Governor of South Dakota. Kristi Noem he is now banned from almost 20% of his state afterwards two other tribes banished her this week for comments he made earlier this year about tribal leaders profiting from drug cartels.
The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come after the backlash Noem faced for writing about kill a hunting dog who misbehaved in his last book. It's unclear how these controversies will affect her chances of becoming Donald Trump's running mate because it's hard to predict what the former president will do.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to ban Noem from their lands in southeastern South Dakota just days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate Tribe took the same action. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken steps to keep her off their reservations. Three other tribes have not yet banned it.
Noem reinforced divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when he publicly said tribal leaders catered to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.
“We have some tribal leaders who I think are personally benefiting from the presence of the cartels there, and that's why they attack me every day,” Noem told a forum. “But I'm going to fight for the people who are actually living in these situations, who are calling and texting me every day, saying, 'Please, dear governor, please come and help us in Pine Ridge.' We are afraid.”
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Noem's spokesman did not respond to emailed questions about the bans Saturday. But she has previously said she believes many people living on reservations still support her even though she clearly does not get along with tribal leaders.
Noem addressed the issue in a post on social networks Thursday along with posting a link to a YouTube channel about the law enforcement video about drugs on reservations.
“Tribal leaders should take steps 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,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden administration is not doing its job.”
Tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including during the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to avoid unnecessary visitors. She was temporarily kicked off the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.
And there is a long history of difficult relations between Native Americans in the state and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre as apart from a campaign to stop a religious. practice known as Ghost Dance.
Political observer Cal Jillson, who is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem appears to be “actively fueling it, which suggests he sees a political benefit.”
“I'm sure Governor Noem doesn't mind focusing on Native American tensions in South Dakota because if we're not talking about that, we're talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson said.
Noem appears to be 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. to”Face the Nation“, he was asked about a passage in his book about President Biden's dog, Commander, who had been known to bite people in the White House. In the book, Noem writes that if he got to the White House, she would say“Commander, greet Cricket.”
Noem said the “president should be held responsible” for the dog, and when Brennan asked, “Are you saying he should be shot?” Noem shot back, “That's what the president should be held accountable for.”
Noem also drew criticism for including an anecdote he has since asked his publisher to remove from the book describing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “staring down” in a private meeting that experts said was not believable There is no public record of his visit to North Korea or his meeting with the reclusive Kim.
“I've met with many, many world leaders. I've traveled all over the world,” he told “CBS Mornings.” “I shouldn't have put that anecdote in the book.”
After these controversies, he canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour. With all the questions about “No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” no one is asking more about Noem's decision to appear in an infomercial-style video. lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas that gave him veneers.
Jillson said all of this likely hurts his chances with Trump, who has been auditioning a long list of potential vice presidential candidates.
“I think the chaos Trump revels in is the chaos he creates. The chaos created by someone else just distracts him,” Jillson said.
Michael Card, a political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said that if it's not the vice president job, it's unclear what's in Noem's political future because he's barred from running for another term as to governor Noem is in her second term as governor.
He could go after U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds' seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.
