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I don't know whether the claim that most missing or murdered indigenous women are victims of indigenous men is true or not, but does it lessen the need to address it? Most crimes against whites in South Dakota are committed by whites--pretty sure that's true, so is this honesty and clear identification of who is at fault a big help? Long ago a chief of police told me that the one common denominator of those in prison wasn't skin color or poverty or ethnicity, it was a lack of education. Would a focus on improving educational outcomes in the state help? I can hear the outcry already--we can't afford to spend any more effort or money on education! My point is that discussing what might be done and making some attempts to better deal with crime and public safety seems like a worthwhile endeavor--thanks to those politicians attempting to deal with it.

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My point is that simply putting out general accusations is not helpful. The perps in Indian country are Indians. Blaming the amorphous "other" simply diffuses the attempts to find the perps. Indian-on-white crime is way higher than white-on-Indian crime as well.

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I probably shouldn't respond to this, but our history of white on Indian crime far eclipses whatever crimes Indians commit against whites. Leaving aside our genocidal efforts, huge swaths of the state were stolen from Indians--for example, the Black Hills stretches across western South Dakota, northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana, roughly 1.2 million acres and the original 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie promised 60 million acres of the Hills for “the absolute and undisturbed use of the Sioux”. The Great Sioux Reservation of which it was a part originally comprised the entirety of what is today the western half of South Dakota from the Missouri River to Wyoming and Montana. The Treaty of 1868, signed by only a small number of Lakota who were duped into doing so, reduced the number of acres to 20 million and it’s this treaty that’s been the subject of numerous legal cases. The Supreme Court ruled that the Treaty is legally binding and as one federal judge opined: “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” Not sure what crimes Indians could commit against whites that would eclipse this crime.

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"In his roughly three-and-a-half years as head of the department, Garland said the DOJ had given tribal governments in South Dakota $19.1 million to support tribal public safety initiatives." So if I understand this correctly $Billions for Ukraine and Israel and chump change for problems in SD in areas where the federal government has treaty responsibilities. Just what are the priorities of the Biden administration and many US politicians in both parties? Why do many politicians get votes from citizens they show little regard for when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars?

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A "plague of crime"? Who is committing these crimes? This is Indian on Indian crime. Just like the MMIW "missing and murdered Indian women". The culprit are MMIM (malevolent and murderous Indian men). A little honesty about these issues and clear identification of who is at fault would be a big help.

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