“The BIA has a responsibility to help our people, and I don’t see that happening here,” Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said during a press conference Saturday.
The two tribal leaders said the checkpoints were necessary to protect the health and welfare of their tribes, particularly their most vulnerable members. The tribes needed to step up their COVID-19 preventive actions because of Gov. Kristi Noem's inaction, they said.