PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem is asking for more direction from Washington in her checkpoint standoff with two South Dakota tribes.
“The authority on U.S. highways and with state highways lies with the federal government and they need to take enforcement actions in those cases if the law is not being upheld,” says Noem in an exclusive interview with the South Dakota Broadcasters Association. She’s asked South Dakota’s congressional delegation for help in the standoff.
The Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge reservations have checkpoints at state and federal roads. Noem is calling for them to limit the checkpoints to tribal or BIA roads only.
The tribes, so far, are refusing to budge, saying they’re just trying to protect their people from COVID-19.
But South Dakota Tribal Affairs Secretary, David Flute, says politics may be involved, that disagreements with the administration over oil pipelines may have been a springboard.
Flute, sitting alongside Noem in the SDBA interview, reminds the tribes that he was himself once a tribal chairman. He appeals to the history of Native Americans talking through treaty obligations with the government.
“They talked through those challenges. That’s what disheartened me, as a Dakota, that speaks my language, knows my culture, knows my history,” Flute appeals to the tribes to sit down and talk it out.
Noem says that Cheyenne River Chairman Harold Frazier has her cell phone number. He can talk or text anytime about the checkpoints.
