South Dakota Governor banned from all Tribal lands for Statements About Drug Cartels on Reservations.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem

South Dakota’s Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe (FSST) voted on Tuesday to ban disgraced Governor Kristi Noem from the tribes land. Flandreau is the last of the state’s 9 official

Native American tribes to bar the governor from entering the reservations.

As outrage builds from Native communities across the Midwest, tribal members of the FSST joined the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Yankton, and Crow Creek reservations in issuing the ban after Governer Noem's comments in the last few months.

Noem has publicly said Native American community leaders were:

"catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor."

and,

 "Tribals 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. We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job."

on May 17th Noem doubled down saying:

"We believe that this federal neglect has resulted in the cartel and their affiliates moving into our reservations and increase in overdoses, an increase in crimes and violence, a proliferation of drugs that we’ve seen in recent years, and even drugs and guns that are more present on our school properties.”

Peter Lengkeek, president of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe replied to Governor Noem's comments:

"We do not have cartels on the reservations. 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."

Crow Creek Reservation President Peter Lengkeek

Regardless if the US-Mexican border is over 1000 miles and 3-4 states away from these reservations, Kristi Noem continues to push the false narrative that drug cartels are running wild on reservations, dealing fentanyl, recruiting the youth, and wreaking havoc on communities despite tribal leaders claiming this as blatantly false.

Governor Noem has already been caught lying earlier this month about meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in her new memoir when experts on the subject say Kim Jong Un didn't leave his country in the 7 year timeframe Noem claims she met with him. Noem's publisher removed it from the book shortly after.

Some may wonder if Governor Noem has seen the recent success of the Oglala Lakota Tribe from Pine Ridge in their efforts to legalize both medicinal & recreational marijuana and wishes to use the false narrative of Mexican drug cartels to bring more regulation and law enforcement to the reservations.

As reported by the Lakota Times in 2022, 23 licenses have been issued to 14 businesses on the rez by the Marijuana/Cannabis Commission that include 13 cultivators, 4 processors and six dispensaries.

Pine Ridge is a rural and particularly tough area for economy and industry to thrive due to the geographical location and extemely few job opportunities.

The tribe legalized cannabis in 2020 in hopes of raising morale and creating more opportunities for the Lakota youth and surrounding residents.