Days before the end of her term, the first woman elected chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said South Dakota leaders could learn something from their neighbors to the north.

Janet Alkire, a U.S. Air Force veteran, twice served as the tribe’s executive director before being elected as chairwoman in 2021.

On Friday at the Grand River Resort near Mobridge, she told the South Dakota State-Tribal Relations Committee she’ll continue to work “from afar” for her people.

The tribe of 16,000 members — 11,000 of whom live on the reservation that spans the border of North and South Dakota — will elect a chair, vice chair, and eight tribal council members Wednesday.

Cabinet office with tribal leaders helps in North Dakota

Standing Rock members are “tri-citizens,” Alkire said, of the tribe, the states and the federal government. Because Standing Rock straddles two states, that means Alkire and other tribal leaders have six members of Congress to lobby.

“I’m pretty sure they’re tired of us, because we visit them a lot,” Alkire said.

On Friday, she told State-Tribal Relations Committee members that trust and relationships between the state and tribes hinge on frequent and respectful communication.

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Committee member Scott Odenbach, the Republican House majority leader from Spearfish, wanted to know if he and his counterparts in state government could learn anything from North Dakota’s approach to working with tribes.

Communication is the prime place for improvement with South Dakota, Alkire said.

The state’s annual legislative sessions offer more opportunities to engage with lawmakers and pursue legislation than in North Dakota, where lawmakers meet every other year. But North Dakota has an Indian Affairs Commission that facilitates year-round connections.

“We actually meet with them quite often, because they’re coming out of the governor’s office and they’re right there at the Legislature, monitoring what’s going on,” Alkire said.

That commission includes North Dakota’s governor, the leaders of North Dakota’s tribes and three at-large members, two of whom must be Native American. The office also has an executive director and three other full-time staff members.

Standing Rock Council Member Cyril Archambault is the tribe’s North Dakota legislative liaison. He’s in frequent contact with commission members on legislation. The commission meets quarterly, holds at least two training sessions for tribes each year and holds spot events as needed.

South Dakota has similar entities, including the committee that met Friday and the Department of Tribal Relations, but Archambault said the comparison ends there.

“I don’t see much commitment from South Dakota. I’ll just be honest,” he said.

Nola Taken Alive, another Standing Rock council member in attendance Friday, noted that her tribe has a healthy relationship with North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong.

South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden has met with Standing Rock leaders, which Taken Alive said signaled potential improvement in relations.

His predecessor, current U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, had a strained relationship with tribes. Taken Alive attributed what she described as “friction” between Noem and tribes to “blatant disrespect, at times” from Noem. She pointed to comments Noem made last year about drug cartels allegedly operating on reservations. All nine tribal governments voted to ban Noem from their lands last year, for those comments and for saying Native American children “don’t have any hope.”

“With Governor Armstrong, he’s always reaching out,” Taken Alive said of North Dakota’s leader. “That’s a healthy relationship.”

Federal outreach to continue

Alkire noted that Standing Rock and South Dakota’s other tribal nations face similar challenges with law enforcement and health care funding. Standing Rock needs 30 officers, for example, but only has funding enough for 10.

Changes to Medicare and Medicaid embedded in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this summer by Congress, she said, will ripple across state and tribal borders.

“The tribes in South Dakota, all nine of them, realize that the relationships that we have with the state are very important,” Alkire said.

During a break in the committee meeting, Alkire told South Dakota Searchlight that the ascension of former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to Interior secretary offers another avenue to maximize the impact of tribal issues in Washington, D.C.

Standing Rock had a working relationship with Burgum, who intends to maintain the secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee. Alkire represented the Great Plains for former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on her version of the committee.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also intends to maintain such a committee. That has Alkire hopeful, as well.

“That is the best line of communication,” she said. “I mean, they can communicate within their agencies, but you need to hear the perspective of the tribes.”

As for her plan after she leaves office, Alkire said it can be summed up in one word.

“Rest,” she said.