Dale Carnegie (bio here, unrelated to the steel magnate) was a self-improvement guru who’s famous for his 1936 book, How to Win Friends & Influence People. The title is self-explanatory, and the book is still popular (get it here).
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem either didn’t read the book or its lessons flew over the cuckoo her tousled head, because she’s losing friends and pissing people off left and right. (It used to be just the political “left,” and that was calculated, but now it seems she’s losing Republicans, too.)
Noem probably never had many friends or supporters on the reservations. Of the two major parties, hers is the least friendly to minorities and poor people. Native Americans tend to be a strong Democratic constituency. But Noem has gone out of her way to piss them off, and is banned from most of her state’s reservations.
The reason? She asserts drug cartels, biker gangs, and Central American thugs operate from the reservations with impunity and the tribes benefit from their activities, The Hill reported here.
That’s a lie, and a racist lie at that. Drugs are sold on Los Angeles streets, and Bandidos and MS-13 members are in L.A., but that doesn’t mean the city government welcomes them or accepts profits from their activities.
South Dakota’s reservations, as in other states, are beset by poverty, alcoholism, and drug use. But that doesn’t mean tribal leaders invite criminal activity. Why would they? That would further hurt tribal cohesion, families, and members.
Noem also blames the Biden administration for reservation crimes. This is partisan blather. It’s not constructive, and certainly not true. I was studying reservation crime in law school when she was being born.
If she’s going to blame reservation problems on Biden, she also has to blame Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump. Actually, every president of the last 140 years.
Noem has a paternalistic tone toward the reservations, which to tribal leaders smacks of political exploitation.
“These are some of my poorest communities, and they want safe communities. They want their children to be safe,” she said, but then complained, “I have no jurisdiction there because I’m a governor”.
Uh no, they’re not her communities, and she doesn’t have jurisdiction because Indian reservations are federal land under federal protection.
Anyone who knows anything about Native Americans knows the federal government took them under protection from state governments and white settlers. Congress established the reservations, which are federal lands, and gave the tribes extensive autonomy. Tribal authorities are treated as governments similar to states.
The tribes and states have a long history of strained relations (read a Washington State example here). One result was the 1978 federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which three states recently challenged in the courts (details here). Federal law also protects tribes’ water rights against their state neighbors (the “Winters doctrine”).
Most states today have reached rapprochements with their Native American tribes. For example, Washington cooperates with tribes in salmon recovery efforts and fisheries regulation. But not Noem in South Dakota.
The Hill article says, “Relations between the governor and the tribes have been strained since she took office in 2019.” The tribes complain “she does not respect or fully understand tribal sovereignty.” (The reservations were created by Congress, which now lets them be self-governing.)
Instead of spending her time sending National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border or plinking at dogs and goats, she should spend some time with Dale Carnegie’s book, try to learn from it, then go about the difficult task of mending her relationship with her state’s tribal citizens.
It would be good for her, and most importantly, good for them.
Photo below: The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Oglala Sioux tribe, is one of America’s poorest places with an 89% unemployment rate (per Wikipedia)
