In a statement on November 12, President-elect Donald Trump announced that controversial South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will serve as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Earlier this year, Noem was banned from all nine tribal nations--or about 20% of the geographic size--in her state. During the majority of her time as governor of South Dakota, Noem has been highly unpopular among the tribes in the state.
“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times,” said Trump in a statement. “I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects - She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again."
All South Dakota tribes banned her from entering their reservations after during a town hall, she argued that tribal leaders were profiting off of drug cartels in the state and prioritizing those cartels over parenting children on their reservations. She has only doubled down on her statement, saying Mexican drug cartels were rampant on Indian reservations in South Dakota.
On top of her statements regarding cartels and Indian Country, she also released a book describing killing her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, named Cricket, and an unnamed goat. The book also included anecdotes about Noem meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Noem and staff have since indicated that the Kim anecdote did not happen and should not have been in the book.
It is these things that have led Indian Country to become concerned with her ability to lead the state, and now the country’s Homeland Security division.
Chase Iron Eyes, director and lead counsel of the Lakota People’s Law Project Sacred Defense Fund, is concerned that Noem will continue this racially charged rhetoric and use it to defend the mass deportation of migrants as Secretary of Homeland Security.
“Not only is she unqualified to lead the federal department in charge of assessing and neutralizing external threats to U.S. safety and security, but she has a long history of alienating and demonizing people in her own backyard who are no threat at all — namely the good people who live on South Dakota’s nine tribal nations,” said Iron Eyes. “Remember that, over the past year, each of these tribal nations banned Kristi Noem from entering our territories — representing roughly 12 percent of all the land in South Dakota — after she made comments falsely asserting that tribal governments were in league with Mexican drug cartels and that Native children ‘don’t have parents who show up and help them’.”
Noem released a statement of her own, accepting the nomination and expressing her gratitude.
“I am honored and humbled that President Donald J. Trump has selected me to be the Secretary of Homeland Security. I look forward to working with Border Czar Tom Homan to make America SAFE again. With Donald Trump, we will secure the Border, and restore safety to American communities so that families will again have the opportunity to pursue The American Dream.”
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