PIERRE, S.D. – On June 24th, Governor Kristi Noem hosted the first-ever Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit at the Governor’s Residence in Pierre. She was joined by Congressman Dusty Johnson, Attorney General Marty Jackley, and leaders and law enforcement officials at the state, tribal, federal, and local levels.

“We have dangerous drugs and violent crime taking place in parts of South Dakota – we can fix it if we have honest conversations and work together. That’s what happened today,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “Because of the conversations and the relationships that were built at this Summit, we will continue to make meaningful progress towards making South Dakota safer.”

The conversation covered a wide-range of issues tied to public safety on South Dakota’s Native American reservations, including:

• Continuing the success of the first-of-its-kind special law enforcement training for tribal law enforcement that began this summer;
• The best path forward for mutual aid agreements and cross-deputization;
• Federal funding issues for tribal law enforcement, tribal prosecutors, tribal judges, and other related issues; and,
• Ways to lead more successful changes moving forward.

The group discussed statistical data on crime in Indian Country. A summary of the data can be found here, and it originated from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of South Dakota Annual Report.

You can find footage of Governor Noem’s opening remarks here and comments from later in the Summit here. You can also find photos from the Summit here and here.