Kristi Noem Now Banned in More Than 90 Percent of All South Dakota Tribal Lands

The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe became the fifth Sioux tribe this year to ban South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem from setting foot in their territory, making Noem an outlaw in more than 16 percent of South Dakota and in more than 90 percent of her state’s tribal lands.

Noem is now barred from the Lake Traverse Reservation in the state’s northeast, according to a resolution passed Tuesday by the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal Council. They join the Oglala, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock, and Rosebud Sioux tribes in banning the governor from their lands, which together comprise about 13,000 square miles of South Dakota’s total area of 77,116 square miles.

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The banning is in response to derogatory comments Noem made about tribal families. According to the resolution, Noem “has made statements and undertaken actions that have been injurious towards the parents of tribal children, thus detracting from the value of their education.”

At a town hall in March where she was signing education bills into law, Noem touted her own achievements while throwing dirt at tribal leaders and parents, whom she derided as lazy and uncommitted to their children’s educational success.