When Oglala Lakota elder Wilma Thin Elk walked into the public safety crisis meeting at the Prairie Wind Casino on Aug. 22, she held her cane up.
“This is my defense,” Thin Elk said, gesturing to her cane. “This is how I protect myself.”
For years, the Pine Ridge Reservation has been struggling with a public safety crisis and little resources to end it. Law enforcement personnel dropped from roughly 120 patrol officers in 2006 to now just 32, and an ongoing lawsuit against the federal government and a November 2023 State of Emergency declaration have brought little relief.
Most recently on Aug. 2, Porcupine community member Tom Thunder Hawk was killed during the annual Oglala Nation Wacipi and Rodeo.
“The way things are going isn’t good,” Thin Elk said. “It’s time for the people to wake up. Wake up and start talking, start doing something. The shooting is getting worse, it’s getting worse.”
About four years ago, Thin Elk and her cousin Bonnie Holy Rock formed an elders’ council with the help of fellow elders Richard Broken Nose and Linda Bull Bear. The council, Wakan Tahoki Omniciye (Voices of the Elders), named by Bull Bear, aims to address safety concerns on the reservation. Since March, the group has held monthly meetings in each of the different political districts on the reservation to gather community members and discuss concerns and solutions.
Funds for these meetings come from donations, Holy Rock said.
Roughly 30 people – community members, elders and officials – gathered at the Prairie Wind Casino on Aug. 22. The meeting offered a panel discussion with elected officials and public safety officials.
Panelists included representatives from the Oglala Lakota County Sheriff's Department, the Bennett County Sheriff's Department, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety and Highway Patrol, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Law and Order Committee, and representatives from the tribal president’s office.
President Frank Star Comes Out was unable to attend due to prior obligations but sent Public Relations Advisor Valerie Adams and Legislative Liaison Darla Black.
Conferencegoers filled out surveys ranking their top concerns regarding public safety, participated in a panel discussion and broke out into groups to make their feelings heard.
“This reservation is a microcosm of our country,” said Ata Jack, the panel moderator. “Everything that’s wrong with this reservation is everything that’s wrong with this country but on a much larger scale for us. But Native America, we’re like a rudder on a ship, a little rudder on the back. When we turn, it’ll take a lot of effort, but we can turn that ship around. That’s what we’re here for. We want to see a change. We want to see a difference be made.”
Conference attendees talked about gun violence, drug and alcohol use, and bootlegging and several expressed general feelings of neglect from law enforcement. Staffing shortages amongst patrol officers have led to exorbitant wait times and forced officers to prioritize which calls they respond to first.
“It’s like the Wild West out here,” Jack said. “There’s gunfights, shootouts, you name it.”
Several veterans and tokalas, who are members of traditional warrior societies, such as Bryan Brewer and Earl Tall, shared their concerns.
One man, Sam Long Black Cat, spoke about his frustration and sadness at the death of his friend, Tom Thunder Hawk, and about how he himself has been threatened with gun violence. Several weeks ago, Long Black Cat said he was attending a sweat lodge ceremony when another man brandished a 9mm pistol at him and threatened him.
At the Aug. 22 meeting, Long Black Cat proposed a Memorandum of Understanding between the tribe’s Department of Public Safety and the tokala warrior societies to provide extra volunteer assistance.
“I am upset. I could have lost my life at a sweat lodge. I had to watch my brother slowly pass on before my eyes,” Long Black Cat said. “Just listening to all the stories going on … I’m not bashing public safety because you are underfunded, and undermanned. Call on tokala to do something about it. There’s a lot of things we can’t do but we will.”
Other community members spoke in support of the use of tokalas throughout the panel discussion.
Three members of the tribe’s Law and Order Committee attended as well – Robin Tapio, Sonia Little Hawk-Weston and Jackie Siers. The committee’s role is to pass resolutions and create ordinances to strengthen the tribe’s criminal code.
On July 17, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Law and Order Committee passed a new ordinance strengthening penalties for individuals trafficking alcohol, or “bootleggers,” to the reservation.
The sale and possession of alcohol on the Pine Ridge Reservation has been prohibited almost entirely since the time it was established in 1889. The reservation’s “dry” status was briefly lifted for a couple months in the early 1970s, and in 2013 some tribal leaders again attempted but failed to end prohibition.
While prohibited, the trafficking of alcohol has been an ongoing issue. Most recently, bootleggers are adding rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, antifreeze and other hazardous materials to the liquor they sell.
“They call them ‘skips’ and they’re selling them to our people,” Tapio said. “It’s killing our people. Young kids are getting them and drinking them. This is why we’re going to start banishing bootleggers.”
With the July 17 ordinance, trafficking alcohol into the reservation will result in a Class 1 Misdemeanor and is subject to a five-year banishment from the reservation.
A criminal bootlegging charge is non-bondable, meaning alleged offenders won’t be allowed to remain free while awaiting trial, according to the ordinance.
John Pettigrew, the tribe’s acting police chief, said law enforcement has arrested five people for bootlegging since the annual powwow and rodeo in early August. The tribe recently hired Gracie Her Many Horses to replace Pettigrew as the tribe’s permanent police chief once she passes a background check.
Kevin Rascher, captain of highway safety, said the tribe will enforce a 2010 Drug Code that mandates that anyone convicted of transporting, manufacturing or selling narcotics will be banished from the reservation.
“The law has got to have teeth,” Rascher said. “If there’s no punishment, they’re just going to keep doing it because it’s a slap on the wrist.”
Anyone banished for trafficking or selling narcotics or alcohol on the reservation is subject to a five-year banishment. Re-entry during that period will result in a one-year jail sentence and an additional year added to their banishment.
On Sept. 14, the elder’s council will host a public meeting at the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation to discuss the results of the Aug. 22 survey given to attendees and continue discussions. The meeting is open to the public.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.