Noem banned by another Native American tribe in South Dakota

Another Native American tribe in South Dakota has banned Gov. Kristi Noem (R) from its reservation after she commented earlier this year that tribal leaders benefited from drug cartels.

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in central South Dakota voted Tuesday to ban Noem from its reservation, citing her cartel comments, the tribe confirmed on social media.

The vote means six of the nine reservations in the state have banned Noem from visiting. The Yankton Sioux Tribe, which governs the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota, has not formally banned Noem from visiting, though the tribe’s business and claims committee supports a ban.

“The people voted unanimously to ban her along with the tribal council for her derogatory remarks about the tribes and cartels,” Kyle Loudner, a council member with the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, told The Dakota Scout. “And about the remarks she made about the children being nobodies their whole lives because of the parents.”

The Hill has reached out to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe for further comment.

“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,” the governor said at a forum in March.

“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,” Noem said, referencing the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in her state.

Peter Lengkeek, chair of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, pushed back against this allegation, stating the tribe does not have cartels on the reservations, NPR reported.

“We have cartel products, like guns and drugs. But they pass over state highways getting to the reservation. So, putting us all together like that and saying that all tribes are involved in this really shows to the ignorance of the governor’s office,” he said, according to NPR.

A spokesperson for Noem argued the tribes’ banning of the governor does not resolve the issue. 

“Banishing Governor Noem does nothing to solve the problem,” the spokesperson told The Hill. “She calls on all our tribal leaders to banish the cartels from tribal lands.”

Relations between Native American tribes in South Dakota and Noem have been strained since she took office in 2019, but her recent comments have further fanned the flames.

Some tribes have accused Noem, who has been floated as a potential running mate for former President Trump, of making decisions to help Trump’s campaign efforts.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe spokesperson Alli Moran told The Hill last month that numerous tribes “share the same sentiments” regarding Noem, specifically that she does not respect or “fully understand” tribal sovereignty.

Noem defended her comments despite the bans, urging tribes to support her law enforcement initiatives last week.

“[Tribal] 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,” Noem wrote. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.”

The battles with tribes in South Dakota continue a difficult political stretch for Noem, who has faced separate backlash over an anecdote about killing her dog included in her new memoir, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.”

The South Dakota governor revealed how she shot her 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer on her property several years ago after taking it pheasant hunting. She wrote she “hated” the dog and claimed it was responsible for attacking a neighbor’s chickens and tried to bite her.

Noem defended her actions in the wake of criticism, arguing the incident and her willingness to share it showed her authenticity and ability to make difficult choices.

The negative news has many thinking Noem is no longer on the Trump vice presidential shortlist, though the former president this week said of Noem: “We all have bad weeks.”

“I think [Noem’s] terrific. A couple of rough stories, there’s no question about it,” Trump said to conservative podcast hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton in an interview that aired Tuesday. “And when explained — the dog story, people hear that and people from different parts of the country probably feel a bit differently, but that’s a tough story.”

The former president seemed to suggest Noem was not entirely to blame for the book’s contents.

“Until this week, she was doing incredibly well. And she got hit hard, and sometimes you do books, and you have some guy writing a book and you maybe don’t read it as carefully, you know,” Trump added. “You have ghostwriters too. They help you, and they, in this case, didn’t help too much.”

This story was updated at 3:49 p.m.