The Oglala Sioux Tribe will not participate in Governor Kristi Noem’s Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit on June 24, 2024
PINE RIDGE – President Frank Star Comes Out announced today, that the Oglala Sioux Tribe will not participate in Governor Noem’s Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit in Pierre on June 24, 2024. Instead, we will be celebrating Victory Day of the Oceti Sakowin of the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 2024.
Star Comes Out stated, “This is nothing more than a divide and conquer tactic on the part of Governor Noem to deflect from her false accusations that a crisis exists because drug cartels are operating on the Sioux reservations.” He said that: “We recently met with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rapid City and we were told by an Assistant U.S. Attorney that there are no drug cartels on our reservation.”
“The Sioux tribes and their governments are older than the State of South Dakota and have been exercising sovereignty over the territory long before South Dakota became a state in 1889.”
“Noem contends that South Dakota has no jurisdiction over the Sioux tribes and their members on their respective reservations. However the tribes had to fight Legal battles with the State of South Dakota for decades, especially after the enactment of Public Law 280 in 1953 when Congress allowed states like South Dakota to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction on their reservations without their consent.”
“The Sioux tribes eventually worked together to sponsor a state referendum, which defeated state, criminal and civil jurisdictions on all Sioux reservations in South Dakota in 1964.”
“Public Law 280 was amended in 1968 and now requires a referendum of tribal members on reservations, conducted by the Secretary of the Interior, before South Dakota can assume civil, criminal jurisdiction on the Pine Ridge and other reservations.”
Furthermore Star Comes Out stated “the 1883 Ex Parte Crow Dog case stated that the Sioux tribes have complete authority to govern their own members under the 1868 treaty and 1877 Act.”
Star Comes Out stated that “the Oglala Sioux Tribe has a nation to nation relationship with the Federal Government. We do not need the State of South Dakota and its Governor to intermeddle with our internal affairs on law enforcement, trafficking or other issues challenging the tribe. Instead, Noem should improve law enforcement within her own state in which the Mexican drug cartels are actually operating and bringing illegal drugs to our reservations. Lack of state law enforcement in South Dakota is actually contributing to the importation of illegal drugs on our reservations. She needs to clean up her own backyard.”
Frank Star Comes Out stated that “she should not be injecting her own politics and misconceived view that drugs emanate from the reservations and blaming the Biden Administration for this problem that has existed for decades, including under the previous Trump Administration and her own Administration.”
Star Comes Out states that “Noem is interfering with our internal governmental affairs by requesting audits of our tribal government when in fact the government already requires yearly audits under the Single Audit Act. The tribes need to stay united on Noem’s false accusations that the Mexican Cartel members are operating on the Sioux Reservation and not attend her summit.”
For more information contact: Valerie Adams, Public Relations Coordinator, Oglala Sioux Tribe vadams@oglala.org
The post The Oglala Sioux Tribe will not participate in Governor Kristi Noem’s Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit on June 24, 2024 first appeared on Native Sun News Today.
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June 3, 2024