- Gov. Kristi Noem said she would take legal action if the tribes didn’t remove the checkpoints.
- Two tribes – the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe – set up the checkpoints last month in an attempt to lock down their reservations.
- The tribes believe it is their sovereign right to control who comes on the reservation.
- Tribes fear coronavirus could overwhelm already-fragile health systems location on the reservations.
- Tribal chairman Harold Frazier issued a statement saying, “You continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation.”