FLANDREAU, S.D. (AP) — One tribe in South Dakota lifted its order banning Gov. Kristi Noem from its territories just days before the Republican was set to appear before a U.S. Senate committee on her nomination to head one of the federal government’s largest agencies.
Noem was cut off from entering a wide swath of tribal lands in South Dakota early last year after making public comments that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe, one of the state’s nine tribes, issued a statement Wednesday dissolving its order that banned Noem from setting foot on their land and to lend support to her nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“The Governor issued an apology to us for the misunderstanding, which was exacerbated by misinformation,” the tribe’s press release reads. “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 the formal banishment of Noem last year. The Associated Press left messages Thursday with the other eight tribes in the state to seek information on Noem’s status on their land.
Addressing the South Dakota Legislature in an annual State of the Tribes address, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J. Garrett Renville on Wednesday mentioned Noem’s comments, among other examples, in describing what has become “an environment of distrust between our sovereign nations and the state.”
But Renville proposed a turn of the page.
“Today, let’s reset. Today, let’s rebuild,” Renville said. “Today, let’s start to listen and actually hear.”
Noem is Trump’s pick to head the agency that will be integral to his pledge to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation, and she will appear before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Friday. Her hearing was initially scheduled for Wednesday.
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This story has been updated to correct that the Flandreau Santee Sioux statement was issued Wednesday, not Tuesday.
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