FLANDREAU, South Dakota — One South Dakota tribe removed an injunction barring Gov. Kristi Noem from its territory just days before the Republican was scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on her candidacy to lead one of the federal government’s largest agencies.
Noem was barred from entering a large portion of tribal territory in South Dakota early last year after publicly alleging that tribal authorities were catering to drug traffickers on their reservations.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe, one of the state’s nine tribes, issued a statement Wednesday dissolving its injunction prohibiting Noem from entering their territory and expressing support for her candidacy by President-elect Donald Trump to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
“The Governor issued an apology to us for the misunderstanding, which was exacerbated by misinformation,” the tribe’s news release states. “Since our first meeting, the Governor has shown us that she is committed to protecting the people of South Dakota including the citizens of the nine Tribal Nations, who share mutual borders with the state.”
The Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe was not alone in formally banning Noem last year. The Associated Press left messages Thursday with the state’s other eight tribes, requesting information on Noem’s status on their land.
In his annual State of the Tribes address to the South Dakota Legislature on Wednesday, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J. Garrett Renville used Noem’s words, among other examples, to describe what has become “an environment of distrust between our sovereign nations and the state.”
However, Renville advocated turning the page.
“Today, let us reboot. “Today, let us rebuild,” Renville remarked. “Today, let’s start to listen and actually hear.”
Noem is Trump’s nominee to lead the agency that would be central to his promise to protect the border and carry out a huge deportation operation, and she will testify before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Friday. Her hearing was originally scheduled for Wednesday.
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