Combatting the Cartel Crisis: at Home and at the Border
By: Governor Kristi Noem
May 17, 2024
“The State of South Dakota lacks criminal jurisdiction over Indian Country crimes; thus, in reality, the sole provider of law enforcement services to the Oglala Sioux Tribe is the federal government. We believe this federal neglect has resulted in the cartel moving on to our reservation, an increase in overdoses, and a proliferation of guns on our school properties.”
Those comments were made by the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Frank Star Comes Out. And I agree with him 100%. The same man who said these words led a movement to banish me just two months later for speaking the same truth. Clearly, many tribal leaders would rather play politics to try and hurt me, rather than work with me to help their people succeed.
Banishing me does nothing to solve this problem or to help those who are suffering horrific tragedies.
Yesterday, I returned home from the dangerous, deadly warzone at our nation’s Southern Border. South Dakota National Guard soldiers have helped the Texas National Guard construct miles of border wall in 100-degree weather to keep the American people safe – and keep cartel-driven drugs and human trafficking out of our great country.
These brave soldiers represent the sixth deployment of South Dakota National Guard troops to defend our border, and some might wonder why a small state that’s closer to Canada than Texas would care at all. The answer is quite simple: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s radical open border policies have failed the American people and turned even South Dakota into a border state.
The cartels’ criminal activity has made all of our communities dangerous, especially tribal reservations where I have no jurisdiction. These cartels are working with gangs throughout the U.S. – like the Bandidos and their local affiliates the Ghost Dancers – to poison our people and to traffic women and children into sex slavery.
In fact, the cartels know it’s easy to supply drugs on tribal reservations with near impunity. According to President Jeffrey Stiffarm of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, “We don’t have criminal jurisdiction over any of these people that bring in these drugs, over non [tribal] members – even cartel members… so our hands are tied.”
State law enforcement has not been welcomed onto tribal reservations to help – and we have respected tribal sovereignty. The federal government has so badly failed at the most basic functions of public safety (both at the border and on our reservations) that the tribes are suing the Biden Administration for shirking their treaty obligations.
The presence of the drug cartels and their affiliates on tribal reservations across the nation is not up for debate – it is established fact. And it is not a unique problem to South Dakota. Even Democrat Senator Jon Tester from Montana recently said in a briefing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, “We’ve got cartels in Indian country. We’ve got a lot of bad shit going on.”
Stiffarm also testified that his tribe and their neighbors are “fighting a losing battle” against the drug cartels. But the most powerful moment of his testimony came when he said that one of his peers declined to testify because he had received death threats from the cartel.
Think about that. A Native American leader decided not to testify before his own Congress because of death threats from a foreign criminal element.
I have repeatedly reached out to South Dakota’s nine Native American tribes and offered what help I can to improve their public safety. On some issues, we’ve succeeded – recently launching a first-of-its-kind law enforcement training focused on tribal law enforcement officers alongside our Attorney General. And my state agencies actively work with our tribes on thousands of needs affecting almost every aspect of their lives, from child welfare to emergency response, from tax collection agreements to upgrading their ambulance services.
Tribal residents see my actions and recognize my heart and the truth. One caller to my office, a woman from the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told me that there is tremendous corruption amongst the tribal council, and that some of the tribal council members themselves personally benefit from the cartel being there. She stated that if tribal members call this out, they are “blackballed” and will be prohibited from working anyplace on the reservation.
We have received hundreds of calls and emails in recent weeks like that one with similar disturbing messages. The truth always comes out.
I will work every day to protect our children in every community from the danger of drugs, fight to protect our women from rape and trafficking, and help bring safety and peace to these communities.
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“The truth always comes out.” Kristi Noem
Where is the news media on this crisis? Are they supporting the cartel?
They’re clueless and turn a blind eye.
upshot: the gop’s all-out border-focused campaigning is going to bring us daily boilerplates, wallpapers and astroturfs about the Evil Border from now until trump needs something else hyped.
if you don’t think what’s going on at our southern border is a problem, you are part of the problem.
if you think the southern border is the biggest problem facing the country, and you think my calling it politically expedient above all else makes me PART of the problem, you’re blind to how huge of a problem your whole approach to it is.
trump and the rest of MAGA made it a political game by stopping the bill to fix it even after negotiations delivered the best deal republicans would ever get, nixed by trump because he doesn’t care to fix it when he needs its energy and anger for his campaign.
(maury opens envelope, pulls out report) “results say – YOU are the problem.”
I apologize if I missed this somewhere, but what exactly is the basis of her allegations? I have not seen any arrests or statements from BIA and/or DEA mentioning a cartel problem in any of the reservations.
uh…….federal agencies not doing their job are expected to issue statements about how they aren’t doing their jobs?
What planet are you on?
Druidia?
Ok. So everyone is just supposed to believe everything she says is Gospel and go with it?
it beats waiting for the employees of a federal agency to have a press conference to tell us how they aren’t doing their job
According to her. If she is just saying something but not backing it up with information, then I’ve own a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Roberts County has made numerous drug arrests on their reservation. These officers have done their diligent duty!
Minnehaha county, along with most counties along I-90 have had more drug arrests than Roberts County. So does that mean the state is harboring the cartels? Maybe they are paying off the Governor and she is trying to get everyone to look at the Res instead of the rest of the corrupt state? Hey, I’m just asking the question….
Many of those busts are done by tribal law enforcement and the Roberts County Sheriff’s Department working together. In her press conference on Friday, she mentioned the biggest fentanyl bust in the state taking place in Roberts County several years ago, crediting the sheriff’s department, but failing to mention tribal law enforcement’s role in the bust. I live in Roberts County and I’m proud of both of them working to keep us safe, tribal members and non-Indians alike.
Good own words. They KNOW it’s a problem but they’d rather create friction with the governor than address it. Sand as the Democrats regarding the southern border.
Those comments were made by the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Frank Star Comes Out
Having mixed views on the Governor, be silent, appeasing, looking the other way, appeasing or accommodating the continued destruction of humans on the reservation isn’t working. Noem at least cares enough to call bullshit and for a new direction.
Those most “appalled” by the Governor don’t really give a crap about the people on the reservations. They just want to be praised for pretending to care.
Anonymous at 7:21… It’s been part of the rez from the get go. Good post.
All of these little news papers are run by their advertisers. They won’t write certain stories.
Its time to end this charade. We really need an adult in the governor’s office. We don’t have one now.
What has she stated that isn’t true?
What has she stated that is?
We have evidence she repeatedly lies, onus is on her to provide evidence.
We have drug issues across the state, I see no reason why any reservation is put in a different category than Rapid City.
What specifically in the above article that PP has posted is not true? When she has traceable quotes from tribal leaders that back up what she is saying.
Why a different category than RC? Read the article again, carefully. Because the state has no jurisdiction on the reservation.
The State DOES have jurisdiction over non
-Indians on reservations, including the Mexican Cartel..
We all know the Cartels want to get to South Dakota so bad because we are such a population center, and the reservations are the richest part of the United States so it makes total sense. I would totally bypass the rest of the country to setup shop way north of the border and risk the shipment of all those drugs from Mexico to be in South Dakota. We would focus on the county with the highest unemployment in the nation, in the 46th most populated state out of 50, to target the 13% of drug users (as reported by the CDC) of the total population. It isn’t like the state of SD has policing funded as the highest appropriated expenditure in each county, and it isn’t like we are building a new prison that every MAGA person is watering at the mouth to fill. We must just listen to Kristi, she totally outsmarted them, AGAIN!
Before idiots like you dismiss the concern that is raised concerning the Indian reservations, maybe you should become more familiar with what happened at Wind River in Wyoming. Why wouldn’t it happen in SD?
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/how-meth-came-to-an-indian-reservation-and-took-hold/
Imagine resulting to ad hominem and still failing to make a rebuttal stance on defending Kristi’s propaganda. Drugs are everywhere (why are we trying to control this in the first place is my opinion), this 17 year old article cites one drug bust with connections to Utah, LA, then Mexico (3 stops from WY). How many stops are practical to lay blame on someone or a group? Maybe we should blame Germany for having so many immigrants come here in the first place in the late 1800’s to settle the state? Kristi needs to show her evidence of this direct connection to the Mexican border (there is none). Furthermore, due to the population of reservations and the rest of the state, statistically the rest of the state has more drug connections than the reservations, why is she calling just them out?
This is just another way to give up your 4th, 5th, and 6th amendment rights, or what is left of them. I’m guessing Kristi wants to expand the 100-mile border protection zone to the entire country. The autocrats will stop at nothing to take away your freedoms. Have fun with your freedom when you are stopped by CBP for a random show of force (yes, they do this to white people too, look it up). The best part is the civil asset forfeiture, if you carry cash, they can steal it (legally), and not have to even charge you with a crime. The solution to perceived problems is not more government, but you all do exactly as the party says. Since when is the answer to every problem more Government?
Again…idiot. Not ad hominem, just stating a fact.
An insult and totally ignore the premise, you sure know debate!
Coming from someone like you…
Nonymous at 12:03pm
that statement might make you appear intelligent to your mentally challenged friends, but here it just makes it obvious you don’t have anything to add to the conversation
you aren’t even funny
SD’s Mount Rushmore
Norbeck, Foss, Janklow, Noem.
Kneip might be on there also.
Mickelson the Younger over Noem.
Kristi (with Steve and Spencer) kept SD open when everyone else including Mayor Paul wanted it shut down.
That will be her legacy and maybe her only major accomplishment in 8 years. That’s bugger than anything mickelson did.
Kristi tried to shut down. The legislator stopped her. Quit with the revisionist history.
No, they didn’t. She tried giving ‘some’ authority to the DOH during a HEALTH crisis. She would have maintained full override authority. Don’t believe everything Haugaard or Laffy tells you.
SD’s Mount Rushmore?
Staff turnover, nepotism, self-promotion, divisiveness, lying & puppy-killing. And she tried throwing our whole congressional delegation under the bus. This is who she is.
The truth has come out. She doesn’t need to have her likeness carved into a mountain for us to remember her time in Pierre.
Look at all she’s done. She’s shot a bear, two elk (50k of free trips), a dog, goat and the careers of numerous state employees. She’s used state funds to build a new rodeo arena and a sponsor bull riding event so she can play dress up and ride her free horse carrying the America flag. She’s flown all over the country with state provided security spreading the message that she represents freedom. That she isn’t afraid to lead. That style (tractor Barbie-hot gma) is waaay more important than substance. Hopefully this will be over soon.
She stared down Putin the little tyrant he is and he flinched not her. Then she set terms.
are there photos of this happening? please post them or forward to pat powers.
Problem is she ignored the tribes while in DC for 6 years, she either never or very sparingly campaigned on tribal land while running for Governor the first term. The tribes fire a guy and she immediately hires him? Then comments because he had the nerve to testify? Shery Bren had the nerve to stand up to Noem, testify and got fired. Maybe the tribes should hire Mrs. Bren to negotiate with the Governor. I doubt if she would even set down with Mrs. Bren.
If Noem has all this evidence, why she not stopping the Cartel before they get on Tribal Land? She does realize that the border of Sisseton Wahpeton does not connect with Mexico except for I-29 and US 81, right?
Try as I may, I can not figure out a way to still support her as an elected official.
Nice distraction from the bad press on the book… I guess when your hopes for the VP slot is on the rocks, you gotta run for the border.
What a grift….
Oh, while we are at it, how’s everyone enjoying that tax break on food that she was such a champion on… LOL