South Dakota governor tries to crush Native American efforts to contain the coronavirus

[sgtcrispy]

Noem is an idiot.

[Hypoxia]

The only good Sioux, etc.

[thomdunn]

I’m sure, if it ever came up, that Republicans would make a stink about it (which they perhaps unsurprisingly never did about Ted Cruz).

[Wanderfound]

[Steve_L]

@Snork

The natives do have the right to restrict access to their lands. I’d say they have every right to close roads that leave the highways. But the treaty was written long before the highways were built and that complicates matters. I don’t think they have the right to interfere with traffic on state or Federal highways. This will take court action to clarify.

So does the state government own the land on which the state highway was built or do they have a separate legal agreement with the tribe to lease that land? If they are only leasing the land and they push the tribe far enough, how much notice would the tribe need to give the state before terminating the lease entirely?

[James_Mason]

You’d almost think the laws and treaties with regard to First Nations people are contradictory and unclear on purpose. That’s because most of them were created ad hoc to deal with some pressing issue, improperly researched and purposely vague “because these people don’t matter - they will all die or go away and this will be moot.”

[Snork]

That example still doesn’t make sense unless you can show that somehow, being sick causes the natives to take out more loans. Otherwise, it’s just business as usual and the virus does not change the picture. And the loansharking business (I don’t care if what payday lenders and others do is legal, considering their practices it qualifies as loan sharking) in general is just as horrible to everyone as it is to natives. There’s no significant difference caused by the virus so no, it does not serve as a spur to accelerate profits.

[Snork]

I would think the Right Of Way taken up by the roads would have been commandeered under eminent domain laws, so while it crosses tribal land is is not part of tribal land. I can’t think of any examples where a state leases the land on which it builds roads. That would be kind of ridiculous. You lease the land for 75 years and in year 76 the tribe refuses to renew the lease and then the highway is useless to anyone else.

[DukeTrout]

[Steve_L]

The UK leased some or all of Hong Kong for 99 years, didn’t they?

The US leases Guantanamo Bay from Cuba.

The US tried to form a treaty with Colombia to lease a section of what is now Panama but the deal fell through.

These are some precedents for one country leasing a part of another country’s territory.

[Wanderfound]

@James_Mason

You’d almost think the laws and treaties with regard to First Nations people are contradictory and unclear on purpose.

List of United States treaties | U.S.–Native American treaties

From 1778 to 1871, the United States government entered into more than 500 treaties with the Native American tribes; all of these treaties have since been violated in some way or outright broken by the US government

[Brainspore]

@cannibalpeas

SCOTUS is currently hearing a case that could end tribal sovereignty forever

The United States government breaking its own treaty obligations regarding the rights of American Indians?? Why I never.

[Seginoviax]

Medical expenses are one of the leading causes of debt. Severe illness leads to more medical expenses leads to more loans leads to more debt.

[RickMycroft]

That wouldn’t stop the next batch of Birthers.