South Dakota tribe to declare state of emergency due to rampant crime on reservation
The leader of a South Dakota tribe is expected to declare a state of emergency on the state’s largest Native American reservation because of rampant crime that he says has not yet been curbed due to inadequate U.S. government funding for law enforcement.
Saturday’s state of emergency planned for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation comes nearly six months after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government has a treaty obligation to support law enforcement on the reservation, but declined to determine whether the Oglala Sioux Tribe is entitled to the full requested financing amount.
Oglala Sioux President Frank Star Comes Out said in an interview Friday that conditions on the reservation have deteriorated since the ruling, prompting him to sign the emergency proclamation.
The U.S. government and its agencies – namely the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs – are primarily responsible for the breakdown of law and order on the reservation and negotiations between the government and the tribe are not making progress, according to Star Comes Out .
“I feel like they’re slowing down,” he said.
A draft of the proclamation obtained by The Associated Press states that the U.S. government has failed “to fulfill the treaty, statutory, and trust responsibilities of the United States to ensure adequate law enforcement on the reservation.”
Gun violence, drug crimes and rape are becoming increasingly common on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Just 33 officers and eight detectives are responsible for more than 100,000 emergency calls a year on the 14,000-square-mile reservation, tribal officials say.
The reservation is about the size of Connecticut, while population size is a subject of debate.
Oglala Sioux officials argue the tribe is entitled to federal funding for 120 fully equipped officers for the reservation, something the federal government has disputed.
Ben Fenner, an attorney for the tribe, said current staffing levels amount to four or five officers per shift at any given time.
U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange told the federal government in May to revise its census-based population estimates for the reservation of 19,800 to 32,000, lower than the tribe’s figure of 40,000. The judge said the federal estimates likely represent an undercount.
Star Comes Out said police response times to the reservation take hours, if they respond at all.
“With five police officers, that’s just impossible,” he said. “Our officers are overworked and underpaid. They are outgunned. And it is dangerous for them to respond to calls alone.”
When asked for a response to the tribe’s expected statement, the Bureau of Indian Affairs said in an email that it does not comment on pending litigation.
Giovanni Rocco, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, noted in an email to the AP that the ministry’s Law Enforcement Task Force has recommended that the federal government increase staffing levels for reservation law enforcement personnel.
Robert Miller, a law professor at Arizona State University with expertise in federal Indian law, said the tribe’s proclamation has no legal impact. However, it draws attention to the issue and puts pressure on the US government.
“The tribe is litigating a serious matter of life and death, alleging that the United States breached both its fiduciary responsibility and its treaty response to help protect the Oglala Sioux people,” said Miller, an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma .
“Can the tribe force the United States to pay more money to fund needed tribal services? Every tribal nation faces these kinds of problems,” he said.
Miller said the case is far from over.
Tribal leaders portrayed the ruling as a victory in May, saying the important point is that the court affirmed that the federal government has a duty to fund police on the reservation and ordered U.S. officials to meet with Oglala Sioux leaders. to work together quickly to figure out how to more fairly fund tribal law enforcement.”
The outcome of the case could impact other reservations, including some where Indigenous women are being killed at a rate 10 times the national average. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana has filed a similar lawsuit.
Lange, the judge in the Oglala Sioux case, has noted that the Pine Ridge Reservation is among the most impoverished places in the country.
“In recent years, communities on the reservation have struggled with dangerous and highly addictive drugs and have faced unprecedented levels of violence and threats to public safety,” he wrote. “In the tribe’s view, a lack of competent and effective law enforcement on the reservation is a major reason for the crisis.”
While neither side disputes that crime on the reservation is very high and police are underfunded, the judge wrote, the federal government insists that “the funding is reasonable given budgetary constraints and Congress’ decision to defund law enforcement agencies in the Indian country in general is under-financed.”
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Trisha Ahmed is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15