South Dakota tribe bars Trump ally governor from reservation

SOUTH DAKOTA’S Trump-supporting governor Kristi Noem has been banned from a tribal reservation after she offered to deliver razor wire to Texas to fortify the Mexican border.

Her remarks on Fox News outraged the president of a local Sioux tribe.

“Due to the safety of the Oyate [meaning ‘people’ or ‘nation’], effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!” the president, Frank Star Comes Out, said in a statement.

He accused Ms Noem, who has been touted as a potential running mate, of trying to boost her chances of getting on the Trump presidential ticket in November.

Her offer of supplying razor wire follows a Supreme Court ruling last month that federal agents had the right to remove barbed wire installed on the border by Texas, as its governor Greg Abbott battles with the federal government over immigration.

The tribal chief said those arriving at the border were often indigenous people from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, who were migrating north for a better life.

“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,” he said.

He was also incensed by Ms Noem’s claim that a gang called the “Ghost Dancers”, which she said was affiliated with Mexican drug cartels and had managed to recruit tribal members, was murdering people on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Star Comes Out said he took deep offence at the claim, not least because “Ghost Dance” is the name of one of the tribe’s most sacred ceremonies.

The nine tribal reservations in South Dakota, which have a population of 71,000 people, enjoy considerable autonomy, granted under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Tribal courts have authority over native and non-native Americans on the reservations and have the power to ban people from the territory.

Ms Noem defended her stance.

“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,” she said.

“My focus continues to be on working together to solve those problems.”

‘They don’t need to be put in cages … or be cut up by razor wire furnished by, of all places, South Dakota’