South Dakota tribe declares state of emergency over crime
It's the tribe's third emergency declaration in six years as members contend with methamphetamine and other illicit drug use, trafficking and gun violence on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The tribe previously declared states of emergency in 2019 and 2024.
Kathleen Wooden Knife, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, wrote in the declaration on Tuesday that the emergency is due to "pervasive law and order and public health issues ... creating threats to public safety, the health and welfare of the general public."
The declaration asked for increased patrol and investigative support from federal agencies, cooperation from the 12 communities on the reservation and coordination between the tribe and federal government.
Law enforcement is stretched thin on many reservations in the U.S., leading some tribes to sue the federal government. In a lawsuit the Oglala Sioux tribe filed against the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government is obligated by treaty to support law enforcement on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Rosebud Indian Reservation has a dozen law enforcement officers for an area that stretches nearly 1 million acres (404,686 hectares) across five counties, said Lewis Good Voice Eagle, chief of staff to Wooden Knife. Low staffing is partially due to 2016 budget cuts, as well as difficulty retaining officers who don't receive the same benefits as they would working elsewhere.
After previous emergency declarations, the reservation received help from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Interior, though it was not enough to solve the problems, Good Voice Eagle said.
"With the shortage of law enforcement and the shortage of juris doctorate barred attorneys, it has really created another nightmare on the Rosebud Indian Reservation," he said.
Crime on South Dakota's nine Native American reservations has been a longstanding issue and the subject of tense relations with former South Dakota governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The nine tribes in the state banned her from tribal lands last year for saying publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on the reservations.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Epstein victims accuse Trump administration of trying to protect wealthy, powerful enablers
NEW YORK — Women who allege Jeffrey Epstein abused them have accused the Trump administration, in new court filings, of trying to protect enablers of the well-connected wealth manager and criticized the government for treating victims as pawns 'in political warfare.' In letters filed late Monday with Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman — one of the judges who are mulling requests by the government to unseal transcripts from the grand jury proceedings against Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell — two women took aim at the Trump administration for its handling of the snowballing scandal. They referenced the memo released last month by the Justice Department and the FBI, in which the government declined to shed light on a trove of records gathered in Epstein investigations and concluded a major review found there was no 'client list' and that Epstein killed himself, contrary to conspiracy theories previously peddled by Trump's appointees. 'I feel like the DOJ's and FBI's priority is protecting the 'third-party,' the wealthy men, by focusing on scrubbing their names off the files of which the victims, 'know who they are'. To learn that our own president has utilized thousands of agents to protect his identity and these high-profile individuals is monumentally mind-blowing,' an anonymous victim wrote in one of the letters. The letter to Berman later added, 'I think what I would request from you, Your Honor, is to consider having an approved third party review these documents to ensure that NO victims' names or likenesses are revealed through this release. It is imperative with the scrutiny over this media frenzy that the victims are completely and entirely protected.' In another letter, a second victim addressed the government: 'What you have done and continue to do is eating at me day after day as you help to perpetuate this story indefinitely. Why not be completely transparent? Show us all the files with only the necessary redactions! Be done with it and allow me/us to heal. You protect yourself and your powerful and wealthy 'friends' (not enemies) over the victims, why? The victims know the truth, we know who are in the files and now so do you.' The second letter urged Berman to let victims' attorneys review what the Justice Department wants to redact from the grand jury transcripts the DOJ is trying to unseal and slammed the government for recently meeting with Maxwell behind bars to get more information. 'I regrettably feel the need to come forward and shed some light on the government's motion to unseal transcripts, documents and exhibits from the 'case' that was never tried. Sad to say, for the victims we never got our day in court. Apparently, Epstein killed himself under whose watch? Oh, was it Trump's DOJ? Hmmm, interesting,' the second letter read. 'I ask you to have our attorneys review the 'suggested' redactions as they are the ones who also know the victims, their names, their truths and their stories unlike the Unites States Government who did not and does not even care to know our truth. They would rather ask a convicted imprisoned sex trafficker/abuser for information.' The Epstein files scandal has only continued to grow as the Trump administration has sought to contain it. Following the memo by the Justice Department and FBI, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's name was included in the government's nonpublic Epstein files and that he'd been informed of such, and that Trump wrote a cryptic message to Epstein on the financier's 50th birthday. Trump has denied writing the birthday missive and is suing The Wall Street Journal. The transcripts from the grand jury proceedings against Maxwell that Trump's appointees are trying to get unsealed contain little information that is not publicly known, the government said in court filings Tuesday. The public record does not include substantive exhibits shown to the grand jurors who indicted Maxwell. Still, the Justice Department is not, for now, trying to make them public, according to the new Manhattan Federal Court filings. Trump's appointees discussed the materials in response to requests for more information from Berman and Judge Paul Engelmayer, who will rule on the motions to unseal grand jury transcripts. They included sealed annotated transcripts from Maxwell's grand jury proceedings, specifically outlining what's not publicly available. In an accompanying letter, the Justice Department conceded 'much of the information' within was revealed at the British former socialite's trial in late 2021 or had otherwise been reported in accounts shared by victims and witnesses publicly. The government filing asked the judges to give the Justice Department until Friday to take a position on whether grand jury exhibits should be unsealed. In an order later Tuesday, Engelmayer granted the request. Engelmayer on Tuesday also ordered the Justice Department to respond to letters submitted from the victims about the disclosure requests. The Epstein grand jury met on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019, according to Tuesday's filings. The disgraced financier was arrested on July 6 that year on sweeping sex trafficking charges alleging he had for years abused dozens of teen girls and young women, more than a decade after he evaded justice in a maligned sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in Florida. He was found dead a month after his arrest on Aug. 10, 2019, in his jail cell at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, with his death ultimately ruled as a suicide. The Maxwell grand jury met on June 29, 2020, July 8, 2020, and March 29, 2021, the Justice Department said in the new filings. She was indicted on July 2, 2020, and found guilty of sex trafficking counts, including one involving a minor, in December 2021. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison following her conviction, a term she had been serving at FCI Tallahassee, Fla., until her surprise transfer last week to a much cushier setup in a dormitory-style prison for women in Bryan, Texas, after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, who framed the meetup as a truth-seeking mission. Tuesday's filings by the Justice Department said the government had failed to make contact with one victim of Epstein whose name featured in grand jury proceedings about the disclosure requests and would try to contact other victims who weren't identified in transcripts in the coming days. _____
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Election results 2025: Macomb County primary races, ballot proposals
Election results 2025: Macomb County primary races, ballot proposals Results for races and ballot proposals in Macomb County for the Aug. 5, 2025 primary election. New Baltimore Mayor 2-year term. 1 position. Sterling Heights Council 4-year term. 6 positions. Proposals Read the full text for proposals on the Macomb County clerk's website. Clinton Township Police Department Millage Renewal Proposition Ray Township Fire and Rescue Operations Millage Renewal Ray Township Fire and Rescue Department Equipment and Truck Replacement Millage Renewal Armada Area Schools Bond Proposal (Includes results from St. Clair County) Fitzgerald Public Schools School Building And Site Bond Proposal Fitzgerald Public Schools Replacement Building And Site Sinking Fund Tax Proposal This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan election results 2025: Macomb County primaries, proposals Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Michigan Gov. Whitmer makes another White House visit to meet with Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the toll tariffs are taking on the auto industry and the potential effects of his tax and spending bill on Medicaid. It's the latest in a string of meetings between the Democratic governor and the Republican president after the two frequently clashed during his first term. In his second term, Whitmer has adopted a more diplomatic approach, drawing some backlash from fellow Democrats. But it's also resulted in multiple wins for Whitmer's state, including Trump's approving $50 million in storm relief and awarding a new fighter jet mission for an Air National Guard base in the state. 'I've always said that I'll work with anyone to get things done for Michigan,' Whitmer, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said in a statement Tuesday. 'That's why I've continued to go to Washington, D.C., to make sure that Michiganders are front and center when critical decisions are being made.' The private meeting between Whitmer and Trump — which a White House official would not confirm but did stress Trump's continued focus on Michigan — marks a rare instance of the president sitting with a leading Democratic figure. In recent weeks, Trump attacked Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, telling him to 'go to hell," while also taking aim at other high-profile Democratic governors who have pushed back on some of his policies, including California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois' JB Pritzker, also considered possible 2028 candidates. Pritzker has aided Texas Democrats in leaving their state to stay in Illinois to block Republicans from their needed quorum to pass a new congressional map backed by Trump. Early Tuesday, Trump called Pritzker 'probably the dumbest of all governors' in a television interview. Whitmer has been more careful, criticizing some of Trump's policies rather than the president himself. She issued an executive directive last week to assess the impact of tariffs that she said have led to 'massive economic uncertainty' — without mentioning Trump's name once. Tuesday's appearance ended with far less controversy than her trip to the White House in April. Whitmer was unexpectedly ushered into the Oval Office during that visit, standing awkwardly nearby as the Republican president signed executive orders and assailed his political opponents during a photo opportunity. In their White House meeting Tuesday, Whitmer said that she told Trump and 'his team about the impact tariffs are having on Michigan's economy, especially our auto industry.' She also discussed 'changes in the Medicaid program, and ongoing recovery efforts following the ice storm in Northern Michigan this year." Whitmer also saw Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and chief of staff Susie Wiles while at the White House. Trump announced last month that he had spoken with Whitmer to inform her that he was appproving $50 million in federal funds for Michigan to support repairs and recovery from a March ice storm. In April, Trump traveled to Michigan to announce a new mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which Whitmer has sought for years.
