Native American tribe says sovereignty allows checkpoints

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The head of a Native American tribe said Wednesday it won't comply with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's demand to remove coronavirus checkpoints it set up on federal and state highways that run through its reservation.

Harold Frazier, the chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, told Noem in a short letter that the tribe would consider her request to restrict checkpoints to tribal roads. But he made it clear to The Associated Press that he believes the tribe’s sovereignty allows it to operate checkpoints anywhere on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, which is in northern South Dakota. The checkpoints are essential to protecting the health of the people on the reservation, he said.

“This is our home and this is our land,” Frazier said. “One does not come into somebody’s house and tell them how to live.”

The Republican governor demanded that the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe remove the checkpoints from federal and state highways, calling them illegal. The tribes began monitoring their borders last month in an effort to stop unnecessary visitors who could be carrying the coronavirus.

Noem on Friday threatened to sue the tribes if they didn't disassemble the road checks. But this week, she tried a different tack, offering to meet if they would consider limiting the checkpoints only to tribal roads.

She is also appealing to the federal government to back her up, telling the South Dakota Broadcasters Association, “The authority on U.S. highways and state highways lies with the federal government and that they need to take enforcement actions in those cases if the law's not being upheld.”

Noem's spokesman, Ian Fury, said Wednesday that her office would respond to Frazier's letter “at the appropriate...