This is the response of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman to South Dakota Governor's threats that the Tribe should remove its public health checkpoints, "or else."

It is a great response.

I want to share my perspectives as a tribal leader during this pandemic.

/1

This pandemic has reinforced an old bit of advice I once received from a mentor: Tribes have few allies and even fewer friends.

/2

I've seen this with the Federal Government and the Trump Admin. Tribal advocates had to mount an ENORMOUS effort to ensure that Congress included Tribes in federal COVID relief legislation. The Trump Administration fought it every step of the way.

/3

Even after the law passed, the Admin froze Tribes out of many of the provisions Congress included us in: PPP, PPE, & commercial fishing relief. The Admin is still blocking funds Congress & Courts said must go to tribal governments by end of April.

/4

A good portion of every working day since this pamdemic started (literally every day), has involved me spending time arguing, begging, and cajoling some federal agency to provide the relief Congress intended. That's how my week ended at 6 pm yesterday - fighting with NOAA.

/5

That gets exhausting. But, it occurs at the State level too.

We have a good and competent Governor here in Michigan. Even still, it has been a challenge to coordinate on a number of issues. We have had outright conflict over the scope of Tribal/State jurisdiction on others.

/6

At the outset of the pandemic, we had a very serious conflict with the Michigan Dept of Corrections about sharing info related to COVID cases in prisons. Many of our tribal members were exposed to a positive inmate while working as officers. Nobody told us.

/7

Even after we found out, MDOC refused to cooperate. Our tribal member officers feared for their jobs because we raised this issue. It took a full week of max effort to resolve.

/8

But then, we've had issues with neighboring jurisdictions. Even after donating PPE to local agencies (that our Tribe manufactured at our expense), and even after sharing our data with local govt, the County refused to share public health data with us.

/9

At the same time, a neighboring township held back its payment for the Tribe's provision of EMS/Ambulamce services.

This took several weeks to resolve.

/10

Of course, these conflicts with Federal, State, and local agencies occur while our Tribe is fulfilling our basic duties to keep our people safe, take care of our employees (and their families), and plan for the future.

With no revenue. And not enough aid.

/11

It has been a monumentally taxing effort. Our mission is made harder by each hour spent arguing with Federal, State, and local officials.

/12

These fights are ALWAYS about either:

a) Getting someone to do what the law already requires them to do; or,

b) Stopping someone from actively harming our Tribe.

It. Is. Exhausting.

/13

Back to Chairmam Frazier's statement: I applaud him for standing up to the Governor. I know how hard it is to take on that fight while also doing the basic work of tribal government with next to no resources.

/14

But Chairman Frazier's fight is about keeping his people safe. It's necessary, because NOBODY else is going to keep his people safe except for his people.

When the chips are down, Indian people have few allies, and even fewer friends.

Miigwetch for leading, Chairman.

/end