https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/09/us/south-dakota-sioux-tribes/index.html

The governor of South Dakota is trying to infect the Sioux tribe with COVID-19 by having them remove health checkpoints in their territory. The governor has refused to do much of anything because she's trying to impress Trump.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

This looks like the age old pissing match between tribe autonomy and state powers. Maybe i'm wrong but maybe the reservation is at some key crossroads and they are essentially shutting down travel through their lands thereby interfering with the state?

probably. guilty until proven innocent, right? those savages are always just trying to mess with the good white christians anyway. can't possibly be they want to protect themselves from a virus that has disproportionally hit minorities and the poor, right? they just want to fuck with the trump stooge - by unreasobably siding with the scientists during a global pandemic, and not defying them to save late stage capitalism's profits. how dare they?

running a state highway through a reservation seems like a match made in hell. I can only imagine that disputes must pop up regularly, since we are talking about two groups who claim jurisdiction and are naturally at odd with each other.



They must have had some agreement in place about what the rules for these highways were going to be right?

It clearly doesn't please the Crown that people exercise their right to travel.

Side note: buddy called me from a bar in Fargo, ND. He went there (250 miles) because that's the nearest bar that's open.

That's a bit strange, don't you think? Is he looking for specific beer on tap or something?

His life has always centered on being social. Extremely social. Isolation does not sit well with him.

This.

I guess this conflict hasnt popped up more in recent years because who the fuck drives through South Dakota by car? This is peak fly-over country, ffs.



Okay, on a more serious note: it is unacceptable for tribes to hinder travel on a state highway, it is unacceptable for a state government to force an autonomous tribe to not take the steps to protect themselves which they consider appropriate. I think the solution in this case is for the state to *gasp* asssist the tribe in running checkpoints alongside the highway, so that the 3-5 people who drive through there every day can be checked/stopped before entering tribal land.

Or just put shields in place at the start of the route through tribal land: "Transit section through tribal land - stopping or exiting your vehicle strictly prohibited. If you set foot on the land beside the highway, expect to end up with an arrow in your ass or tied to a stake surrounded by wigwams".

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 10 2020 01:05am

He's probably libertarian

We have tribal lands not far from where i live. Some pretty big intrastate highways run through their lands. Because they are tax exempt they make a killing from travelers buying gas & tobacco products that aren't taxed, & plenty of other things. Difference between name brand smokes and reservation smokes is like 5 bucks per pack due to taxes so imagine the amount of locals going there for cigarettes. It's actually a massive life blood for that native community and honestly i'm not sure how they would fare without all of that revenue coming their way because of that strategic location.

I don't know the details of this case but imo they should work with the government. Seems really entitled to want commerce to run through your neck of the woods when times are good but then try to meddle with that faucet when something like this happens. Like if the government decided to say fuck you and rebuild highways around them they would be infinitely more fucked than if a few people got Covid.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on May 10 2020 08:42am