Amelia Schafer
ICT
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Widespread methamphetamine and illicit drug use and trafficking have led to a State of Emergency Declared on the Rosebud Reservation in southwestern South Dakota.
On Tuesday, May 27, Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Kathleen Wooden Knife declared a State of Emergency on the reservation, which is home to about 26,000 people.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is requesting increased law enforcement and support from federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The tribe is also urging community members to report suspicious and criminal activity.
The May 27 declaration follows two previous State of Emergency Proclamations made in August 2019 and 2024, and the tribe needs immediate intervention, Wooden Knife said.
“Meth and drug abuse contribute to higher crime rates, domestic violence rates in families, threatens public health (and) has the potential to damage and contaminate housing units,” the proclamation reads.
The crisis poses an immediate and severe risk to public safety, community health and the tribe’s welfare, the statement reads.
The state of South Dakota has long struggled with widespread methamphetamine use and now fentanyl use and trafficking.
More than 57,000 grams of methamphetamine were seized by authorities in just eight months in 2019 when the state launched its ‘Meth We’re On It’ campaign under former governor Kristi Noem.
And fentanyl use is growing in the region: in 2024, the state seized 18.2 pounds of fentanyl, according to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, “enough to overdose every South Dakotan four or five times over.”
In November 2023, the neighboring Oglala Sioux Tribe declared a similar State of Emergency, citing a lack of law enforcement presence leading to increased violent crime.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe has not received relief since then, tribal officials said.