(Headline USA) South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more native tribes prohibited her from their territory, the Daily Mail reported.
Noem has been involved in a tribal dispute after she alleged in March that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations.
“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at the time.
“But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ’Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared,’” she added.
Shortly afterward, the Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes voted to ban Noem from their reservations.
The tensions escalated this month after the release of her memoir, No Going Back, in which she admitted to shooting a 14-month-old hunting dog that misbehaved.
Despite the breakdown in relations with the native tribes, Noem doubled down last week on her earlier comments about tribal leaders’ alleged coordination with drug cartels.
“Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” she tweeted Thursday.
Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty.
We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their… https://t.co/QrR1LpxxdX
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) May 9, 2024
The next day, both the Yankton Sioux and Sisseton–Wahpeton Ovate tribes also voted to ban Noem from their reservations, calling Noem’s comments “injurious.”
In total, there are just three native tribes in the state that have not banned Noem from their territories.
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe spokesperson Alli Moran, however, said last month that all of South Dakota’s tribes “share the same sentiments” regarding Noem, specifically that she does not respect or “fully understand” tribal sovereignty.
