PIERRE — South Dakota’s nine tribes are projecting a message of “unity” going into the 2025 state legislative session.
Part of the change necessary to bridge state and tribal relations will come from Gov. Kristi Noem’s exit as governor.
J. Garrett Renville, chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, delivered the annual State of the Tribes address in Pierre on Wednesday.
In a speech that was well-received by state legislators and tribal chairpersons alike, Renville called for a “reset” in the relationship between the state and tribal governments.
“Today, let’s rebuild,” Renville said. “Today, let’s start to listen and actually hear. Indian country is not a political party. We are Pte Oyate — ‘buffalo people.’ “
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Renville offered some concessions for what the tribes and the state have accomplished together over the past few years. Key among those mutual achievements was a summertime tribal police academy hosted by Attorney General Marty Jackley at the state’s George S. Nicholson Criminal Justice Center.
This session, supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, graduated nine tribal officers and 12 other officers from around the state, Renville said.
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Tribal leaders have in the past decried low amounts of federal funding to cover law enforcement costs, which has led the tribes’ rural communities to have to stretch their resources.
“This is a serious problem,” Renville said. “It is a problem we have been communicating to legislature for over six years.”
The head of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate explained the need tribe by tribe: the Crow Creek Sioux only has three officers, and the Lower Brule and Yankton Sioux have two. Two larger tribes, Rosebud and Sisseton Wahpeton, each have 14 officers.
Renville also pointed to South Dakota’s unique place in the U.S. political sphere, with Noem set to lead the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Sen. John Thune taking over the Republican Senate leader spot and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson working within a divided House of Representatives.
This means an opportunity exists for the state and tribal leaders to work more closely together to improve conditions in Indian Country, Renville said.
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But on that note, Renville focused on Noem by indirectly referencing comments she made about the tribes during her second term.
Noem held an emergency joint session on Jan. 31, 2024, during the state’s annual legislative session, in which she used the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border to declare that the border situation was an “invasion” by migrants.
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Noem then claimed during this speech that Mexican cartels were targeting Native American reservations “to facilitate the spread of drugs throughout the Midwest.”
The cartel-tribal rhetoric was dialed up in March, when she suggested without evidence during a town hall in Winner that tribal leaders were “personally benefiting” from the cartels. She later called on the tribes to “banish the cartels” in an April press release.
In another March town hall in Mitchell, Noem also made comments about Native American families that were ill-received by the tribes. The South Dakota governor claimed that, “their kids don’t have any hope,” because they “don’t have parents who show up and help them.”
“They have a tribal council or a president who focuses on a political agenda more than they care about actually helping somebody’s life look better,” Noem said at the time.
Noem made some efforts to restore tribal relations after making those statements, like inviting the state’s nine tribes to a public safety summit, which some chose to skip.
But the governor was later banished by all nine tribes in May, after the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe formally banned her in an act of solidarity.
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“I liked how he talked about the prior struggles we had with the tribes, and the state had that kind of created division between the two,” Ryman Lebeau, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, told the Argus Leader on Wednesday. “I think [Renville] closed that chapter.”
Lebeau elaborated that most of the breakdown in intergovernmental diplomacy — from the tribes’ point of view — could be pinned on Noem. He thinks the hand-off of the governorship to Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden could represent a new starting point for at least some of the tribal governments in the state.
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Renville also used the podium-time to make several requests of the state legislature.
The chairman asked lawmakers to support House Bill 1018, which would require the Department of Revenue to provide an annual report to tribal governments regarding online sales tax revenue. Renville said the revenue generated has been “promised to tribes,” and he framed the issue as a measure of transparency.
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Education was also a priority topic for the Sisseton chair. He said the tribes are “curious” about how the various bills introduced to create education savings accounts — type of tuition voucher — and change school funding formulas would impact Bureau of Indian Education students, BIE funding and other issues.
Renville clarified the tribes are not opposed to the bills at this time but asked “that the state work with tribes to ensure all students are being considered.”
The chairman also indicated support for returning the state Office of Indian Education, an agency within the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations, back to the state Department of Education.
“The office’s mission was to support initiatives that help students and educators appreciate South Dakota’s American Indian culture,” Renville said. “To be able to do this in partnership, it makes complete sense to reintroduce the Indian Education Advisory Council with education representatives from all nine South Dakota tribes.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State of the Tribes rebuild relations