South Dakota
Noem hires former Oglala Sioux police chief for state post as another tribe votes to ban her • South Dakota Searchlight
Gov. Kristi Noem appointed a former Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety chief to a post in the state’s Department of Tribal Relations on Tuesday, alleging he “found himself without a job” for speaking up about drug cartels on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The appointment of Algin Young as tribal law enforcement liaison came as another tribe voted to ban the governor from its lands, and as questions arose about the impact of a ban voted on by another South Dakota tribe.
Sixth tribal nation bans Noem for comments on cartels, Native children
The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe voted to ban Noem from its lands Tuesday morning, Chairman Peter Lengkeek told South Dakota Public Broadcasting. The Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Business and Claims Committee, the highest-level elected body for that nation, voted to support a ban last week, though it’s since been pointed out that such a ban would not be final and enforceable without a vote of tribal members. The tribes were the sixth and seventh of the nine tribes in the state to vote in favor of banning the governor so far this year.
The recent spate of conflicts with the state’s tribes began on Jan. 31, when the governor delivered a speech on U.S. border policy to a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature. In it, she described the southern border of the U.S. as a “warzone,” language she repeated in her Tuesday press release on Young’s appointment.
Her speech included language calling out the impact of Mexican drug cartels on the reservations.
Noem has suggested that responses from tribal leaders to her cartel comments, as well as the bans, have come because some of them are “personally benefiting” from a cartel presence on reservations.
She’s also drawn fire for telling audiences in Winner and Mitchell that Native children lack hope, and that “they don’t have parents who show up and help them.”
Young appointment implies firing
Noem has argued that the federal government is failing tribes through a lack of law enforcement funding. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has sued the federal government over that issue, and Noem pledged to support that lawsuit during her Jan. 31 speech.
The governor’s office has not intervened as a party in the tribe’s most recent federal lawsuit, but she has moved to support tribal law enforcement in other ways. Last month, she pledged to fund a special session of the state’s police academy specifically for tribal trainees. Most tribal police train for 13 weeks in New Mexico, and South Dakota’s congressional delegation has lobbied for a regional training facility to encourage recruitment.
In February, Noem penned a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs urging more funding for tribal law enforcement in South Dakota.
In Noem’s press release on his appointment, Young said that he looks forward “to serving as an ambassador for the State of South Dakota at the federal level and with the State’s nine tribal nations to facilitate solutions for tribal law enforcement and understand and navigate jurisdictional challenges.”
The release also includes a thinly veiled reference to tribal resistance to Noem’s comments.
The release says that Young “found himself without a job” after “bravely testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the cartel presence on tribal lands.”
Noem slings accusations about tribes while signing education bills
Young testified before that committee during a listening session about public safety in Indian Country on March 20. His testimony came minutes after the testimony of Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out.
Neither mentioned cartels in their verbal comments, which can be viewed in full on the committee’s website.
The Senate committee did collect written testimony until April 12, and that testimony is not available online. There was no immediate response Tuesday to an email to the committee’s press officers asking for any written testimony that may have been submitted by Young or Star Comes Out.
The tribe’s director of public safety job was advertised on the tribe’s Facebook page on April 15. There were no Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings between March 20 and that date.
Indian Country Today reported that Young’s contract expired on April 20.
Star Comes Out did not return a Searchlight message seeking comment on Young’s appointment.
Representatives with Noem’s office and the Office of Tribal Relations did not offer a date for the “cartel presence” testimony.
Yankton Sioux Tribe ban vote not binding
So far, seven tribes have voted to ban Noem from their lands. The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe have yet to pass such a resolution. Lower Brule voted down such a ban earlier this year, but Chairman Clyde Estes told SDPB that it might consider one again in June based on Noem’s comments about Native children.
Noem to lawmakers: Be ready to take action on southern border ‘invasion’
“The children should be left out of any political discussion,” Estes told SDPB’s Lee Strubinger. “To say that they have no hope is wrong and she should not have said that.”
The Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Business and Claims Committee voted to support a ban that would bar the governor from its lands on Friday, but that vote lacks the authority of law, the committee’s secretary said Tuesday.
Such a ban would not be official without a vote from the tribe’s general council, meaning a vote of tribal members at a meeting called by either the committee leadership or a petition from tribal members.
“We don’t have anything scheduled,” said Secretary Courtney Sully. “We don’t even have a resolution.”
The Yankton Sioux Tribe is the only one of the nine tribes in South Dakota that lacks a tribal council-style government with elected representatives to vote on all tribal affairs. Such governments are known as “IRA” governments, named for the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which encouraged tribal nations to adopt city council-style authority structures.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Business and Claims Committee, Sully said, aligns more closely with pre-colonial decision-making. The committee is empowered to manage the tribe’s day-to-day affairs, Sully said, but cannot take larger actions without a vote of the people.
“Banning someone isn’t part of our daily business,” said Sully, who said she abstained from the Friday vote. She doesn’t like the governor’s comments, she said, but doesn’t believe they rise to the level of something requiring a ban.
The majority of the committee did vote to endorse a ban, however. A statement from Vice Chair Jason Cooke, sent to Searchlight on Tuesday, reiterated the earlier words of committee member Ryan Cournoyer, who said the vote was a sign of solidarity with other tribes.
The statement calls the governor “anti-tribe.” It references pre-2024 conflicts over pipeline protests, COVID checkpoints, education, and Noem’s lack of response to discrimination against Native Americans by a Rapid City hotel owner. The statement says the governor “now blames tribes for crime in her own cities.”
“Governor Noem, stop the political pandering and get serious about working on these issues with Tribes,” Cooke wrote. “It has been six years of inaction, ineptness, and ignorance from your office on serious policy issues impacting our shared citizens.”
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(SOUTH DAKOTA SEARCHLIGHT) – Democrats are running for 46 of South Dakota’s 105 legislative seats — leaving 56% of seats without a Democratic candidate.
That doesn’t bode well for the party ahead of November, said Michael Card, professor emeritus of political science at the University of South Dakota.
“It doesn’t put them in a position to actually put forward their ideological policy preferences and have much of a success at getting those enacted,” Card said.
In the state Senate alone, Democrats have failed to field a candidate for 22 seats, which is nearly two-thirds of the chamber. In the House, Democrats have failed to field a candidate for 38 seats, which is 54% of the chamber.
There is only one Democratic legislative primary in the state: a state Senate race in District 26, which includes the Rosebud Reservation.
There are no statewide Democratic primaries, after announced candidates for governor and U.S. House dropped out or failed to gather enough petition signatures to make the ballot, leaving one Democrat in each of those races.
Statewide candidates will have less name recognition than Republican candidates ahead of the general election, since they didn’t have primaries, Card said. In the Legislature, Card said Democrats “are guaranteeing they won’t get a majority.”
In contrast, Republicans have primary races for governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Five legislative districts do not have Republican primaries, but do have Republican candidates. There is a Republican candidate running for every legislative seat, except for one House seat in District 27, which includes the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Card said there are several factors leading to poor candidate turnout among Democrats, including a self-fulfilling cycle of failure.
“A lack of winning makes fewer people willing to take a chance on running for office,” Card said. “Why run if I think I’m going to lose?”
Democrats haven’t held a statewide office since 2015, and they haven’t held a majority of either legislative chamber since 1994.
Joe Zweifel, deputy executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, said the organization worked “really, really hard” to convince Democrats to run for office.
“But you can’t force people to run for office,” said Zweifel, of Sioux Falls, who’s running for a legislative seat himself in District 12.
He’s heard the open seats called a “failure.” But he disagrees, choosing to focus on the Democrats who did step forward.
“We’re running quality, good candidates in those races,” Zweifel said.
The South Dakota Democratic Party hopes to build on legislative successes, such as a new law from Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, that commits state funding to cover the family portion of reduced-price school meals.
“That specifically is a return on investment for our donors, and it shows that Democrats are doing good things for the people of South Dakota,” Zweifel said.
Wittman’s success helped inspire Democratic District 13 House of Representatives candidate Ali Rae Horsted, of Sioux Falls, to take a second run at the Legislature. Horsted ran unsuccessfully for the Senate against Sen. Sue Peterson in 2024, garnering 42% of the vote.
Horsted plans to build on that success and the name recognition she already has in the district. She hopes she’ll have “better odds” in this election, since there are two House seats for every district.
Horsted said it would better serve South Dakota if the state had a more balanced Legislature. While the latest Legislature was 92% Republican, 52% of voters in South Dakota are Republican. South Dakota has the lowest percentage of Democrats, 7.6%, in the Legislature nationwide.
“I think it’s important that people have options on the ballot,” Horsted said, “and people are able to vote for candidates that represent their values and their vision for the future of South Dakota.”
Makenzie Huber is a lifelong South Dakotan who regularly reports on the intersection of politics and policy with health, education, social services and Indigenous affairs. Her work with South Dakota Searchlight earned her the title of South Dakota’s Outstanding Young Journalist in 2024, and she was a 2024 finalist for the national Livingston Awards.
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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From East River to West River, South Dakota communities share a common goal: creating places where people of all ages can live, work and thrive. AARP’s Domains of Livability provide a framework to help communities do just that. Through the AARP Community Challenge grant program—designed to spark quick, impactful local projects—South Dakota communities are turning big ideas into visible, people-centered improvements.
Read the South Dakota Community Challenge Grant Report, which showcases grant-funded projects across the state designed to build more livable communities.
What Are AARP’s Domains of Livability?
AARP’s approach to livable communities is rooted in eight interconnected domains that together support quality of life at every age:
- Outdoor Spaces and Buildings – Safe, accessible parks, streets and public buildings
- Transportation – Affordable, accessible options for getting around
- Housing – A range of choices that support independence
- Social Participation – Opportunities to connect, learn and have fun
- Respect and Social Inclusion – Communities that value people of all backgrounds and ages
- Civic Participation and Employment – Meaningful ways to engage and contribute
- Communication and Information – Clear, accessible ways to stay informed
- Community Support and Health Services – Access to services that support well-being
These domains work best when addressed together—something South Dakota communities are embracing.
Turning Vision into Action with Community Challenge Grants
AARP Community Challenge grants fund short-term, “quick-action” projects that can ignite long-term change. Across South Dakota, these grants have helped communities pilot ideas, build momentum and demonstrate what’s possible when residents put people first.
Here’s how local projects are bringing the Domains of Livability to life:
- Outdoor Spaces and Buildings: Communities have used grants to enhance parks, create pop-up public spaces, add benches and shade and install wayfinding signs. These improvements invite people to linger, gather, and enjoy shared spaces—supporting both physical activity and social connection.
- Transportation: Small, thoughtful transportation projects can make a big difference. Community Challenge grants have supported safer crossings, improved walkability and bikeability around key destinations and the planning or installation of transit amenities like shelters and seating—especially important for older adults and people with mobility challenges.
- Housing and Community Support: Some projects focus on helping residents age in place by improving access to information about home modification resources or by testing neighborhood-level solutions that connect people to services. These efforts strengthen independence and peace of mind.
- Social Participation and Inclusion: Murals, community events and creative placemaking projects funded by AARP grants have sparked community pride and social connection. By involving residents in design and implementation, these projects foster respect, inclusion and a strong sense of belonging across generations.
- Communication, Civic Participation and Opportunity: From hosting community conversations to creating new tools for sharing local information, South Dakota communities are using grants to engage residents in shaping their future. These efforts elevate local voices and encourage ongoing civic participation.
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