A recent article in the Rapid City Journal explains how the Oglala Lakota Nation (Oglala Sioux Tribe) in South Dakota is suing the FedGov because DC does not provide adequate law enforcement funding (enough cops) to OST “contributing to high crime rates and slow response times.”

The claim is that it violates treaties and federal statutes and has been going on for decades.

Yes, someone wants MORE FedGov cops to lord it over them. Of course, the federal police (troops) would for the most part be tribal members – other Lakota and probably allied AmerInd nations – and even some traditional enemy nations.

As those of us here at TPOL spend a lot of time driving through and working on various reservations, including the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where the OST lives, we know that criminal activity is a severe problem there. And in the other members of the Seven Council Fires (commonly called the Great Sioux Nation) in North and South Dakota and other States. OST’s land on Pine Ridge is particularly vexed with crime: theft, aggressive action (assault and even murder), confidence artists, fraud, violations of constitutional rights, pollution, and more.

But will more federal funding (welfare) and more cops really help?

Setting aside (for now, at least) whether the treaties between the FedGov and the Lakota people and others of the Plains tribes in the 1800s dictate that the FedGov pay for law enforcement for the OST, are more cops going to do anything to stem crime?

After all, the rural counties near Pine Ridge, both in South Dakota and Nebraska, have significantly less law enforcement funding and resources (especially cops) than OST has now and has had for decades. But their crime rates are quite small compared to the Oglala Lakota’s rates. Indeed, the only county which has rates even close to OST’s crime problem is Pennington County, truly the only nearby or adjacent urban county. And both the daily headlines and data suggest that it is Oglala Lakota and other Lakota tribal members that commit crimes at a much higher rate in Pennington County (county seat and major city, Rapid City) than people of other origins, cultures and races. Including Anglos (whites), blacks, Hispanic, and even other AmerInd tribes.

But OST’s problems are far deeper than a lack of federal largesse and are not going to be solved by hiring more cops and supporting them to ride on the reservation roads, range over the vast areas on horseback, or set up border checkpoints to keep people out (as the OST did during the Pandemic Panic).

The horrible crime is also not a result of poor living conditions, past or present racism, lack of resources, or other reasons frequently given for high crime rates.

Indeed, much of the reason for crime rests directly with the actions, past and present, of the FedGov. And the past and present actions of the tribe’s leaders, and the people themselves.

It goes back to pre-historic times: well before the Lakota had significant contact with the FedGov, or people of European descent (“settlers” or “Anglos” or US troops), the Oglala were known among their own relatives (other Lakota tribes or nations) for being a rowdy, reckless, even lawless bunch of people. That is why their reservation is where it is: as far away from the other six bands of the Lakota as possible, at the “end of the camp” where they were kept during annual gatherings in the days when the Lakota were nomadic buffalo hunters. (So that everyone else could have a quiet night’s sleep instead of worrying about their own relatives stealing their horses and anything else. Even their wives!)

That “tradition” continues today: widespread child and wife/girlfriend abuse, constant theft, vandalism, drunkenness, drug abuse, and more are rampant on Pine Ridge and its communities – sometimes spilling over to adjacent communities. (Yet those adjacent, “settler-controlled’ communities seem to be able to keep the peace and enforce the law without special race-based funding from the FedGov.) Teen suicide and adult suicide rates are incredible. Many enrolled tribal members seek to and do escape off-rez to cities like Rapid City, Pierre, Sioux Falls, and out of state to Denver and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, among others. Unfortunately, all too often the refugees are followed by (or include) the same lawless predators that make Pine Ridge a miserable place.

All of this has been made worse, since at least 1876, by the stupidity and greed of the FedGov, exemplified especially by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The OST, like several hundred tribes across the 49 States (none in Hawai’i) are “sovereign but dependent domestic nations” – most but not all recognized by a century or so (1776-1880 or so) of treaties between the US Congress and the various AmerInd nations. They are sovereign but the custom (not necessarily in all the treaties) emphasized the dependence – and says that the tribal governments must obtain permission from the BIA for almost any action. And the tribal councils and other leaders actually pretty much like – and certainly tolerate – this situation: after all, it comes with “free government” money, services, and even goods. We speak of “commod” or “commodity” food and cell-phones and a lot more.

The BIA is “Great White Grandfather,” and distributes welfare and rules over the tribes. Even in modern times where virtually ALL of the BIA employees, including the Agency Superintendents, are enrolled tribal members (though not necessarily of that tribe).

Simply put, the current system is socialist: where the Great White Grandfather in DC (even if he is black) dictates and supports the supposedly sovereign AmerInd nations. Where welfare is the way of life.

In the case of OST, the combination of a lawless prehistoric and historic culture and now eight generations of FedGov paternal socialism, creates abd sustains the current situation.

And yet, the Oglala leaders think that they can go to court and get the FedGov to solve the problem it created by spending MORE money.

That makes so much sense, doesn’t it?