Star Comes Out concluded his statement by noting:
Many of the people arriving at the southern border of the U.S. are Indian people coming in search of jobs and a better life from such countries as El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
“[They] don’t deserve to be dehumanized and mistreated by people like [Texas] Governor [Greg Abbott] and his cohorts,” he said. “They don’t need to be put in cages, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire, furnished by, of all places, South Dakota.
“I joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served honorably in foreign wars to protect the freedoms of all Americans, even Indians throughout the nation. I don’t [want] to see our Indian people and reservations used as a basis to create a bogus border crisis just to help (Donald) Trump get re-elected as President and Gov. Noem his running mate as Vice-President. …
“We are a sovereign nation and we are not your tribe. … Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.”
“Oyate” is a term that means people or nation.
In a interview Sunday with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump mentioned Noem and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott as possible vice president picks. Trump said Noem has “been incredible fighting” for him, pointing to her comments where she said she would never run against him “because [she] can’t beat him,” according to The Hill.
Noem has not been shy about her desire to be Trump’s vice president. She even has a new book coming out in May called “No Going Back,” Fox News reported, in which she has plenty of praise for Trump, whom she endorsed for reelection in September. Trump, she said, moved "candidates to be bold, to say things candidates have never said before." Trump has already endorsed the book in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Noem certainly proved her loyalty to Trump, who has made the border crisis his top campaign issue. In a speech Wednesday to a joint session of the state legislature, Noem said she hoped to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas. Noem and other Republican governors have been supporting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is continuing to put up razor wire along the border even after the Supreme Court ruled that federal border patrol agents can remove it.
In her speech, Noem said:
The United States of America is in a time of invasion. The invasion is coming over our southern border. The 50 states have a common enemy, and that enemy is the Mexican drug cartels. They are waging war against our nation, and these cartels are perpetuating violence in each of our states, even right here in South Dakota.
CBS News noted:
Noem has deployed National Guard troops to the Mexican border three times, as have some other Republican governors.
Noem’s remarks prompted Star Comes Out to issue a point-by-point rebuttal, saying Noem can’t use the term “invasion” to justify sending the South Dakota National Guard to the southern border because “only entry plus enmity constitutes an invasion.”
Star Comes Out also refuted Noem’s claim that South Dakota sees the effects every day of “Joe Biden’s failures at the border.” Instead, he pointed out that the “failures at the border” are the result of the inability of Democrats and Republicans “to resolve border issues in bipartisan legislation.”
And he added that Noem should instead join South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune and other lawmakers in supporting the bipartisan border deal now before Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the border legislation, which also includes aid to Ukraine and Israel, is “even worse than we expected” and will be “dead on arrival” if it reaches the House.
Noem also said that “the drug and human trafficking pouring over the border” devastate the people of South Dakota, particularly on several tribal reservations where cartels have established a presence. She said “murders are being committed” on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Rapid City, “and a gang called the Ghost Dancers are affiliated with these cartels.”
The Oglala Sioux Tribe did declare a state of emergency in November on the Pine Ridge Reservation amid a rampant increase in crime. Last year, the tribe filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and some high-level officials, alleging the U.S. is not complying with its treaty obligations to provide adequate law enforcement to address the “public safety crisis” on the reservation.
And Noem’s reference to “Ghost Dancers” particularly irked the Sioux tribal leader.
“I and the Oyate are deeply offended that you alleged the `Ghost Dancers’ are affiliated with these cartels,” Star Comes Out wrote. “Ghost Dance: one of the most sacred ceremonies was used with blatant disrespect and is insulting to our Oyate.”
Noem issued her own response on Saturday to Star Comes Out’s statements:
It is unfortunate that President Star Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion regarding the effects of our federal government’s failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands. My focus continues to be on working together to solve those problems.
This isn’t the first time that Noem has been barred from the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 2019, the tribe banned her as a result of a conflict over the Keystone XL pipeline. The ban was lifted later that year and the pipeline project was canceled in 2021.
Pine Ridge, which is among the largest tribal reservations in the U.S., has a poverty rate that exceeds 50%.
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