South Dakota Native American lawmakers, Gov. Noem renew focus on solutions for reservations

PIERRE — Gov. Kristi Noem defended her remarks about a gang operating on one of South Dakota’s reservations and on the western side of the state Thursday morning.

But after the second-term Republican governor met with two lawmakers from across the aisle about the remarks earlier Thursday, the lawmakers seem optimistic that now is the time to get the necessary law enforcement numbers to the reservations.

During Noem’s Wednesday speech to a joint session of the Legislature about the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and the impact it has on South Dakota, she said Mexican cartels are operating within South Dakota’s tribal areas and are encouraging acts of violence.

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“Murders are being committed by cartel members on the Pine Ridge reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the ‘Ghost Dancers’ are affiliated with these cartels,” Noem said. “They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity. On the other side of the state, there is documented evidence of cartel activities on the Sisseton Wahpeton reservation and others.”

One Democratic representative, Peri Pourier who represents Pine Ridge, immediately took the second-term Republican governor to task.

“To use the disadvantagement of Lakota people to further her national-level ambitions is appalling,” Pourier told the Argus Leader on Wednesday. “To throw Pine Ridge underneath the bus, to create misinformation that there’s a gang called Ghost Dancers that is an affront in our spiritual beliefs, that is an affront to who we are as Lakota people.”

The Ghost Dancers are a sect of the Bandidos, an outlaw motorcycle gang with ties to Mexican cartels.

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Noem said she met with Pourier as well as with Rep. Tyler Tordsen, R-Sioux Falls, an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribe, on Thursday morning to talk about what was said during the speech about cartels operating on the reservations.

“I understand that some of the words they would have appreciated being changed, problem is I didn't name that gang,” she said. “I did speak truth, and everything I said was absolutely true.”

It was not her intention to blame reservations for the drug and violence problems they face and the failure to get adequate law enforcement, Noem said.

Pourier characterized the meeting as frank, and that the three were able to have a conversation about finding solutions to move forward.

“This attention that we have now on this issue, we have to do something meaningful with this because what's happening right now is not, it's the status quo,” Pourier said. “We have the heart, we have the spirit to tackle these issues and I think that we can go far.”

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The meeting Thursday was a way to rebuild broken trust and establish that all parties could come together about agreeing there’s a problem and seeking to find a solution, they said.

Noem told media Thursday morning during a rare press conference that she was hopeful about the possibility of facilitating a law enforcement agreement between the state and the Oglala Sioux tribe as well as filing an amicus brief on the behalf of the tribe as they sue Washington over the fed’s failure to abide by treaties that state the feds will provide law enforcement services to reservations.

Tordsen said he made it clear to the Governor during the meeting that there were eight current tribal lawmakers, and the next time she wants to talk about problems the tribes are facing, they’d like to help her to ensure that there aren’t words or actions taken out of context.

“That consultation with us can go a long way to you know, so it doesn't have to be meetings after the fact,” he said. “I'm hopeful that now her and her team will make sure that we're working on this together.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Noem, Native American lawmakers meet over 'Ghost Dancer' gang remarks