South Dakota Governor Wants Tribal Audits

Joshua Haiar
South Dakota Searchlight

Three days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a plan to help a Native American tribe in South Dakota reduce domestic violence, Republican Governor Kristi Noem called on the department to do more to ensure public safety on reservations.

On Friday, the department announced that the Oglala Sioux Tribe is one of 78 communities in 47 states designated under Section 1103 of the Violence Against Women Act. The designation means the tribe will receive targeted law enforcement efforts and legal support to prosecute people convicted of domestic violence who possess firearms. The initiative is aimed at prosecuting offenders under a federal law that prohibits certain people from possessing firearms.

“Intimate partner violence involving weapons poses a grave danger to victims trapped in abusive relationships,” Alison Ramsdell, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota, said in a statement.

According to Native News Online, 911 emergency calls on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 2021 included 1,463 domestic violence reports and 522 firearm reports.

On Monday, Noem said in a press release that she had sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to “take action to improve public safety on Native American reservations in South Dakota.”

Noem’s recommendations include audits of federal funds provided to tribes in South Dakota; establishing a Special Assistant United States Attorney initiative within the state to encourage federal prosecutions on tribal lands; increasing federal support to help tribes investigate crimes; and encouraging tribes to enter into law enforcement agreements with the state.

Elected officials from all nine tribes in the state voted to ban Noem from their lands over comments she made earlier this year, including her allegations that Mexican drug cartels operate on reservations and that tribal leaders profit from their activities.

Garland met with representatives of South Dakota’s nine tribes to discuss their law enforcement and justice needs Aug. 14 in Sioux Falls and Wagner. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, attended the Wagner meeting. Noem was not invited.

Tribes in the state have treaty agreements that require federal law enforcement assistance, but the tribes have consistently reported being underfunded. John Pettigrew, acting police chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told a congressional subcommittee in May that his department receives 15 percent of its funding.

Noem, Rounds and other South Dakota officials have taken several steps this year to improve public safety on tribal lands.

After Garland’s visit, Rounds sent a letter urging the head of a federal department to change the funding formula for tribal law enforcement and advocating that the federal government open a tribal law enforcement training center in South Dakota.

Noem recently partnered with South Dakota Republican Attorney General Marty Jackley to launch a new tribal-focused law enforcement training program, which has produced eight recruits. Noem’s Department of Public Safety recently signed an expanded law enforcement cooperation agreement with the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, and Noem hosted a Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit and appointed a tribal law enforcement liaison in her office.