South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is now banned from nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banned her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders profiting from drug cartels.
The latest developments in the ongoing tribal conflict follow the backlash Noem faced when she wrote about killing a misbehaving hunting dog in her latest book. It is not clear how these controversies will affect her chances of becoming Donald Trump’s running mate, as it is difficult to predict what the former president will do.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to banish Noem from their lands in southeastern South Dakota, just a few days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate Tribe took the same action. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken action to keep her off their reservations. Three other tribes have not yet banned her.
Noem deepened divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she publicly said tribal leaders were targeting drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.
“We have a number of tribal leaders who I believe personally benefit from the presence of the cartels, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum. “But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in these situations, who call and text me every day and say, ‘Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are afraid.’ ”
Noem’s spokesman did not respond to emailed questions about the bans on Saturday. But she has previously said she believes many people living on the reservations still support her, even though she clearly doesn’t get along with tribal leaders.
Noem addressed the issue in a post on X on Thursday, along with posting a link to a YouTube channel about a law enforcement video about drugs on the reservations.
“Tribal leaders must take action to banish the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden administration is failing to do its job.”
The tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including during the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests in Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation boundaries to keep out unnecessary visitors hold. She was temporarily banished from the Oglala Sioux Reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.
And there is a long history of rocky relations between the state’s Native Americans and the government, dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children during the Wounded Knee massacre as part of a campaign to to stop religious belief. practice known as the Ghost Dance.
Political observer Cal Jillson, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal conflict feels a little different because Noem “seems to be actively fueling it, which suggests she sees a political advantage in it.”
“I’m sure Governor Noem doesn’t mind focusing on tensions with Native Americans in South Dakota because when we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about shooting the dog,” Jillson said.
Noem appears to be growing tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor. Noem was also criticized for including an anecdote that she has since asked her publisher to remove from the book that described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “staring down” during a private meeting that experts said was unlikely .
After those controversies, she canceled several interviews scheduled as part of the book tour. With all the questions surrounding “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” no one is asking anymore about Noem’s decision to appear in an infomercial-style video praising a team of cosmetic dentists. in Texas who gave her veneers.
Jillson said this will likely hurt her chances with Trump, who has auditioned a long list of potential vice presidential candidates.
“I think the chaos that Trump enjoys is the chaos that he creates. Chaos created by someone else simply takes attention away from themselves,” Jillson said.
University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card said that if it is not the vice presidential spot, it is not clear what Noem’s political future is because she cannot run for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.
She could go after U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.
