South Dakota Gov. Noem clashes with Sioux tribes over coronavirus checkpoints

SHOE ON OTHER FOOT 
SHE DOES NOT LIKE DEALING SOVEREIGN NATION
 TO SOVEREIGN NATION - WHICH IS A FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY ANOTHER ONE ABDICATED
Brie Stimson

© FoxNews.com 'We never did shut down our businesses, we gave them an opportunity to be innovative,' says South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem discussing her plan to return to' normal'

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has warned two tribal leaders she will take “necessary” legal action if the tribes don’t remove coronavirus checkpoints on their reservations.

“The State of South Dakota objects to tribal checkpoints on US and State highways regardless of whether those checkpoints take into consideration the safety measures recommended by” the South Dakota Department of Transportation, Noem wrote in letters to leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.



South Dakota Gov. Noem clashes with Sioux tribes over coronavirus checkpoints

“Safety recommendations do not constitute consultation and they certainly do not equal agreement,” Noem added.

Both tribes have been allowing non-resident access to the reservations for essential business only -- with visitors required to fill out a health questionnaire.

SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. NOEM UNVEILS 'BACK TO NORMAL' PLAN, SAYS IT PLACES POWER IN 'HANDS OF THE PEOPLE'

Passing through the checkpoints takes “less than a minute," Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier told Time magazine.

Noem cited an April memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs in her letters that says tribes must enter into an agreement with the state government before restricting travel on U.S. highways.

“We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against COVID-19,” the governor said in a news release. “I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints.”

Frazier responded in a statement Friday.

"I absolutely agree that we need to work together during this time of crisis," Frazier wrote, "however you continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation.

“The virus does not differentiate between members and non-members," he added. "It obligates us to protect everyone on the reservation regardless of political distinctions. We will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death."

South Dakota is one of a handful of states that never issued a stay-at-home order, although both tribes have.

“We’d be interested in talking face to face with Governor Noem and the attorney general and whoever else is involved,” Chase Iron Eyes, a spokesman for Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner, said, according to the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls

Noem “threatened the sovereign interest of the Oglala people when she issued an ultimatum,” Bear Runner said on Facebook on Saturday, according to Time. “We have a prior and superior right to make our own laws and be governed by them."

He added he believes the tribe is in full compliance with the Department of the Interior’s memo because the tribe hasn't "closed non-tribal roads or highways owned by the state of South Dakota or any other government.”

There were at least 169 coronavirus cases among Native Americans out of 3,145 total statewide and 31 deaths as of Friday, according to the health department.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/native-american-tribes-say-theyre-at.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-judge-sided-with-native-american.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com2020/05/extreme/-lockdown-shows-divide-in-hard.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/usa-small-tribes-seal-borders-push.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/trump-cant-mask-his-message-to-indian.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/south-dakota-gov.html

Native American tribes reject coronavirus checkpoint threat

Two Sioux nations in South Dakota have said that Governor Kristi Noem is undermining both their sovereignty and their health. Indigenous populations have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic.

Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux, said he would not apologize for tribal land being an "island of safety"

The Ogala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux nations in the US state of South Dakota continued on Monday to reject attempts by Republican Governor Kristi Noem to force the tribes to take down coronavirus health checkpoints on their land.

On Friday, Noem had threated legal action if the checkpoints on federal and state highways were not removed within two days, a move that would violate both tribal sovereignty as well as existing agreements between the state and Sioux governments. The checkpoints are part of the measures the tribes have put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic in their territory.

Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux, said "we will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death…You continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation."

Read more: US blocks UN vote on coronavirus pandemic

His sentiments were echoes by Ogala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner, who said in a video posted to Facebook that "we have an inherent and sovereign right to protect the health of our people, and no one, man or woman, can dispute that right.

"Your threats of legal action are not helpful and do not intimidate us. The only way we can get through this is to work together as a nation."

State lawmakers call on Noem to back down

The governor had claimed that the tribes were defying a deal not to close or restrict highways without consulting the state government first.


Noem has tracked close to the president in her policy regarding the pandemic

However, as Frazier pointed out, the tribes have met with several state bodies to discuss the checkpoints, and the health controls are not restricting commercial trade, as Noem claims.

Over the weekend, 17 state lawmakers signed a letter requesting Noem seek a diplomatic solution and not a legal one, adding that a lawsuit would "cost the people of South Dakota more money." Despite the letter, Noem reiterated her intention to sue on Sunday.

Noem is one of many Republican governors analysts have accused of trying to restart their state economies too early under pressure from the party and the White House. South Dakota is the site of the Smithfield pork processing plant, the site of a major COVID-19 outbreak after US President Donald Trump forced meat factories to remain open throughout the crisis.

Data from several state with large Native American populations have shown that Indigenous groups, along with African American and Latino communities, are being hit especially hard by the pandemic. In Arizona, for example, Native people account for 16% of deaths despite being only 4.6% of the population.

Last week, more than a dozen tribes across the US announced they were suing the federal government over a delay in federal pandemic relief funding. According to the stimulus package agreed to by the US Congress and signed by President Trump, $8 billion was to be allocated to hard-hit Indigenous nations. However, lawyers for the tribes say they have not received any of the funding due a dispute with the Trump administration, which is arguing that for-profit businesses run by Native Americans in Alaska, a state valuable to US oil interests, should be allocated some of the funds. 

Kristi Noem won't mandate masks in South Dakota schools — but she wants to make students pray

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
September 17, 2021

Gage Skidmore.

South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem refuses to mandate masks for schoolchildren and teachers but she's trying to make students pray in public. Gov. Noem, who is widely expected to run for president in 2024, has let the coronavirus run rampant in her state of just 886,667 people – a population so small New York City is ten times larger. And yet coronavirus is running rampant in South Dakota, which ranks number eight in the nation for coronavirus cases per capita.

Governor Noem just made clear she does not see herself as a government or political leader, but as a religious one. Speaking to Real America's Voice personality David Brody, Noem declared she will bring back prayer in schools (even though voluntary prayer has always been legal) and thinks political leaders are supposed to "minister" to their constituents.

Complaining that the actions other government leaders are taking "are not biblical," Noem says they are supposed to "line up with God," which is false.

"I think that it's really time for all of us to look at the actions of our leaders and see if they line up with the word of God," Noem said, "see if they're biblical and if they really are following through on those actions that God's called us to do to protect people, to serve people, and to really minister to them."

Protecting, serving, and ministering – but not in the fight against the deadly pandemic.

"We've seen our society, our culture, degrade, as we've removed God out of our lives, and people become what they spend their time doing," Noem declared. "When I was growing up, we spent every Sunday morning, every night, every Wednesday night in church, we were our church, family was a part of our life, we read the Bible every day as a family together, and spent time with each other, recognizing that we were created to serve others."



Again, Noem makes clear she does not believe serving and protecting others has anything to do with COVID-19.

"I don't know families do that as much anymore and those biblical values are learned, in the family, And they're learned in church when the doors are open so people can be there and be taught."

"We in South Dakota, have decided to take action to really stand for biblical principles. We had a bill that was passed during legislative session two years ago that put the the motto 'In God We Trust' in every single school building it is displayed. Now it is displayed in every K-12 school building in the state of South Dakota.

"I have legislation that we'll be proposing this year that will allow us to pray in schools, again, I really believe that focusing on those foundational biblical principles that teach us that every life has value every person has a purpose will recenter our kids and help us really heal this division that we see taking over our country."

MSNBC's Steve Benen notes, "given that the United States is a democracy, and not a theocracy, officials' actions are supposed to line up with the Constitution and the rule of law, not how some people interpret scripture."

"What the governor seemed to be suggesting, however, isn't a system in which students pray on their own," he adds, "but one in which school officials intervene in children's religious lives. In the United States, that's not legal: As my friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State recently explained, 'The South Dakota Supreme Court struck down mandatory recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the state's public schools in 1929. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools in 1962 and '63.'"

As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head

 governor’s spokesman said episode was example of how Noem won’t allow red tape to get in the way of growth

By STEPHEN GROVES

FILE — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit in this July 16, 2021, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. Ethics officials are questioning whether Noem had a conflict of interest by meeting with her daughter and top state officials last year in the governor's office while her daughter was pursuing a real estate certification. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)


SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor and the state labor secretary.

Noem’s daughter attended too.

Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother’s office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.

Exactly what transpired at the July 27, 2020, meeting in the governor’s office isn’t clear. Noem declined an interview request and her office declined to answer detailed questions about the meeting.

“The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor’s daughter in order to attack the Governor politically – no wonder Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” spokesman Ian Fury said.

Still, government ethics experts who reviewed the series of events at the AP’s request said Noem’s decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed.

While Peters was applying for the certification, Noem should have recused herself from discussions on the agency, especially any that would apply to her daughter’s application, said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush.

“It’s clearly a conflict of interest and an abuse of power for the benefit of a family member,” he said.

Peters began working as a state-registered appraiser – an entry-level job – in 2016. She worked under the supervision of a certified appraiser to get the experience necessary to apply for her own residential appraiser certification. It’s not an easy hurdle; applicants must show they can perform appraisals to national standards, putting to use 200 hours of classroom education and months of experience.

While trainees make as little as $10 an hour, certified residential appraisers can launch their own businesses and can make more than $50,000 a year.

In September 2019, Peters applied to become a certified residential appraiser. But in late July 2020, the Appraiser Certification Program moved to deny the license, according to a July 27 letter from Peters’ supervisor that was obtained by AP. The certification is denied when an applicant’s work samples don’t meet minimum compliance with national standards, according to the agency’s upgrade procedures.

Bren, who had directed the Appraiser Certification Program for three decades, told the AP that she received a text on July 26 from her supervisor telling her to be at the governor’s office the next morning, ready to discuss “appraiser certification procedures.”

Besides Noem and Peters, Bren said the meeting included Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman; Bren’s supervisor; the governor’s general counsel; and, participating by telephone, Noem’s chief of staff and a lawyer from the state’s Department of Labor and Regulation.

Bren remembered it lasting close to an hour and including questions from Noem on how certification works.

After consulting with her attorney, Bren declined to discuss with AP further meeting details, including whether Peters’ upgrade was discussed. The settlement of her age discrimination complaint includes a clause barring her from disparaging state officials.

However, Bren did confirm that at the meeting she was presented with a letter from Peters’ supervisor, Kristine Juelfs, who wrote that she disagreed with the denial and charged that Peters had run up against an “inefficient process.”

“In the past week I was notified that my trainee, State Registered Appraiser Kassidy Peters, was denied upgrade of her license to State Certified Residential Appraiser,” Juelfs wrote. “This came as quite a shock to myself as she has represented the knowledge and skills necessary.”

Juelfs’ letter blasted the application evaluation for lacking “timeliness and professionalism” and said the examiner reviewing Peters’ work had “acted unprofessional when conversing with Kassidy.”

Peters agreed with the criticism in a statement to AP.

“My upgrade to become a Certified Residential Appraiser was very lengthy and I was expected to navigate through many obstacles from the very beginning,” she said. “I’m glad I have it now and that I have the privilege to serve my clients in South Dakota.”

Bren declined to discuss the certification of any individual appraisers, including Peters. However, speaking broadly about the agency, she said she hoped to help applicants succeed while making sure they met federal requirements.

“You also want to be fair and consistent and treat all your appraisers the same,” she said.

Labor Secretary Hultman, in response to questions from the AP, declined to delve into details of Peters’ application or explain the discrepancy between Juelfs’ letter, which said the upgrade had been denied, and department records, which showed a denial was not ultimately issued.

“Kassidy Peters went through the same process as other appraisers. There was no denial,” Hultman said in a statement. “Mrs. Peters completed the requirements to become licensed, and she was subsequently certified in November.”

Bren’s troubles began to mount almost immediately after Peters’ Nov. 25 certification. One day earlier, Hultman had called Bren to discuss “concerns about the Appraiser Certification Program,” according to Bren’s age discrimination complaint. On Dec. 1, the complaint alleged, Hultman called Bren to demand her retirement, saying she had shown an “inability to change gears.”

Hultman told Bren that the phone call was to be kept a secret from her direct supervisor to make it appear Bren’s retirement was her choice, the complaint alleged.

Over the ensuing weeks, Hultman did not yield in demanding a retirement date, even after Bren asked if there was any way to keep her job, emails obtained by the AP show.

Bren filed her age discrimination complaint at the end of December and, three months later, received the $200,000 settlement agreement to withdraw the complaint and leave her job. When asked about Bren, Hultman declined to discuss “the specifics of personnel decisions.”

Mark Miller, the governor’s current general counsel, said in a statement, “Neither party admitted fault, and no agency affirmed her claim. This sideshow regarding Kassidy Peters speaks for itself.”

Fury, the governor’s spokesman, cast the episode as an example of how Noem “won’t allow bureaucratic red tape to get in the way of South Dakota’s sustained economic growth.”

“Having more quality appraisers in the market will help keep our housing market moving and home prices down,” he said.

A few days before signing the agreement, Bren sent an email to industry colleagues expressing worry about the future of the program.

“I have been forced to retire by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Regulation at the behest of the Administration,” she wrote, then added, “I want each of you to know that I have sincerely done everything possible to avoid this unfortunate circumstance.”

South Dakota tribe bans Gov. Kristi Noem from reservation over US-Mexico border remarks

The tribal president accused Noem of trying to use the border crisis in her effort to be selected as Trump's running mate in the 2024 election.

By Madeleine Hubbard

Published: February 4, 2024 

A Native American tribe banned South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation after she said cartels have a presence on tribal reservations and she expressed support for Texas in its fight against illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe is "a sovereign nation" that does "not belong to the State of South Dakota," Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said Friday.

"We are older than South Dakota! Due to the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!" Star Comes Out wrote, using the Dakota word "Oyate," meaning people or nation.

Star Comes Out also accused Noem of trying to use the border crisis in her effort to be selected as former President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 election. 

His letter criticizing Noem came after she told a joint South Dakota Legislature session Wednesday that she is willing to provide Texas with more razor wire to use along the southern border.

She also said crime is a major issue on Native American reservations, but only the federal government, not the state, has the jurisdiction to intervene to address the issue. 

"Make no mistake, the cartels have a presence on several of South Dakota’s tribal reservations," Noem said. "Murders are being committed by cartel members on the Pine Ridge reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the 'Ghost Dancers' are affiliated with these cartels. They have been successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activity."

Star Comes Out specifically took issue with Noem's comments regarding the "Ghost Dancers," saying that he is "deeply offended" by her allegations about what is one of the tribe's "most sacred ceremonies." 

Noem responded Saturday to Star Comes Out's letter.

"It is unfortunate that President Star Comes Out chose to bring politics into a discussion regarding the effects of our federal government’s failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands," she said. "In my speech to the legislature earlier this week, I told the truth of the devastation that drugs and human trafficking have on our state and our people. The Mexican cartels are not only impacting our tribal reservations; they are impacting every community, from our big cities to our small towns."

Follow Madeleine Hubbard on X or Instagram.

Kristi Noem Still Doesn’t Understand How COVID and Vaccines Work

‘IRRESPONSIBLE’

OPINION
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

The reckless South Dakota governor wants to “recognize natural immunity” from COVID. She’s not only wrong—she’s also encouraging hesitant folks not to get vaccinated.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
Updated Jan. 12, 2022

Halfway into robotically reading her hour-long State of the State speech off teleprompters, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem promised “to protect the people’s right to a medical or religious exemption from COVID vaccines.”

She then raised her hand with the index finger extended to emphasize some particular idiocy.

“We will also recognize natural immunity,” she said.

The majority of the state legislators applauded, indicating they are not only Republicans but also foolish enough to endorse her fiction that people who have had COVID-19 do not need to be vaccinated.

A leading research bioinformatician at the Yale School of Public Health terms such thinking “irresponsible.”

“Contracting COVID once does not make you immune over the long term and certainly does not make you immune to new variants,” Jeffrey Townsend told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

Townsend is the author of a study published by The Lancet Microbe in October 2021 whose conclusion he summarized in a Yale News write-up.

“Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less,” he was quoted saying. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.”

The surge of the Omicron variant has been affirming that principle as people are getting COVID for a second or even a third time. Noem is not just wrong but reprehensibly reckless.

“The issue with that declaration is that there’s going to be many people who are not going to be protected against new infections, whether or not they’re new variants,” Townsend said. “Having such a declaration is not properly understanding the dynamics in this pandemic.”

He added that the present COVID situation “is as serious as it has ever been.”

“We’re going to have more people in the hospital with Omicron now than from other variants,” he said. “It’s already crazy and it’s getting worse.”

And as has been repeatedly noted by The Daily Beast, there is a possibility that a variant can arise that is as contagious as Omicron and as deadly as Delta.


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“And the possibility of that variant increases with people getting infected more,” Townsend said. “The more people there are, the more different variants form and some of them, some very small fraction of them, are going to become new variants that are immunoevasive.”

One variant of the very small fraction of infections can become a surge if it can evade the body’s defense.

“And the immunoevasion will occur regardless of whether it’s vaccine or natural immunity,” Townsend added.

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In other words, people who refuse to get vaccinated and give the virus more opportunities to mutate are endangering all of us, even those responsible enough to get the jab.

And in that lies ultimate fallacy in Noem’s disingenuous insistence that she is not anti-vaccine, merely pro freedom.

“Governor Noem has repeatedly encouraged South Dakotans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but she has consistently reiterated that this should be a choice,” her spokesman, Ian Frazer, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

But when Noem suggests that having had COVID makes the vaccine unnecessary, she is in truth encouraging hesitant folks not to get the jab.

And her resistance to a mandate is part of an image she is constructing of a cowboy-hatted, horse-riding, flag-waving champion of freedom who has led South Dakota to economic triumph amid the pandemic

“The strongest economy in America,” Noem has boasted again and again.

In truth, South Dakota ranked 45th in GDP for the third quarter of 2021 as reported by the Board of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

That illusion seems to be part of her effort to be on the Republican ticket in the next presidential election. The Trumpian types have sought to minimize the pandemic from the start, and Noem has embraced immunity as a magical solution to the pandemic.

Back in May, she announced at a tourism event that South Dakota was about to achieve herd immunity.

“We’re very, very close, and I would expect that most people in the state feel comfortable conducting normal day to day life activities. We’ve got distribution levels that are very good and outstanding across the country… We’ve got people who had the virus and have recovered from it, and a lot of folks have the antibodies.”

By “distribution levels,” Noem apparently meant positivity rate. It was then down to 14 percent in South Dakota. It has spiked above 33 percent with the arrival of Omicron. Those who tested positive on Thursday included the 14-year-old son of a Sioux Falls businesswoman.

When your kid’s sick as hell and you can’t get a bottle of cough syrup because Walgreens shut down, I wouldn’t call that freedom.

The teen had just returned to school following the holidays. The mask policy there is in keeping with Noem’s no-mandate philosophy.

“None of the kids wear masks at school,” reported the businesswoman, who asked that her name not be used.

She said her son’s oxygen level had dropped to 92 percent when it should be 98 or higher. He was coughing so hard on Monday night that his mother dashed out to a Walgreens on 41st Street. She arrived only to find it had closed early due to a pandemic-related shortage.

“When your kid’s sick as hell and you can’t get a bottle of cough syrup because Walgreens shut down, I wouldn’t call that freedom,” she told The Daily Beast.


Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
@MichaelDalynycmichael.daly@thedailybeast.com

$400,000 fence to be built around S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem's home



President Donald Trump meets at the White House with a group of governors-elect on December 13, 2018. New South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is seated to Trump's left. File Photo by Chris Kleponis | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Officials in South Dakota say $400,000 will be spent to put a security fence around Gov. Kristi Noem's mansion in the coming months, but the reason for the barrier hasn't been specified.

Senior adviser Maggie Seidel said the fence will be built this fall around the governor's mansion and added that getting the barrier built is a priority.

"It's no secret that a few individuals don't like some of the decisions the governor has made on behalf of the people of South Dakota during [the COVID-19] pandemic and otherwise," Seidel added.

"The governor's security team believes it is critical," she added.
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Noem has drawn criticism for opting against stay-home orders and has not mandated face coverings in public or for students returning to classes this fall.

To date, there have been fewer than 10,000 COVID-19 cases and 150 deaths in South Dakota. According to CDC data, only nine other states have had fewer cases.

Critics say the Republican governor as adopted a dismissive outlook on the pandemic, similar to President Donald Trump's.

Noem, who took office in 2019, welcomed Trump to South Dakota last month when the president visited Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July weekend. A television broadcast of fireworks at Mount Rushmore showed some attendees not complying with distancing recommendations.

Seidel said a private fundraising campaign and federal security grant will pay for the security fence. The governor's mansion in Pierre was built during the administration of Gov. Mike Rounds in the 2000s.

The project has been in the planning stage since last year, and a contractor was paid more than $35,000 to draw up the plan.

S.D. tribes say they're 'trapped in a house on fire' — fighting Covid while governor lets it rage

Erik Ortiz
Wed, November 25, 2

In the early weeks of the pandemic, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota enacted drastic measures to fend off the spread of the coronavirus across its stark and sprawling prairie land.

The tribe installed checkpoints in April on roadways cutting through the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation to limit drivers without official business — part of a robust contact tracing program.

"We are doing this to save our residents, their lives," tribal Chairman Harold Frazier told NPR in May, when there was just one case of Covid-19 on the reservation, where about 12,000 people reside.

Even as case numbers stayed low, tribal officials imposed a mask mandate over the summer and rolled out mass testing events. And after South Dakota logged a record number of infections this month, Frazier on Monday began a 10-day lockdown of Eagle Butte, the remote town where the tribe's headquarters are located.

IMAGE: Harold Frazier (Cliff Owen / AP file)

The efforts are in sharp contrast to how South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has overseen the pandemic in her state of nearly 885,000 residents.

Noem, a Republican, has avoided statewide mask mandates, lockdowns and the closing or restricting of businesses and churches. She said in a message last week that "we won't stop or discourage you from thanking God and spending time together this Thanksgiving" — a lenient message compared to those of the leaders of most other states, who have enforced curfews, stay-at-home orders and restrictions on indoor gatherings in the face of a surge in case numbers nationwide.

Noem has also criticized the checkpoints set up by the Cheyenne River Sioux, as well as other Native American tribes in the state. In May, she asked the Trump administration to help intervene in a compromise to allow checkpoints on tribal roads but not state and federal ones within reservations.

Tribal members and other Indigenous-led groups in South Dakota say the lack of sweeping action — and the overt displays of opposition — on the part of state and some local officials stand to undermine their tribal sovereignty and attempts to protect their people during an intensifying public health crisis.

While the overall number of new Covid-19 infections has eased in recent days after it hit a record of more than 2,000 positive cases on Nov. 12, South Dakota this week still has among the highest rates of positivity and per capita deaths in the country, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It's like we're trapped in a house on fire, and we're doing our best to put it out," said Remi Bald Eagle, a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe spokesman. "We see the firetrucks coming in the form of a vaccine, and we're wondering if it will get here in time before the fire burns us to death."
A disproportionate effect

The Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation has had more than 1,100 cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with at least 13 deaths, tribal health officials say.

Statewide, Native Americans have been the hardest hit of any ethnic or racial group: While they make up only 9 percent of the population, they represent 14 percent of all cases and 15 percent of all deaths, according to Johns Hopkins' data.

Bald Eagle said many tribal members were previously diagnosed with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, and had limited access to health care on the reservation, which is partly in one of the most impoverished counties in the country.

The tribe has scrambled to set up makeshift beds and units, some of them in hotels and bingo halls, to supplement the eight hospital beds at the Cheyenne River Health Center, an Indian Health Services facility. The closest large hospitals, in Rapid City and in Bismarck, North Dakota, are two to three hours away, and health care professionals in South Dakota have warned of an overburdened health system.

A disturbing disconnect has also emerged among some patients. A South Dakota emergency room nurse's tweets went viral this month after she said she had encountered people dying of Covid-19 who didn't believe the virus was real.

Bald Eagle said tribes have a lot to lose if they ignore the science or take a hands-off approach, as the state has largely done.

"Some of those who died were our elders," he said. "They're some of our magnificent treasures. When they die, they take with them some of our language and our culture and our heritage, and we won't get that back."

IMAGE: Gov. Kristi Noem (Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The governor's office responded by referring to Noem's remarks at a news conference last week in which she encouraged hand-washing and social distancing.

"I've consistently said that people that want to wear masks should wear masks, and people that don't shouldn't be shamed because they choose not to," Noem said.

In a statement, the South Dakota State Medical Association said it supports a statewide mask mandate: "Masks work to decrease the risk of infection for everyone."
Checkpoint dispute

Tension has been escalating between tribes in South Dakota and Noem since the checkpoints went up.

In June, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe sued the federal government alleging that ever since Noem's plea for the White House's help, the Trump administration has abused its power by coercing the tribe to end its Covid-19 response plan, including its checkpoints.

The coercion included "threatening both monetary penalties and forcible dismantling of the Tribe's law enforcement program," the complaint alleges.
 Cheyenne River Sioux safety checkpoint

 (Chairman Harold Frazier, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe)

Noem has said that South Dakota has rights that allow residents and travelers to access roadways and that the federal government has "an interest in interstate commerce," as well. But the tribe argues that it has jurisdictional powers over the state, and a 1990 appeals court ruling dictates that the state doesn't have control over roadways that cut through Native lands without tribal consent.

The lawsuit continues, and the tribe plans to respond in the coming days to the federal government's request to dismiss the case, said Nicole Ducheneaux, a tribal member and attorney. In the meantime, the tribe's nine checkpoints remain up.

"We are unspeakably vulnerable, and the state that surrounds us and the federal government that is supposed to protect us have decided to elevate a petty political agenda over human life," Ducheneaux said. "In the broader scheme of things, it was not so long ago that my people witnessed catastrophic disease and death that decimated our population, destabilized our society and almost wiped us out. If it were not for our sovereign powers of self-government, we would be at the mercy of Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, which would be a disaster of potentially existential proportions for our people."

A spokesman for the Interior Department, which is named in the suit, said tribal leaders had to follow federal regulations shared in early April about what steps to take to restrict access to or close roadways within reservations.

The federal government seeks to have the tribe's suit dismissed, in part because, it said, the checkpoints were operating with "unlawfully deputized individuals who did not have the required background investigations and/or basic police training."
Camp crackdown

The worsening pandemic has led other Native American groups in South Dakota to spar with local governments.

In October, police in Rapid City, the state's second-largest city, ordered the dismantling of an outdoor settlement — called Camp Mniluzahan — where Native Americans struggling with substance abuse and other hardships were provided shelter and food.

Police cited five of the volunteers, known as Creek Patrol, with obstruction and resisting arrest. A sixth person utilizing the camp was also cited. City officials said the camp was erected without proper permits in an area considered a flood zone. The camp has since moved from public property to land jointly owned by the Oglala, Rosebud and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.

Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender said he didn't endorse the camp, and he hinted at the tensions last month.

"Every conversation about the homeless in the last month has been peppered with phrases like 'stolen land' and 'treaty violations' and 'getting land back' and that sort of thing," Allender said, according to NBC affiliate KNBN of Rapid City. "And so it appears that there's something much larger at hand than simply seeking shelter for the homeless."

Mark Tilsen, a Creek Patrol volunteer and member of the Oglala Lakota, said the lack of adequate social services or support from the local government underscores how Native Americans have historically had to cope with insufficient resources.

The camp's new location, which provides Covid-19 testing, helps 30 to 60 people daily, Tilsen said.

"We're essentially banding together to solve our problems as they come up," Tilsen said, crediting the efforts of previous generations of Native volunteers and activists. "We are lucky that we have found a way that the city cannot interfere with our work."

Natalie Stites Means, a director of the local Meals for Relatives program for Native American families affected by Covid-19 and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said she worries that the disparate impact of the coronavirus on Indigenous communities is only going to worsen in the coming weeks because of lax attitudes. There is already a waiting list for families in need of food assistance, and Means counts on volunteers to help cook and transport meals.

"I'm not counting on Noem's administration to have the chops to do anything," Means said. "We're on our own."

mniluzahancreekpatrol

Our relatives who were arrested by the RCPD the night of Oct. 16th, for remaining in ceremony and taking a stand in defiance of ongoing state violence towards unsheltered relatives, will have court on Dec. 15th.

In preparation, we are seeking donations specifically for legal funds. @ndncollective has offered 15k; we are inviting you all, who have offered generous and consistent support to us, to match this amount so we can ensure that all legal expenses are covered. Please share and offer what you can. Lila pilamayapi.

mllegalfund.org

mniluzahancreekpatrol

Checkpoint Closure By South Dakota Governor An Attack On Tribal Sovereignty

By: Jen Deerinwater | May 16, 2020

South Dakota’s Republican Governor Kristi Noem publicly issued a letter to the Cheyenne River (CRST) and Oglala Sioux Tribes (OST) on May 8 ordering them to remove health checkpoints on roads crossing their reservations but did not directly deliver it to OST—“a sign of “disrespect,” according to OST President Julian Bear Runner.

The letter, which was dated May 8, was never actually received by Bear Runner, he explained during a recorded response to Noem. He learned of Noem’s letter through news reports and social media.

He went on to say that it’s abnormal for the state to not notify the tribe and called it “a sign of disrespect for a sovereign nation or another government agency.”

A Bureau of Indian Affairs April 8 memorandum explained that state and U.S. roads couldn’t be closed on the reservations. Those not residing on the Pine Ridge reservation who aren’t providing essential services are advised to pass straight through, Bear Runner explained. No roads have been closed.

The checkpoints were put in place as a way to control and track the spread of COVID-19 on the reservation. Everybody who works at the checkpoints on the CRST reservation are deputized under the tribal government. They ask anyone entering and exiting the reservation a series of health related questions. All essential business is permitted to cross the reservation.

CRST Chairman Harold Frazier stated in a letter in response to Noem “we will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death.”

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe have also instituted checkpoints on their roads. They’re currently under tribal government enforced lockdown until 6:00 a.m. CST on May 17. The OST ended a three day lockdown on May 13.

Noem has claimed the checkpoints on state and federal highways prevent essential services from making their way to areas in need. The South Dakota Retailers Association also claims that some retailers were turned away at the CRST checkpoints. The CRST has denied this.

Only those not providing essential services were asked to go around the CRST reservation.

“Well over 90% of commercial businesses with truckers or supplies coming in, most of them already have travel permits,” Joye Braun, member of the CRST and an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, told TRNN. “They show their card and they’re waved through.”

Under the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 the CRST and OST have the right to restrict who passes through their lands. These are the same treaties that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe cited when fighting the construction and flow of oil in the Dakota Access Pipeline. The U.S. government has broken every treaty it has signed with tribal nations, but a 1990 8th Circuit Court of Appeals case ruled that no state has jurisdiction over highways running through Native lands without tribal consent.

On May 10, a bipartisan group of seventeen South Dakota legislators sent a letter to Noem challenging the governor’s claims regarding the checkpoints and sovereignty.

“Your statement that Tribal governments do not possess the ability to establish checkpoints within the boundaries of their homelands is not accurate,” the letter said. “The Legislature has not passed any bill stating as such, nor does the State of South Dakota have the authority to enforce State law within the boundaries of a Reservation.”


The letter went on to say “We do not wish to be party of another lawsuit that will ultimately cost the people of South Dakota more money.”

A representative from Governor Noem’s office told TRNN they haven’t initiated any legal action at this time, but hopes that the CRST and OST are “amenable” to the plans laid out in letters sent to the CRST on May 12 and OST on May 13. They state that tribal checkpoints should be removed from U.S. and state highways, but checkpoints on tribal or Bureau of Indian Affairs roads are acceptable: “tribal interaction with these travelers at checkpoints is unlawful and could actually increase the risk of spreading the virus.” Noem continued, “to be clear, the state has no objection to tribal checkpoints on BIA/tribal roads.

The governor’s office told TRNN that they believe the U.S. government has jurisdiction over the state and U.S. highways that cross the reservation and that OST and CRST need to work with the federal government and the state to create a plan that is amenable to both sides. Both CRST and OST state that they sent letters to Noem’s office explaining their checkpoint system when it began, but they never received a reply.

Regarding the RST checkpoints, Noem has been in contact with the RST, but gave TRNN no other information.

Former U. S. Senator Byron Dorgan defended tribal sovereignty in a May 13 press release from the Center for Native American Youth, where he serves as a founder and chairman for the CNAY Advisory Board.

“In the absence of an effective national testing program in the U.S., I believe the tribes have every right to be concerned about people coming to their reservation who could spread the deadly virus,” Dorgan wrote. “As a former U.S. Senator, I’ve seen firsthand that state and federal governments have not demonstrated a willingness to spend the time or resources to protect tribal communities. Tribal officials have a right to do things that are necessary to protect themselves.”

South Dakota is one of only a few states that did not issue a stay-at-home order. Since non-essential businesses have reopened there has been a spike in confirmed COVID-19 infection rates. As of May 14, The New York Times reports that South Dakota had 3,792 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 43 deaths. May 7-9 saw a large spike in contraction rates. Pennington County, directly north of Oglala Country and home of the OST, and near the CRST reservation, has been especially hard hit with cases doubling every six days.

The rates of infections and deaths within tribal nations have skyrocketed due to the ongoing legacy of settler colonialism and racism. The U.S. government has a trust and treaty responsibility to provide a variety of services, such as the Indian Health Services, to Native nations and people. However, chronic underfunding has led to astronomically high rates of preventable illnesses and deaths. While the well being of Native people varies across tribal nations and communities, the situation is particularly dire for the OST; 97% of those on the Pine Ridge reservation live in poverty. The life expectancy is only 48 for men and 52 for women.

The Navajo Nation resides on the largest reservation and is larger than West Virginia. Much of the reservation lacks basic infrastructure such as roads and running, clean water. They now have the third highest per capita rates of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the U.S.

The first confirmed deaths in Alaska and Oklahoma were Native people and the first death in the Bureau of Prisons, Andrea Circle Bear, was a Native woman who gave birth while on a ventilator. Coupled with the lack of tests, many Native people with COVID-19 aren’t even being counted as American Indian or Alaska Native and are instead are counted as “other”, leaving the community without the actual rates of contractions and deaths across the U.S., as 71% of AI and AN people live in urban areas making data collection outside of Native healthcare of particular concern.

These deaths represent the over five hundred years of genocide that the Indigenous people of these lands still suffer. Being no stranger to pandemics, many Native ancestors didn’t survive the smallpox blankets or the 1918 Spanish flu. In an April press release the Zuni Pueblo said they’re facing extinction due to COVID-19. The state and federal governments lack of appropriate response to the COVID-19 crisis is a form of genocide.

In March, the Seattle Indian Health Board requested COVID-19 tests, supplies, and personal protective equipment, but were instead sent body bags and toe tags.

Poverty is a substantial barrier to many of the activities, such as social distancing and hand washing, to control the rates of contraction for Native people. In March, the federal government gave two $40 million payments to the Center for Disease Control to distribute for Indian Health Services, tribal-run health centers, and urban Indian health centers. The CDC sat on the money instead of immediately disbursing it. The federal government only just began this month releasing some of the $8 billion appropriated to tribal nations under the CARES Act.

In a press conference on May 14, South Dakota Secretary Malsam-Rysdon announced the state would begin mass testing that would include tribal governments. Testing will begin with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate nation whose reservation is in both North and South Dakota. Despite this, some tribal members don’t trust Noem.

“It’s really important to go back and look at the history of Kristi Noem,” Braun stated. “She doesn’t like Indian people…she wants to get rid of the reservations.”

At the heart of this situation is the inherent right to tribal sovereignty and for tribal nations and their people to quite literally, survive: Tribal nations are attempting to defend their people and save lives. Tribal nations are not merely tribes, but are sovereign nations with the inherent right to self-governance and should have total jurisdiction over matters on their lands. They don’t truly exist in America, but rather are their own nations, their own countries. The U.S. is a foreign entity.

“The Oglala Band is ready to stand against foreign intrusion into our daily lives,” Bear Runner said.

This story is made possible by a grant from the R&M Lang Foundation in support of reporting by and for indigenous communities.

S.D. Gov. Kristi  Noem signs hemp and other bills, but says budget in doubt

MARCH 27,2020

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Gov. Kristi Noem on Friday signed 15 bills that allocate millions of dollars to South Dakota programs, including industrial hemp, but offered no guarantee on whether the funding would remain after the state reworks its budget in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Noem said the budget allocations likely depend on how much money the state gets from the federal government in a stimulus bill. The bills give millions of dollars to an industrial hemp program, repairing abandoned natural gas wells, a veteran’s cemetery, a School of Health Sciences building at the University of South Dakota and expanding broadband services to rural communities.

“I’m signing these 15 bills with one caveat — we may need to come back in June and make drastic changes to both the current budget and next year’s fiscal year budget,” Noem said in a statement.

In the 15 days since the Legislature finalized the state budget, the state’s economic outlook has changed drastically due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers will meet via teleconference on Monday to consider action on the four bills the governor has vetoed. Noem is also asking them to act on a series of emergency bills to address the coronavirus crisis.

---30---

FASCISM

South Dakota Supreme Court Kills Recreational Marijuana Law Approved by Voters

The ruling is a win for Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who directed the state to pay for the legal fight against the voter-backed amendment.


A worker looks through a bag of marijuana that will be used to make marijuana infused chocolate edibles at Kiva Confections on January 16, 2018 in Oakland, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

ANDREA GERMANOS

COMMONDREAMS

November 24, 2021

The South Dakota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's ruling in striking down a voter-approved measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana.

"Legalization opponents... are now petitioning the courts to overturn the will of the people."

In a statement explaining its 4-1 ruling, the court argued that Constitutional Amendment A—which passed by an eight-point margin last year in a state-wide referendum vote last year—was invalid because it dealt with more than one subject and thus ran afoul of the state constitution.

In addition to addressing recreational pot, the measure also had provisions regarding hemp and medical marijuana.

"As a result of the constitutional violation, the court has declared the amendment invalid," the judges said.

Matthew Schweich, campaign director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, which led the campaign in support of Amendment A, called the ruling "extremely flawed."

The ruling, according to Schweich, "states that Amendment A comprised three subjects—recreational marijuana, medical marijuana, and hemp legalization—and that South Dakotans could not tell what they were voting on when voting for Amendment A." But Schweich rejected that finding as "a legal stretch and one that relies on the disrespectful assumption that South Dakota voters were intellectually incapable of understanding the initiative."

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, had backed the lawsuit against legalization and welcomed the supreme court's ruling.

The plaintiffs in the case are South Dakota Highway Patrol Superintendent Rick Miller and Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom. "Legal fees for Miller's role in challenging the amendment," the Sioux Falls Argus Leader previously reported, "are being paid for by the state of South Dakota at the order of Gov. Kristi Noem, who campaigned against the ballot measure leading up to the election."

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“Legalization opponents cannot succeed in the court of public opinion or at the ballot box," Paul Armentano, deputy director of advocacy group NORML, said in a statement. "Thus, they are now petitioning the courts to overturn the will of the people. Whether or not one supports marijuana legalization, Americans should be deeply concerned by this trend and by the outcome of this case."

Fifty-four percent of South Dakota voters approved the amendment last November. Among other things, it would have allowed recreational use for those over 21, as well as the possession and distribution for up to an ounce of marijuana.

"We had full confidence that a majority of South Dakotans, if given the opportunity to vote on (marijuana), would realize the economic, health, and social justice benefits of marijuana reform. And they did," Drey Samuelson, political director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, said at the time.

Legal challenges in the conservative state, however, quickly ensued.

Wednesday's decision upholds the February decision from Circuit Court Judge Christina Klinger.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

RIP

Henry Berg-Brousseau, Transgender Rights Activist, Has Died at 24

Alex Cooper
Wed, December 21, 2022 

Henry Berg-Brousseau

Trans rights activist Henry Berg-Brousseau, who worked to oppose anti-transgender legislation in his home state of Kentucky before going on to work with the Human Rights Campaign, died Friday at the age of 24.

His mother, Kentucky Democratic state Sen. Karen Berg, said Berg-Brousseau died by suicide.

In a statement posted on Twitter via Bluegrass Politics, Berg said that her son had spent his life “working to extend grace, compassion, and understanding to everyone, but especially to the vulnerable and marginalized.”

She added that “this grace, compassion, and understanding was not always returned to him” as a transgender man. The state senator called out the politicians who actively sought to marginalize her son because of who Berg-Brousseau was.

Berg said Berg-Brousseau had dealt with mental illness, “not because he was trans but born from his difficulty finding acceptance.”

He was born in Louisville, Ky., according to an obituary.

“While a student at Louisville Collegiate School, he advocated for the rights of transgender people by organizing a protest against gay conversion therapy, speaking to the Kentucky Senate Education Committee, and participating in other local and national causes. His speech to the committee was shared on John Oliver Tonight,” it said.

Berg-Brousseau went on to double major at George Washington University in political science and history and minored in Jewish studies.

In his work with the Human Rights Campaign, Berg said her son was acutely aware of the hateful rhetoric rising against transgender people in the country, adding that he saw that hate firsthand directed at his job. She said that in one of the final conversations she would have with her son he told her that he was concerned if he would be safe going out.

“The vitriol against trans people is not happening in a vacuum,” Berg wrote. “It is not just a way of scoring political points by exacerbating the culture wars. It has real-world implications for how transgender people view their place in the world and how they are treated as they just try to live their lives.”

Berg-Brousseau is survived by his mother, his father, and his sister, along with other family members.

“Losing Henry is an unfathomable loss to the Human Rights Campaign family. Henry was a light — deeply passionate, deeply engaged, and deeply caring. His colleagues will always remember his hunger for justice, his eagerness to pitch in, his bright presence, and his indelible sense of humor,” Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

Robinson noted his activist work as a teenager, having to fight for his own rights “far earlier than he should have had to.”

“He was brave,” she said.

She ended her statement by calling for justice for the transgender community.

“We must fight for our transgender family. We must celebrate his light, and honor him by continuing to fight for full equality for all,” Robinson said. “Our thoughts are with his parents, his sister, his entire family, and our whole community.”

If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be, resources are available to help. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 is for people of all ages and identities.

Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations.

The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.

Transgender advocacy group plans to sue state over contract cancellation



John Hult
Thu, December 22, 2022

A transgender advocacy organization plans to sue the state of South Dakota for civil rights violations over Gov. Kristi Noem’s abrupt cancellation of a health care facilitation contract with the group.

Brendan Johnson, a former U.S. district attorney who works for the law firm Robins Kaplan, told South Dakota Searchlight that his firm will represent The Transformation Project at no cost in a civil action against the state.

Johnson said he plans to send the state a litigation hold this week, which is a legal notice of pending action that orders the expected defendant to preserve all records and correspondence related to a legal claim.

The group’s claim originates with the contract cancellation, Johnson said, but “it’s not a contract dispute.”

“This is about violating federal law, equal protection,” Johnson said. “You cannot discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. We believe that’s in violation of agreements between the state of South Dakota and the federal government that provided these funds.”

The Sioux Falls-based nonprofit was awarded about $136,000 in federal funds to hire and train a community health worker to help connect members of the LGBTQ community to physical and mental health care. The funds, dispensed by the state, were earmarked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for the hiring of community health workers to serve rural areas and marginalized communities.

For a story published on Friday, a conservative media outlet questioned Gov. Noem’s office about the contract. Through spokesman Ian Fury, Noem, a Republican, told the outlet that she does not support the group’s “radical ideology,” that she didn’t know about the contract, and that she would order a review of all state Department of Health contracts. More than 60 other community health worker contracts have been granted this year.

State Health Secretary Joan Adam announced her retirement through a governor’s office press release on Monday, three days after the news broke.

More:Transformation Project responds to South Dakota terminating contract for community health worker

The Freedom Caucus, a coalition of South Dakota lawmakers aligned with the Freedom Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives, issued a statement Monday that praised Noem’s decision to cut the contract. It also called on the South Dakota attorney general to investigate The Transformation Project and Sanford Health, which is set to host a Gender Identity Summit next month, for “promoting child abuse.”

Johnson said his firm aims to show that the stated reasons for the contract cancellation do not align with the Noem administration’s actual motivations.

“The facts will show that The Transformation Project did not violate its contract with the state of South Dakota,” Johnson said. “This was a decision based on politics, not the law. We applaud the strength and dignity of the LGBTQ community, and we will aggressively defend their right to access health care and the vital services provided by The Transformation Project, including mental health and suicide prevention services.”

In the cancellation letter, Deputy Health Secretary Lynne Valenti said The Transformation Project had failed to hire a certified community health worker and had missed a required annual conference, among other violations. But The Transformation Project has said it hired a community health worker who is still employed by the group, and the required annual conference took place before the contract was awarded.

The group’s director, Susan Williams, said in an open letter that the group was in compliance with contract terms. It had received about $23,000 of contract funds before the Dec. 16 cancellation letter.

“We are also deeply concerned by the appearance that the termination of this contract stems not from our actions, but as a result of the population we serve,” Williams said.

Williams named the community health worker hired by the group to South Dakota Searchlight and noted that he’d completed his certification. On Tuesday evening, the group tweeted its congratulations to that employee along with a photo of staff and supporters. Two of the people were wearing hoodies from the Union Gospel Mission, a homeless shelter that had also been awarded funds for a community health worker, and whose director told South Dakota Searchlight this week that his “heart goes out” to the group over the dispute.

The Transformation Project also announced its intention to retain the employee despite the loss of funding. It has since set up a pledge website that asks the public to “raise $105,000 to cover the funding shortfall that was created.”

“These funds will help us to continue to develop a Community Health Worker program and allow our CHW to meet the needs of South Dakota members of the LGBTQ2S community across the state who experience disparate health outcomes,” the site said.

The group will not be charged legal fees for its action against the state, Johnson said, but taxpayers won’t avoid them.

More:Gov. Kristi Noem terminates contract for transgender advocacy group

“This is incredibly unfair to one of our most vulnerable populations in South Dakota,” Johnson said. “This will be a long and expensive fight. This is going to cost the state of South Dakota a great deal in legal fees.”

Fury, Noem’s spokesman, told South Dakota Searchlight on Tuesday that the state would be unable to comment on The Transformation Project situation because of the threat of litigation.

On Thursday morning, Fury reiterated that the state cannot comment for that reason.

On Monday, South Dakota Searchlight sent an email to Fury and Department of Health spokeswoman Kieran Tate, asking if three other community health worker contractors who’d inked deals around the same time as The Transformation Project had complied with each of the same contract requirements. Tate has not replied.

A spokesman for the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, which typically serves as the state’s legal counsel in lawsuits against state agencies and officials, said the litigation hold had not been received as of Thursday morning.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Transgender advocacy group plans to sue state over contract cancellation