Kristi Noem Banned from 20% of Her Own State for Cartel Comments

(TargetDailyNews.com) – Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is in the middle of a string of publicity disasters. After launching a book that included a story about how she put down an aggressive dog, a story that infuriated most news watchers, Noem is now on the naughty list of six of the nine Indian reservations in her state.

Those six have formally voted to bar Noem from traveling to reservation land. In total, this makes 20 percent of South Dakota’s land area off-limits to Noem.

Apparently, many tribal leaders are angry with Noem over remarks she has made about the relationship between drug cartels and Native American reservations. Noem claimed that some tribal officials are getting kickbacks from drug cartels that she says are operating on reservation land. She said some of the leadership is “personally benefiting” and that the tribes are attacking her because she recognizes that.

Tensions have been building for some time, and the Crow Creek Tribe was the sixth and latest South Dakota reservation to ban Noem, an action they took on May 14th. The Yankton Sioux nation has also voted on the issue but says the results are not yet officially certified. The ban is not enforceable until tribal members vote.

Last week, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate nation voted to ban the governor, becoming the 5th state reservation to do so.

Noem originally made her remarks about tribes and drug cartels in March, and relations between the governor’s office and tribal leadership bodies have gone downhill since then. In a speech given in Pierre, South Dakota, Noem said drug cartels have “set up shop” on the Indian land in her state.

Noem is still reeling from the public reaction to her recently released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” In the book, she recounts a 20-year-old incident in which she shot and killed a working dog named Cricket who Noem said was untrainable, aggressive, and prone to kill livestock. Cricket’s tale was followed by another story about the death of a “stinky” male goat which Noem also shot for butting her children.