Brandon Ecoffey
A note from the editor’s desk
By Brandon Ecoffey
LCT Editor Last month, Sen. John Thune and U.S. Rep Kristi Noem visited Pine Ridge to meet with tribal citizens and tribal government officials about a number of issues plaguing the reservation. These issues included topics included the high rates of suicide on the reservation and the struggles that OST Law Enforcement encounters on a daily basis while attempting to patrol one of the country’s largest rural jurisdictions with only 44 officers on staff. I absolutely applaud both Republican lawmakers for their willingness to come to the reservation and discuss these very difficult and pressing issues. During the meetings Sen. Thune emphasized the need for more federal funding for reservation law enforcement as the department has been undermanned and under-funded for decades. The realization by Sen. Thune of the immediate dangers associated with allowing this situation to continue without pause is refreshing. In the past Republican lawmakers have been made aware of the lack of police presence in reservation communities but chose to ignore our people’s demands that the federal government uphold their side of the trust agreement.
Rep. Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota) with students from the Red Cloud School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo from Instagram
Both Sen. Thune and Rep. Noem have a strong voting record that demonstrates their conservative worldviews. Both have voted to cut the national debt, limit federal government, and more recently to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and in favor of foreign military intervention by our government. The continued support by the GOP for military intervention overseas has always been packaged as an attempt to protect Americans from threats of terror but, the ramifications of these foreign policies have resulted in hundreds of deaths of civilians at the hands of American militarized drones, trillions being spent attempting to “rebuild” foreign nations, and the torture of detainees at the hands of American interrogators. Why can’t we redirect some of the money being on both foreign aid and from the war on terror back to tribal nations? Only 1% of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid. In cash amounts it is equal to about $4 trillion annually. According to Forbes magazine the War on Terror has cost the United States about $1.7 trillion. How much would it cost for the federal government to uphold its trust responsibilities to every tribal nation in the U.S.? Each year politicians come to the reservation and tell our leaders and the media that they respect the sovereignty of tribes and that they understand that the relationship between the federal government and tribal governments consists up of two distinct nations. Each day these same politicians also pledge to enact legislation and support funding for the purpose of fighting terror.
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The ironic part of this agenda is that since 9/11, only 28 U.S. citizens have been killed by Muslim extremists, according to a report from the think tank New America. Since January, 16 people have killed themselves on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and another 250 people have attempted to. Just a couple of weeks ago an elderly woman and her grandson had their home invaded and were severely beaten by thieves. The grandson also had kerosene poured on him as if the invaders were going to set him ablaze. In reality you do not have to go to Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan to find the third-world and real and immediate threats to American citizens, all you have to do is visit a reservation. If lawmakers are being honest about respecting the sovereignty of tribes and about fighting terror, both domestic and abroad, then it is time to redirect a large percentage of both foreign and military aid to tribal nations. If funds can be allocated to arm Syrian rebels then funds can be allocated to fully staff tribal police departments. If money can be found to train legislators in Iraq on governance then funding should be made available to educate tribal citizens so that they can rebuild their own nations here. Brandon Ecoffey is the current editor of Lakota Country Times and an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and has received numerous awards for his work in Indian Country. Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.
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