South Dakota Governor Banned From Tribal Reservation

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been banned from the Pine Ridge Reservation after voicing support for Texas’ effort to secure the southern border.

Gov. Kristi Noem spoke about wanting to send support to Texas in their effort.

In response, tribe President Frank Star banned Gov. Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has banned South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she said razor wire and security personnel should be sent to Texas to help deter migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border. https://t.co/gjDrkZh0f9 pic.twitter.com/F0CmH1pqST

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 5, 2024

The folks at Fox News share more:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was banned from the Pine Ridge Reservation after speaking about wanting to bolster the U.S.-Mexico border by sending razor wire and security personnel to Texas, adding that cartels are infiltrating the state’s reservations.

Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out issued a statement on social media on Friday regarding Noem’s comments.

“Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe,” Star Comes Out said in a Friday statement addressed to Noem. “Oyate” is a word for people or nation.

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In a four-page letter shared on Facebook, Star Comes Out accused the South Dakota governor of using the issue at the border to get former President Trump reelected while boosting her chance of becoming his choice for vice president.

Star Comes Out said he believes many people coming to the southern border in search of jobs and a better life are indigenous people from places like El Salvadore, Guatemala and Mexico and do not deserve to be “dehumanized and mistreated” by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and “his cohorts.”

“They don’t need to be put in cages, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire furnished by, of all places, South Dakota,” Star Comes Out said.

See what Kristi Noem said on the southern border crisis here:

Joe Biden is weak — and he’s not running the White House. pic.twitter.com/vPhWseklx2

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) February 4, 2024

Interestingly, President Trump seems interested in bringing Kristi Noem as his Vice-President:

Trump brings up Tim Scott and Kristi Noem when asked about his pick for Vice President

pic.twitter.com/V0XVJBEKjl

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 4, 2024

The Washington Post shares more on the story:

In November, the Oglala Sioux Tribe declared a state of emergency on the Pine Ridge Reservation — a 3,500-mile tract about 60 miles southwest of Pierre — due to increasing crime, according to the Associated Press.

Many of those arriving at the border are Indigenous people coming “in search of jobs and a better life” from countries that include El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, Star Comes Out said in his Friday statement.

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“[They] don’t deserve to be dehumanized and mistreated by people like [Texas] Governor [Greg Abbott] and his cohorts,” he said. “They don’t need to be put in cages, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire.”

Noem was previously barred from Pine Ridge Reservation in 2019 during a years-long feud over the Keystone XL oil pipeline, as previously reported by The Post. “If you do not honor this directive,” wrote the tribe’s then-president, Julian Bear Runner, “we will have no choice but to banish you.”

The tribal council removed the ban in December 2019, after Noem said the state would not enforce some parts of anti-riot laws, according to the Rapid City Journal. Tribes said the laws were developed to target their protests.

The pipeline project was scrapped in June 2021.

In her response to Friday’s directive, Noem said she wants to work on relationships between the state and the Oglala Sioux.

What do you guys think?

Would Kristi Noem be a good choice for Vice-President?