Ian Fury for comment. He pointed back to the governor’s comments during her news conference Friday.
“Banning me does absolutely nothing to solve this problem,” Noem told reporters on Friday. “All it does is help those who perpetuate the terrible violence and crimes against the people of South Dakota.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: All nine tribes in South Dakota support the banishment of Governor Kristi Noem
