Negative response to esteemed tribal leaders State of Tribal Nations Address

PIERRE – An extraordinary delivery of the State of Tribal Nations address to a joint session of the South Dakota State legislature was met with a negative response filled with innuendo and an easily provable lie from the chief of communications for Gov. Kristi Noem.

In early January, tribal leaders from the nine tribal nations in South Dakota travel to the state capitol to brief legislators on issues of concern to their respective nations.

Every year one leader is chosen to deliver the State of Tribal Nations Address. This year, a highly esteemed Ithancan (Chief) was selected, one whose credentials are impeccable, including work in the addiction and trauma recovery field, suicide prevention, as well as being a decorated United States Marine Corp Veteran, Peter Lengkeek, the Ithancun of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe.

Lengkeek eloquently articulated the concerns of tribal leaders to a joint session of the South Dakota legislature on January 12, 2023. In a gesture of solidarity, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkiers, Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Chairman Clyde Estes, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman Lebeau, Yankton Sioux Tribal Chairman Robert Flying Hawk, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J Garrett Renville were seated next to him as he delivered the address.

After his discourse, State legislators gave Lengkeek a standing ovation. Then state lawmakers immediately surrounded him and the other tribal leaders, shaking hands and stating they appreciated the information shared and that they were more than willing to work cooperatively on many of the issues brought forward.

Believing they were well positioned in making headway toward collaborative efforts between the state and tribes, the Ithancun moved on to a meeting with members of the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations board before returning to Wakpa Sica to finalize the day’s activities.

However just hours after Lengkeek’s delivery, instead of offering a message of reconciliation, Governor Kristi Noem instead chose to censure Lengkeek’s address through her chief of communications Ian Fury, who crafted a scathing, condescending response and sent it to media outlets.

One of the subjects Fury took issue with was the narrative surrounding “Oceti Sakowin Essential Understanding” as a curriculum taught in schools.

Lengkeek had said, “As leaders we need to have an educated constituency who can make informed decisions. We need to address the biases that have existed for generations. By insuring that all South Dakotans understand the Oceti Sakowin culture and history,” and that this could be accomplished by assuring that the South Dakota Department of Education requires all South Dakota accredited schools to teach Oceti Sakowin Essential Understanding as required by existing legislation.

Lengkeek acknowledged that legislation was already in place that required schools to teach OSEU and was merely reiterating the need for all South Dakotans to understand Oceti Sakowin culture and history.

His position was in response to the July 2021, “executive order” signed by Noem calling for state agencies to abide by anticipated legislation to “prohibit any curriculum that requires or encourages students to take positions against one another on the basis of race, sex, or the historical activities of members of a student’s race or sex.”

The reaction of the South Dakota Department of Education to Noem’s Executive order was a proposed change to the states curriculum by removing more than a dozen references to Oceti Sakowin culture and history from social studies standards.

In September of 2021 dozens of protestors marched on the state capitol over the plans to cut some references to local tribes from the state’s social studies curriculum and nearly 600 public comments blasted the deletion of Indigenous history lessons, part of Noem’s plans for “patriotic education.”

Only after pressure from Indigenous groups as well as fellow conservatives, Noem relaunched the standards review process.

However, Fury indicated that Noem, of her own volition, crafted the revision, “Governor Noem’s standards represent the largest emphasis on Native American history of any proposed standards to date. Commission members very specifically focused on the importance of incorporating Native American history by infusing them throughout every grade level, and they contain significantly more references to Native American topics than the current standards. It is important to note that a number of the proposed standards are directly aligned to the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEUs); the Standards repeatedly cite to the OSEUs. Teachers are encouraged to continue using the OSEUs as they address Native American history and civic topics, as well as in other academic content areas where they might be applied.”

Another topic Fury took issue with was the recent series of December storms that blasted South Dakota leaving many casualties in its wake.

Lengkeek in his address stated that the prolonged storm dealt the “consequences of impassable roads, lack of propane to heat homes, power outages, immobility of emergency services and public safety officials unable to reach those in need of emergency services all equated to a heightened state of emergency. A disaster declaration was issued by Crow Creek, Rosebud and Pine Ridge tribal leaders early in the winter storm event. The intent was to raise awareness and hopefully garner emergency support from Federal and state emergency response officials that would mitigate harm imposed by the record breaking winter storm and blizzard conditions, but emergency services were slow to react.”

The storm began on Monday December 12, with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe declaring a disaster and a state of emergency on Friday Dec. 16. Governors Noem’s office on December 22, 12 days after the storm began and 6 days after the emergency declaration, deployed the South Dakota National Guard to assist the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe with firewood and snow removal. By this time seven tribal members had lost their lives to storm related incidences.

However Fury said Lengkeeks comments, “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Another issue Fury took with was World War I and World War II Code Talkers Memorial slated to sit on Capitol grounds on the banks of Capitol Lake.

Lengkeek, a United States Marine Corp Veteran revisited the fact that as a demographic group, tribal members serve at a higher rate per capita than any other nationality in the U.S., and served even before they were granted citizenship or the right to vote.

“Tribal nations honor those who serve and recognize their service and sacrifice. Therefore in the spirit of honoring service, the World War I and World War II Code Talkers Memorial that is slated to sit on the banks of Capitol Lake, needs to be finalized and completed so that our tribal veterans can forever be recognized and remembered for their extraordinary service and sacrifice.”

Nowhere in Lengkeek’s speech does he ask the state for money to complete the memorial and merely states it needs to be finalized and completed.

However, Fury states, “Chairman Lengkeek then blamed the state for the fact that the Code Talker Memorial at Capitol Lake hadn’t been completed. Every veteran memorial at Capitol Lake was built through fundraising by various veterans’ organizations. And that was the plan for the Code Talker Memorial, as well. The fundraising efforts have not materialized, so now they are asking the state to foot the bill.”

Lengkeek states that as tribal nations it is difficult to grasp the frivolous issues SD state legislators prioritize when tribes are dealing with real life and death situations.

“We saw a ban on Critical Race [Theory] in the classroom when it isn’t taught as a concept aside from within a higher learning institution taught to law students and as a theory that has substantial significance in understanding societal and legal processes.

“We saw an issue of gender equality in sports when it didn’t seem to be a pressing matter, considering the many other issues our state faces. Well those issues may have significant precedence in non-tribal communities, tribal nations were busy with truly critical efforts,” he said.

On this issue, Fury outright lied when he states: “In an unprompted diatribe, Chairman Lengkeek also implied that he wants boys to play girls’ sports.” This was Fury’s inference, not Lengkeek’s implication, as is it easy to understand from Lengkeek’s remark that tribes needed to focus on “truly critical efforts,” and not gender equality in sports.

Lengkeek calls for partnerships and reconciliation efforts when he states, “It is time to put aside personal and political discord and recognize and embrace our shared history to the benefit of all South Dakotans. It is time to participate in constant and meaningful consultation which serves to further reconciliation efforts and partnerships among tribal and non-tribal communities and especially between state and tribal officials. There are countless benefits of a functional working relationship between the state and the tribes, achieving an inclusive and accurate understanding of one another of our shared history and acknowledging tribal sovereignty are vital steps in building a respectful mutually beneficial relationship amongst all south Dakotans.”

However it appears from Noem’s condescending and patronizing response through her communications specialist, Ian Fury, she wants to continue the contentious relationship with tribes that she instigated shortly after taking office in 2018.

(Contact Ernestine Anunkasan Hupa at staffwriter@nativesunnews.today)

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