Socialism, colonialism, Wokeism, and the attitudes and conditions that those isms produce are horrific. No question about it. Here is an example right here in the States – in South Dakota, specifically.
A series of treaties between the Lakota (and other tribal nations) in the mid-1800s included a clause that the United States (the FedGov) would protect the people of the tribes from “bad men.”
Jump forward in time a century and a half. As reported in the Rapid City Journal, on 18 November 2023, Oglala Sioux Tribal (OST or Oyate) President Frank Star Comes Out declared a State of Emergency until 1 January 2025: 13+ months.
Why? The crime rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the OST, a sovereign (but dependent) nation, is screamingly high. And has been for years. It has been 16 months since OST applied for additional funding for law enforcement from the FedGov, in July 2022, by filing a lawsuit in federal court against the US Department of the Interior and its agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Some explanation is needed:
It is the BIA that funds the OST Department of Public Safety, the only really fully-functional law enforcement agency on Pine Ridge. Except for armed checkpoints to prevent travel through the rez during the Beer Flu, when the Oyate used a kind of militia as well as DPS to deny their own people and others freedom to travel. The DPS has 33 officers (and 9 investigators) to patrol 3 million square miles and about 20,000 tribal members who live on the rez.
Legally, the State of South Dakota doesn’t provide any law enforcement. The FBI does provide some backup to DPS, as virtually all applicable law on the rez is federal in nature. OST’s reservation boundaries include all of Oglala Lakota (formerly Shannon) County and half of Jackson County. Both have elected Sheriffs, but their funding and powers are quite limited by federal and tribal law – including the fact that there is relatively little privately-owned land in OL County and the south half of Jackson: so money is harder to come by. (Federal and tribal land is not subject to property taxes which normally fund sheriff’s offices. Tripp County is now considered to be outside the rez boundaries but has OST land and communities.)
(There are over 50,000 enrolled members of the Oyate, but most don’t live (full-time, at least) on the reservation in southwestern South Dakota.)
History shows that the language of the treaties was intended to address the problem of “bad white men” but that isn’t specified. The tribes had their own methods of dealing with their own bad men – the equivalent of modern public safety and law enforcement. Among the Lakota, these were the akicita: the warrior societies who maintained order in the camps and on the trail, under the leadership of the elders of the various bands. Although these were at first incorporated by the BIA Agency Superintendents into Tribal Police, they were soon dissolved and rendered moot. They were “barbaric” and “primitive” and “warlike.”
And so, for 140+ years, at least seven generations, the OST (like most AmerInd nations) were made more and more dependent on the FedGov. And being sustained by “treaty rights” as wards of DC. And frankly, as purely a socialist system as can be found in the Fifty States.
Which has proven toxic to Lakota society – especially to the Oglala society. We could compare the damage seen on Pine Ridge and many other reservations to the social impacts of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe over 40 to 80 years. Corruption, near-totalitarian and authoritarian government, destruction of cultural norms, and many other negative impacts led directly to the massive crime rate on Pine Ridge today. Not just rape and murder and robbery and domestic violence but teen suicide and uncontrolled alcoholism. And much more.
As one comment about the declaration of emergency asked, rhetorically: Why all this crime? Are white people going onto the reservation to commit these crimes? To those who know Pine Ridge and the Rosbud and other reservations in the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and elsewhere, the answer is clear. No. There are white people (Anglos, “settlers”) and even black and Hispanic people – and no doubt even Asian people who commit crimes on the rez. But the data is clear. Most crimes against both Oglala and members of other tribes – as well as non-AmerInd people – on Pine Ridge are committed by other Oglala. Indeed, virtually all. Especially violent crimes. The people of OST are doing it to themselves.
But after generations of being under the thumb of the FedGov, the OST tribal government blames it on DC. Which is, of course, another symptom of the poison of government. Together with the massive stress on society across the States, there is a spiral of ever-worse criminality. Especially violence. The current tribal government and government system is incapable of dealing with it. No matter how much “treaty” welfare they get from DC. Because Oglala society is so corrupted. And so without hope.
Is there a solution? Yes, but what that might be is perhaps beyond comprehension right now.
But we can be sure that courts ordering the FedGov to throw more money at the Oglala Lakota Nation is NOT the solution.
About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Wards of the FedGov – emergency declared
Socialism, colonialism, Wokeism, and the attitudes and conditions that those isms produce are horrific. No question about it. Here is an example right here in the States – in South Dakota, specifically.
A series of treaties between the Lakota (and other tribal nations) in the mid-1800s included a clause that the United States (the FedGov) would protect the people of the tribes from “bad men.”
Jump forward in time a century and a half. As reported in the Rapid City Journal, on 18 November 2023, Oglala Sioux Tribal (OST or Oyate) President Frank Star Comes Out declared a State of Emergency until 1 January 2025: 13+ months.
Why? The crime rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the OST, a sovereign (but dependent) nation, is screamingly high. And has been for years. It has been 16 months since OST applied for additional funding for law enforcement from the FedGov, in July 2022, by filing a lawsuit in federal court against the US Department of the Interior and its agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Some explanation is needed:
It is the BIA that funds the OST Department of Public Safety, the only really fully-functional law enforcement agency on Pine Ridge. Except for armed checkpoints to prevent travel through the rez during the Beer Flu, when the Oyate used a kind of militia as well as DPS to deny their own people and others freedom to travel. The DPS has 33 officers (and 9 investigators) to patrol 3 million square miles and about 20,000 tribal members who live on the rez.
Legally, the State of South Dakota doesn’t provide any law enforcement. The FBI does provide some backup to DPS, as virtually all applicable law on the rez is federal in nature. OST’s reservation boundaries include all of Oglala Lakota (formerly Shannon) County and half of Jackson County. Both have elected Sheriffs, but their funding and powers are quite limited by federal and tribal law – including the fact that there is relatively little privately-owned land in OL County and the south half of Jackson: so money is harder to come by. (Federal and tribal land is not subject to property taxes which normally fund sheriff’s offices. Tripp County is now considered to be outside the rez boundaries but has OST land and communities.)
(There are over 50,000 enrolled members of the Oyate, but most don’t live (full-time, at least) on the reservation in southwestern South Dakota.)
History shows that the language of the treaties was intended to address the problem of “bad white men” but that isn’t specified. The tribes had their own methods of dealing with their own bad men – the equivalent of modern public safety and law enforcement. Among the Lakota, these were the akicita: the warrior societies who maintained order in the camps and on the trail, under the leadership of the elders of the various bands. Although these were at first incorporated by the BIA Agency Superintendents into Tribal Police, they were soon dissolved and rendered moot. They were “barbaric” and “primitive” and “warlike.”
And so, for 140+ years, at least seven generations, the OST (like most AmerInd nations) were made more and more dependent on the FedGov. And being sustained by “treaty rights” as wards of DC. And frankly, as purely a socialist system as can be found in the Fifty States.
Which has proven toxic to Lakota society – especially to the Oglala society. We could compare the damage seen on Pine Ridge and many other reservations to the social impacts of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe over 40 to 80 years. Corruption, near-totalitarian and authoritarian government, destruction of cultural norms, and many other negative impacts led directly to the massive crime rate on Pine Ridge today. Not just rape and murder and robbery and domestic violence but teen suicide and uncontrolled alcoholism. And much more.
As one comment about the declaration of emergency asked, rhetorically: Why all this crime? Are white people going onto the reservation to commit these crimes? To those who know Pine Ridge and the Rosbud and other reservations in the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and elsewhere, the answer is clear. No. There are white people (Anglos, “settlers”) and even black and Hispanic people – and no doubt even Asian people who commit crimes on the rez. But the data is clear. Most crimes against both Oglala and members of other tribes – as well as non-AmerInd people – on Pine Ridge are committed by other Oglala. Indeed, virtually all. Especially violent crimes. The people of OST are doing it to themselves.
But after generations of being under the thumb of the FedGov, the OST tribal government blames it on DC. Which is, of course, another symptom of the poison of government. Together with the massive stress on society across the States, there is a spiral of ever-worse criminality. Especially violence. The current tribal government and government system is incapable of dealing with it. No matter how much “treaty” welfare they get from DC. Because Oglala society is so corrupted. And so without hope.
Is there a solution? Yes, but what that might be is perhaps beyond comprehension right now.
But we can be sure that courts ordering the FedGov to throw more money at the Oglala Lakota Nation is NOT the solution.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.