Sen. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission, in the state Senate during the 2023 legislative session. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
In 1990, Gov. George Mickelson proclaimed a century of racial reconciliation in South Dakota. Given recent events, it just might take that long.
Gov. Kristi Noem managed to anger Native American legislators when she asserted that the state’s reservations were strongholds for Mexican drug cartels . She smoothed over some of those hurt feelings in a special meeting with Native American lawmakers the next day , but her diplomacy did not reach as far as the reservations.
For her remarks connecting the reservations to Mexican drug cartels, she has, once again, been barred from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She was banished from the reservation in 2019 for her backing of legislation that would have interfered with the tribe’s ability to protest the Keystone XL pipeline.
Certainly there are drug problems on the reservations, but having the governor make such a stark connection between the tribes and the cartels isn’t going to help the reservations attract jobs or industry. That’s not the kind of quote from the governor that they’ll want to highlight on their economic development brochures.