South Dakota Governor Demands White House, DOJ, Interior, And Congress Crack Down On Reservation's COVID Roadblocks

Small government for me but not for thee.

Walking Permit Patty Meme Kristi Noem is mad as hell, and she’s not going to take it anymore. The South Dakota governor is currently ranting to 911 about brown people who are ignoring her orders and just trying to live. Because after the bangup job Governor Karen Kristi did protecting workers at the Sioux Falls meatpacking plant, the Cheyenne River and Oglala Sioux Tribes decided to enact checkpoints at their own, sovereign borders to protect their members from coronavirus. At which point, all hell broke loose because HOW VERY DARE THEY, and the governor started running to Daddy, Congress and the FBI to make those Native Americans fall in line.

“The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety,” Noem said in April, as she ignored calls for a statewide shutdown order. “They are the ones that are entrusted with expansive freedoms.” Which meant, in practice, that at least 725 employees at the Smithfield processing plant in Sioux Falls were expansively free to contract coronavirus at work before the facility was finally closed last month.

As of today, next door North Dakota has 2,229 covid cases, compared to South Dakota’s 4,177. It’s not a perfect comparison, but both states have fewer than one million people, spread out over a lot of land. Only one of them has a governor who refused to do anything to combat the virus besides kiss up to Donald Trump and volunteer her citizens to be guinea pigs in a hydroxychloroquine efficacy trial.

Indian Country Today reports that the tribal lands at issue sit in counties with extremely low incidence of coronavirus — just 15 cases total. Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation, which covers territory in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, has the highest infection rate in the country, with 2,304 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people. So the Cheyenne River and Oglala tribes decided to proactively employ some of that “expansive freedom” Governor Noem keeps talking about to stop the disease at their own borders by enacting checkpoints.

Some of these checkpoints are on public highways which traverse Indian land, and the governor immediately insisted that they be removed. In an April 8 memo, the Bureau of Indian Affairs agreed that the Tribes could erect such roadblocks, but only after reaching agreement with the affected landowners, in this case the state and federal government. Naturally, Governor Noem, who supports small government and local control (except when she doesn’t), immediately called for their removal.

The tribes say the checkpoints comply with the BIA memo, as the roadblocks comport with South Dakota Department of Transportation parameters, halting cars for just two minutes and allowing emergency vehicles to pass through without stopping. But Noem told Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner in a May 8 letter that her administration would sue if the checkpoints weren’t gone in 48 hours.

In fact, she did not sue. What she did was go running to Donald Trump and Bill Barr and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Rep. Dusty Johnson and  Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds whining that somebody oughtta do something about those pesky sovereign tribes refusing to allow coronavirus transmission on their lands.

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Maybe Bill Barr can take a break from standing up for the rights of churchgoers to congregate in sacred, viral assembly in violation of local ordinance to… force those sovereign Indian nations to buckle under and comply with local laws. AHEM.

In a letter sent to the president yesterday, Noem makes the bizarre and unsubstantiated claim that the checkpoints actually increase the likelihood of viral spread, and demands that the federal government immediately step in and force the tribes to take down the checkpoints to protect the federal government’s “interest in interstate commerce, transportation of critical infrastructure goods, provision of services from critical infrastructure industries, and the uniform treatment of all travelers on a non-discriminatory basis.”

As justification she points to access easements granted to the state and federal governments when the highways were laid down, which she insists cede control of the nation’s borders to the State of South Dakota for all eternity.

“The time has come for federal action,” demands this faithful proponent of small government, local control, and personal responsibility, “and with the enclosures, we respectfully ask for the same.”

Well, at least she didn’t say “Pocahontas.”

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South Dakota governor calls on Trump in tribal checkpoint feud [Indian Country Today]


Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.