Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests

Safiyah Riddle, Rebecca Santana And Graham Lee Brewer, The Associated Press

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an “immigration agreement” out of the tribe in return for information about their members’ whereabouts.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it can’t verify claims that any of their officers arrested or “even encountered” members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or found anyone in their detention centers claiming to be a tribal member. They denied asking the tribe for any kind of agreement.

Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including after his updated memo was released on Thursday.

The accusations of arrests came at a time when many Native Americans are already concerned over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda and racial profiling by federal agents ensnaring them as well, and as some tribes have grappled with whether to engage in agreements with DHS tied to the crackdown.

Star Comes Out said Tuesday in a message on Facebook that the men were arrested in Minneapolis, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched its biggest operation ever and is increasingly clashing with protesters and residents angry at the agency’s tactics.

Star Comes Out also said that when the tribe reached out about the arrests, “federal officials told us that the Tribe could access that information if we entered an immigration agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

But in the memo Thursday, Star Comes Out said his earlier statement had been “misinterpreted” and that there was no such demand from federal officials. He said the tribe had been in “cooperative communications” with federal officials about the issue and that federal officials had said that “one option for the Tribe to have easier access to information is to enter into an immigration agreement” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS. He did not specify what type of agreement.

He also said the tribe was “working with Tribal, State, and Federal officials to verify” reports that tribal members living in Minneapolis were arrested by ICE. Earlier in the week he said he had been “made aware that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained four Oglala Sioux tribal members in Minneapolis” and that the tribe had their first names. He called the arrests “a treaty violation.”

A series of ICE arrests of tribal citizens

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back, saying that they “have not uncovered any claims by individuals in our detention centers that they are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe” and haven’t been able to verify that their officers arrested anyone from the tribe. They also denied asking for any type of agreement from the tribe in return for giving out information.

“ICE did NOT ask the tribe for any kind of agreement, we have simply asked for basic information on the individuals, such as names and date of birth so that we can run a proper check to provide them with the facts,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.

Last year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised their members to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.

Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.

A member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona was arrested in Iowa in November and was mistakenly slated to be turned over the ICE before the error was caught and she was released, according to local media reports.

Recent clashes between Kristi Noem and Native American reservations

There is a history of tension between the Oglala Sioux and DHS that dates back to when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota. In 2024, Star Comes Out banned Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after Noem said — without evidence — that cartels were infiltrating reservations in the state.

During her time as governor, Noem was banned from most of the nine reservations in the state.

Noem told federal lawmakers that a gang calling itself the Ghost Dancers was affiliated with drug cartels and was committing murder on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Star Comes Out said at the time that he took deep offense at her reference, saying the Ghost Dance is one of the Oglala Sioux’s “most sacred ceremonies,” and was used by Noem “with blatant disrespect and is insulting to our Oyate,” using the Lakota word for “people” or “nation.”

At the time Noem said Star Comes Out’s decision was “unfortunate” and that her focus was on working together.

Controversial collaborations with immigration agencies

The controversy between the Oglala Sioux Tribe and ICE comes as some Native American tribes with contracts with Homeland Security are rethinking those agreements.

A tribal business entity associated with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation ended a nearly $30 million federal contract signed in October to come up with an early design for immigrant detention centers across the U.S, after the deal was derided online as “disgusting” and “cruel” by tribe members. Many questioned how a tribe whose own ancestors were uprooted two centuries ago from the Great Lakes region and corralled on a reservation south of Topeka could participate in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

In Alaska, Indigenous shareholders penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News advocating that the Bering Straits Native Corporation — owned by thousands of Native American shareholders in Alaska — divest from all immigration detention centers across the country.

A spokesperson for the company didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

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