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The unsaid words that matter most in Noem’s feud with tribes

Gary Dickson

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem faces challenges in her relationship with Native American tribes. The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s ban on her entry to tribal lands prompted reflection on her rhetoric and actions. Noem’s comments about tribal leadership and drug cartels were criticized and an apology is seen as a potential path to reconciliation and improved relations. Continue reading The unsaid words that matter most in Noem’s feud with tribes

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The cost of free land and either-or history

Gary Dickson

Some white South Dakotans love to talk about their generational connection to the land. I’m one of them: a proud, fifth-generation descendant of Dakota Territory homesteaders.

The federal government awarded nearly 100,000 parcels of free land to South Dakota settlers via the 1862 Homestead Act and successive rounds of related legislation. Modern South Dakotans celebrate that legacy in myriad ways, including an annual State Fair ceremony honoring farms and ranches owned by the same family for 100 or more years.

Too few of us pause to consider how that must sound to Native Americans. Their connection to the land spans hundreds of generations and thousands of years. Before any white settler rushed to claim free land in western South Dakota, the federal government broke a treaty that promised to reserve all of that land as a Great Sioux Reservation. Continue reading The cost of free land and either-or history

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Now it’s the legislature’s turn to try to scale the Noem wall of silence

Gary Dickson

t’s likely that journalists in South Dakota allowed themselves a few self-satisfied chuckles last month. This mirth was inspired by watching the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee fail to get the information it was seeking about the Freedom Works Here campaign from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

The Freedom Works Here campaign advertisements, which have run nationally, feature Gov. Kristi Noem in the role of workers in high-demand jobs, asking those workers to apply in South Dakota. Lawmakers were particularly concerned that GOED officials and state Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman didn’t have an answer when asked how they would measure the success of the $5 million campaign. Continue reading Now it’s the legislature’s turn to try to scale the Noem wall of silence