South Dakota governor tells Sioux tribes they have 48 hours to remove Covid-19 checkpoints

[rogue emissary]

Source: CNN

(CNN)The governor of South Dakota has given an ultimatum to two Sioux tribes: Remove checkpoints on state and US highways within 48 hours or risk legal action.

Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters Friday to the leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demanding that checkpoints designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on tribal land be removed, the governor's office said in a statement.

"We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against Covid-19," Noem said. "I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints."
CNN has reached out to both tribes for comment.

According to Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe checkpoint policies posted on its social media, its reservation residents may travel within South Dakota to areas the state has not deemed a Covid-19 "hotspot" if it's for an essential activity such as medical appointments or to get supplies unavailable on the reservation. But they must complete a health questionnaire when they leave and when they return every time they go through a checkpoint. . . .

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/09/us/south-dakota-sioux-tribes/index.html

---

So much for all those Republican arguments for state right/self-governance BS.

[Newest Reality]

1. Every time...

We know it is a fact. What Republicans argue for is themselves and they are the ultimate hypocrites. What they say is tactical. Whatever they say shouldn't be done they will do in heartbeat if it serves their perverse agendas.

It is not surprising or a shock. As a strategy, being fully aware of this is important. If their voters really understood that, it might change their perspective. Being a good, maybe excellent, liar is more like a pathological issue than it is a selling point.

They speak with a forked tongue.

[Igel]

12. A lot of people don't like states rights.

You like decriminalizing marijuana in states like Colorado? There. You like states rights just as much as the (R).

How about when states implemented marriage equality laws when DOMA was in place. Oooh ... Another place where we liked states rights.

When you realize that all the blather is rationalization for what we feel and want and not reasoning from first principles, it's easier to say, "They're just acting emotionally. Like us." Of course, they have to come to the same realization, and it's easiest to start with the smarter of the two groups, right?


Now, to the idea of checkpoints. When the US implemented bans on travel from China, people cried out it was racist and ineffective. The NYT pitched a fit; the WaPo tizzied. Same for the ban from Europe. In retrospect, tweedeletion has worked to bring the past into conformity with the present (tres a la soviete), but the actual reality remains the same. Then when some states wanted to impede travel from NY because of viral spreading, people pitched a fit. "States rights? F--k that. Got no use for states right. Pass the weed."

The Sioux want to lock themselves down, no problem. But they're doing it on public roads. Imagine if Wheeler Ridge, in California, wanted to impose checkpoints on roads leading into and out of town. Like Gallup did, but differently. (Both are good examples.)

The two little burgs could impose checkpoints leading to the road. And trust their citizenry not to act badly. Or they could impose checkpoints, as the Sioux did, on the roads themselves. In the case of Gallup, I-40 would then be shut down. It would affect Flagstaff and Albuquerque, but it's a main truck route. Wheeler Ridge would shut down California state route 99 and I-5, which are the main ways in and out of Los Angeles leading to the valley and SF. "Main truck route" is like calling Los Angeles "a little burg."

It's a matter of degree--and a few hundred miles added on to transportation times--in S. Dakota. Same principle. The problem isn't control over your own citizens, it's flexing muscles in a kind of quasi-imperialist way.

[GusBob]

16. I live and work on an Indian Reservation

We have had checkpoints, curfew and stay at home for 7 weeks now they are all necessary. We have zero COVID cases knock wood. Weve had no issues with the checkpoints. Not many non native tourists want to visit an Indian Reservation I reckon

I only leave the Agency once a week and you go thru the checkpoints then.

To your point: the checkpoints are on Tribal boundaries only, which is proper. Blocking interstates is unnecessary, IMO.

The health of an at risk First Nation is of course a huge issue, but I tend to agree with you, there are political power games on both sides here

Also could be a legal thing, trying to address meth and human trafficking with missing Indigenous Women. Both big problems along with COVID

[txwhitedove]

22. We appreciate your input. Keep protecting yourselves. ❤️

[reACTIONary]

29. +10 nt

[onecaliberal]

2. Or what?!?

[turbinetree]

3. I will send money to the tribes...............

[FarPoint]

37. I didn't realize that a Governor

could make demands on Tribal Issues..???

[turbinetree]

41. Its kinda hard to do, the federal government is the intermediary, that why there is a BIA

she has to treat the tribe as sovereign nation...............its like in some reservations the gaming industry has to go through the tribes or the tribes have there own games, reason why the trumpster got pissed off............... lets go back and seen his racism shall we...........just like this current governor sitting the SD .............this is about racism....

[roamer65]

4. Message to SD Native Americans.

Tell Noem to go fuck herself.

She’s a useless bag of shit.

[mopinko]

6. gmta

[bluestarone]

7. EXACTLY!

With you 100%

[sinkingfeeling]

9. +1000

[turbinetree]

32. And at one point in her career she was the Snow Queen in 1971............

she still has that fucking attitude of let them eat cake.................she really is a racists ........

I guess she forgot that the natives are in the Manifest Destiny Constitution that they have to treated like sovereign nation..........., but she never read that part................

[roamer65]

33. Snow Queen.

[niyad]

36. Every time I hear about her, I think of the Alaska grifter. Are hey related?

[turbinetree]

43. Ah yes, those fond days of the you betcha.......

[forthemiddle]

40. Michigan Native Americans are opening the casinos on tribal land Monday

Should they tell Whitmer to go fuck herself too?

They are planning to do so, despite Her order not too.

[FarPoint]

42. Tribal rules...

I give them their autonomy...

[forthemiddle]

45. I'm not sure opening casinos is the best decision right now

But I’m conflicted because I also believe in tribal autonomy.

The problem with casinos is that they invite in the general public.

[FarPoint]

47. I agree with the concerns.

The biggest problem is we have No National Leadership...No wondering as to why the Tribes loose logic ....the leadership has caused CHAOS.

[niyad]

44. Link?

[forthemiddle]

46. Here's two, but I'm honestly not familiar with either

https://witl.com/michigans-tribal-casinos-about-to-get-into-it-with-the-gov/

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/tribal-casinos-may-be-headed-clash-whitmer-nessel-over-reopening

[niyad]

50. Thank you. First link informative. Sovereign tribal nations do not have to consult with the governor

Opening day was scheduled for 16 May, day after stay-home originally set to expire, before extension. Talks ongoing now.

As to second link, I hesitate about BridgeMI. Cynical and suspicious creature that I am, I have doubts about a group that keeps incessantly insisting they are non-partisan (think Clear Skies group). Nobody has told me any different.

[turbinetree]

48. Everything that is on the tribes reservation is dictated by the tribe, the tribe had to vote to open

this up, then that responsibility rests on the tribes shoulders and anyone that goes on that land is subject to the rules of that land...................

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/tribal-casinos-may-be-headed-clash-whitmer-nessel-over-reopening

[roamer65]

61. It will be years before I set foot in a casino.

[DBoon]

5. So we are still murdering Native Americans with contagious diseases

And the governor is complicit in murder

[roamer65]

8. THIS!!!!!!!!!

[2naSalit]

11. And loving it since it brings praises from

the orange one.

[kimbutgar]

10. Aren't they sovereign on their land?

Why would the governor do this unless she wants extermination of the tribes?

[2naSalit]

13. THere's your answer.

The Dakotas (the states) are very hostile toward the indigenous folks. They are sovereign nations and she can go fuck herself. Idaho and Wyoming often pull similar shit, they are almost always in court fighting to retain their rights.

[roamer65]

34. I think we should give the Dakotas back to them.

A autonomous Native American nation.

[cstanleytech]

21. Unfortunately it's not that easy. Why? Well first you have the issue of right

of way and a land owner not being able to prevent access to some other land.
Kind of like that wealthy asshole I read about that is trying to do to turn a public beach adjoining his land into a private one by denying access.
Next is the issue of it being a state road and those two things are essentially the problem unless of course the treaty gives the tribes the power to stop and intercept traffic on state roads that cross their land.
If the treaty gives them that power then the governor needs to go fuck off.

[ripcord]

31. The state was granted right of ways for highways across Native American lands

The tribes have been compensated for the right of ways. The right of ways extend 50 feet on either side of the highway so legally the tribes can't block the highways but they can block people from leaving them.

[niyad]

54. But we're they compensated at fair market value?

[Squinch]

14. What a creep.

[Ms. Toad]

15. This is the state exercising its right of self-governance

So much for all those Republican arguments for state right/self-governance BS.

The state of South Dakota is exercising its "right" to control highways - even when those pass through a sovereign nation. Absent Federal laws, SD would not be required to recognize native rights exist at all. So this is perfectly consistent with their world view.

[certainot]

17. sack a shit asshole republicans

[catbyte]

18. Fuck the governor. Reservations are sovereign territory under US vs Mazurie (1975)

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. To Gov. Kristi Noem, from the Tribe: "Yuta chesli" !

[abakan]

20. Can they do that?

It is my understanding the native tribes are sovereign nations and are not bound to state law.
Has this changed?

[Initech]

23. So much for the "pro life" argument too.

[Wellstone ruled]

24. Not going to end very nice.

Noem is so clueless and only listens to her NRA hate filled neighbors. Funny how this is playing out,Noem and Others refused to supply Voting Booths or recognize or suppress most Natives from voting in the last election cycle.

[world wide wally]

25. It's their country when you think of it, asshole

[JI7]

26. Trash Noem wants to kill them off

[Warpy]

27. Getting dictatorial and telling them to suck it up is not going to work.

A tribe here in NM blocked all state roads going through their rez a few years ago over a major tiff about casino profits. Nobody sent in the National Guard, nobody threatened, nobody was all that nasty about it. It did force the state to negotiate in somewhat better faith with them.

Tribal land is sovereign land and a road easement doesn't cancel that out. Not only that, my sympathy is with the Lakota people, they've got to be watching what's happening here, a holocaust of disease on the Navajo rez, which has gotten a lot of publicity outside the state. There's a long and bitter history of people bringing diseases to them.

[niyad]

28. "We"re stronger when working together- as long as you do things MY way (not that I am doing

Anything remotely useful or life-saving). How DARE you take this plague seriously and try to protect your people!"

Go spend several shifts in one of the packing plants, you clueless twit, with no protective gear, no social distancing. Preferably etween two covid-positive workers.

[rockfordfile]

53. That's what it sounds like

[reACTIONary]

30. If a member of a tribe....

... wants to get in her car and drive on a state road off the reservation, she should be able to do so without being stopped, questioned, or made to explain anything. Just like any other American living anywhere else. More power to her.

If my local township tried to set up road blocks on mainstreet (let alone my HMO) l would be right royally pissed off and would expect the state to assert its authority.

[niyad]

38. Perhaps you could provide a link to articles where tribal members object?

[reACTIONary]

51. Is it an entirely....

... Voluntary checkpoint? Or is it run by a tribal law enforcement authority? If its not entirely voluntary, then it is an infringement on the equal rights of tribal members to the same liberties enjoyed by any other traveler on a state highway.

[niyad]

55. Again, please provide a link.

[reACTIONary]

56. A link to what? A violation of civil liberties ...

.... does not require some specific individual to complain to be recognized as an injustice.

[niyad]

57. You made reference to what you implied was a specific woman, a specific incident. So, is there a

link, or are you just making assumptions?

Civil liberties vs tribal sovereignty, or did I miss something?

[reACTIONary]

58. OK, I understand...

... no, there is no specific woman I was referring to. I was presenting a hypothetical situation to illustrate what I consider to be an unacceptable restriction.

"IF my local township tried to set up road block..." (It did not, but if...)
"IF a member of a tribe wants to get in her car and drive on a state road ...." (Maybe there is no such person, but if...)

I did find a link to the Bureau of Indian Affairs memorandum that explains the latitude allowed for closing state owned roads on tribal lands.

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/rapidcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/39/f3916ae9-2096-57b4-a372-23350cd2245f/5eb61803b538e.pdf.pdf

[Ford_Prefect]

35. What happens if we turn this back on the Governor: Keep your disease carrying minions off our land.

And by the way, you have 48 hours to vacate the premises...

[Turbineguy]

39. Interfering with the spread of a communicable disease

is completely forbidden in a republican paradise.

[Bayard]

49. I'm sure they don't want the same outbreak that the Navaho have right now.

"When we work together", as in--shut up and do what we want.

[keithbvadu2]

52. Outer Banks (near Kitty Hawk area) in NC had an effective checkpoint allowing entry to locals only.

Outer Banks (near Kitty Hawk area) in NC had an effective checkpoint allowing entry to locals only.

[RobinA]

60. Yikes!

there’s a big chunk of authoritarian for you. I find most checkpoints Constitutionally suspect.

[Faux pas]

59. Kickin' with disgust!

[captain queeg]

62. Isn't Wounded Knee in SD? Just historical perspective