There’s a potential fight brewing between the state of South Dakota and the Lakota nations over COVID-19 checkpoints. From Rapid City Journal:
Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters Friday to both the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe demanding that their checkpoints for COVID-19 related travel be removed from state and U.S. highways.
If their checkpoints are not removed within 48 hours, the state will take legal action, according to a press release sent from the governor’s office.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe first implemented checkpoints April 2, the Journal previously reported. Checkpoints are at both ends of U.S. Highway 212, which runs across the reservation.
Remi Bald Eagle, spokesperson for the tribe, said the tribe has seen Noem’s letter and dispersed it to council members but hasn’t reached a group consensus for comment yet.
Every vehicle will be stopped, and drivers will be asked where they are coming from and going, Bald Eagle previously said of the checkpoints.
Commercial drivers and South Dakota residents were allowed through, but out-of-state and non-commercial visitors will only be allowed to pass if they provide proof that they live on the reservation or are a tribal member.
Seems that the tribes’ sovereignty would reign here, but I ain’t no lawyer…
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We all need to be eating buffler. Waugh!
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe wants to create the largest Native American-owned and managed bison herd in North America.
Wizipan Little Elk is CEO of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation. He said the plan includes building a herd of 1,500 bison and possibly constructing a processing facility to provide food and economic development for tribal members.
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John Bryan at Scavengeology has taken a deep dive into the history of the Logan war club. Those of you who have read Allan W. Eckert’s The Frontiersmen are familiar with the gruesome and tragic story of the Mingo (Ohio Iroquois) leader known to whites as John Logan.
Logan’s Revenge by Robert W. Griffing
Logan’s family was wantonly slaughtered by border ruffians along the Ohio River in 1774, and Logan launched a vendetta that — in the typical savage calculus of frontier partisan warfare — fell on the innocent. Logan and a small band of warriors raided homesteads on the western Virginia frontier, and Logan left war clubs at scenes of slaughter as a calling card. He also left notes written by captives expressing his rage — misidentifying the perpetrator as frontiersman Michael Cresap.
To Captain Cressap — What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for. The white People killed my kin at Conneestogo a great while ago, & I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek and took my cousin prisoner then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war since but the Indians is not Angry only myself.
This is really good work, with some enthralling shots of the beautiful landscape in which these terrible deeds were enacted.
https://scavengeology.com/tracking-down-logans-war-club-and-some-lost-history/
Matthew says
I understand the need to open up, but I also understand that Indian tribes were decimated by disease more than anything else. I also think this would be a matter of tribal sovereignty.
Logan’s War was typical of human history where one atrocity inspires retaliatory atrocities.
David Wrolson says
Waugh, indeed.
In 2008, the family did a “Buffalo” trip. We started in Hunkpapa country in the Little Missouri badlands (Theodore Roosevelt National Park) in North Dakota and saw buffalo where Sitting Bull surely saw them.
At one point, I parked the car and, leaving everybody else inside, I headed up a small valley in the hills.
Then we did the buffalo herds in Custer State Park (SD). It was breeding season so the herds appeared to be quite active.
We have also seen the bison herds in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone Park (2014).
We have done a lot of family traveling, but I think the 2008 “Buffalo” trip was my favorite.
Congrats on the shout out from Belue. I dug out “The Long Hunt” and will have to look at it again.
JimC says
Thanks as always David.
Rick Schwertfeger says
Readers might be interested in a FB comment I saw this morning:
“A friend of mine who is both Native and a lawyer made a long post about this yesterday. Here’s the important bit:
“Gov. Noem DEMANDS that these checkpoints be removed or she threatens to sue the Tribe. She points to a DOI memo that states that Tribes MUST consult and reach an agreement with the State.
Well hate to break it to you, that’s not the only part of the regulations…. Gov. Noem also forgot to keep reading the the part where it states “Consultation is NOT REQUIRED whenever the conditions…involve IMMEDIATE SAFETY or LIFE-THREATENING SITUATIONS.” 25 CFR 170.114(b). (emphasis added bc I’m yelling it…lol).” – Jennifer Pruyne Knecht
David Wrolson says
The January or February 2020 National Geographic had a major story on bison (I call them buffalo) restoration in the Missouri Breaks of northeast Montana. I highly recommend that you access this story.
Includes controversies with local cattle ranches and so forth.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/02/two-visions-collide-amid-push-to-restore-montana-plain-feature/
The umbrella organization is the American Prairie Reserve-some large indian reservations are also involved.
https://www.americanprairie.org/project/bison-restoration
This is a very tough issue for me. My sympathies are with the cattle ranchers as they are my people-but my vision of heaven is essentially the same as what the Ghost Dancers wanted-I want the buffalo herds back and us figuring out a way to feed a lot of people off sustainably hunting the herds.
For that matter, I have the same problem with the Columbia River dams. The dam people are my people, but, damn (pun intended) we could have fed a lot of people off the Columbia River salmon runs if we had figured out how to do it right.
John Bryan says
Thanks for the post, Jim. As a constitutional law attorney by day, I like to get into some of the interesting legal stuff. If I could ask Thomas Jefferson, or even Alexander Hamilton, one question from the grave, I think it would be something about covid-19. I think I know what both answers would be, generally.
Jean says
My heart goes out to our Native American brothers. They sure get the short end of the stick a lot. Hope they succeed with the buffalo herd.