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The flags of two tribal governments will get placed in the South Dakota Capitol rotunda Wednesday morning.
Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) announced a ceremony to display two tribal flags during her annual state of the state address Tuesday.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.
Three years ago, Gov. Noem signed a bill to allow any of the tribes residing in the state’s borders to display their respective flags in a prominent spot in the state Capitol.
“We will hang the first of those flags: the flags of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Our tribes are part of who we are as South Dakotans and we will respect their heritage.”
The effort to display tribal flags in the Capitol rotunda have been years in the making.
It goes back to before the governor signed the legislation into law.
In 2019, Gov. Noem announced a plan to permanently display tribal flags in the capitol.
Several tribes refused when, a few days later, the Republican governor introduced a package of bills to protect construction of the Keystone XL pipeline through the state.
The legislative package came after the deadline to introduce bills had passed.
The laws were challenged in court and the state passed a pared down version of the bills a year later.
The permit for the tar sands crude oil pipeline was rescinded in 2021 by the Biden Administration, but the effort to display tribal flags lives on.
State Sen. Shawn Bordeaux (D-SD) has introduced several bills to display tribal flags in the capitol rotunda. Now, it’s finally happening.
“Which, I’m excited about because when I originally did the thing there was an argument about whether we could put them in the rotunda or not. They said there’s a Capitol commission and they would decide where on campus they would be. I said I don’t want them hidden from somewhere. I want them in a premier space where everyone can appreciate that the nine sovereign tribes of the state are welcome here and are one with the state and this is our capitol too.”
It’s unclear when the other seven tribes will agree to display their flags in the state Capitol.
The State of the Tribes address takes place Wednesday afternoon at the South Dakota Legislature. A tribal leader delivers the annual speech before state lawmakers, which lays out tribal priorities.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren delivered his State of the Nation address Tuesday in Window Rock, Ariz.
The event was touted as the first time the annual speech was given in front of Navajo people before being delivered to the tribal council.
President Nygren spoke for more than an hour in both Navajo and English highlighting what he says were accomplishments during his first year in office, including in areas of economic development, job creation, and improving housing.
More than 2,000 people were said to attend the event, which was also broadcast on the radio and streamed online.
Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of his administration.
Watch President Nygren’s State of the Nation address
A stack of daily papers from the Billings Gazette. (Photo: Kayla Desroches / Yellowstone Public Radio)
Thousands of pages from historical newspapers near and on tribal nations in Montana are now available and searchable online through the Library of Congress.
Yellowstone Public Radio’s Kayla Desroches reports.
The Montana Historical Society recently finished a two-year project where they archived more than 100,000 newspaper pages dating back to the early 1900s.
Library manager Dan Karalus says those include for the first time pages from the communities of Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Harlem by Fort Belknap, Hot Springs on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and Poplar on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
“Newspapers that might have more native news, might have more coverage of tribes. And then those towns were also just kind of underrepresented in terms of our digital holdings.”
The Montana Historical Society received $263,000 from the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project.
Click here to view the archive
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