Amelia Schafer
ICT
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A Native woman has entered the South Dakota 2026 governor’s race, and she’s the only woman currently running for governor in the state.
In mid-October, Allison Renville, Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, Hunkpapa Lakota, Omaha and Haudenosaunee, announced her run for the highest state office.
South Dakota has the fourth-highest American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States, but has never had an openly Indigenous governor.
Renville is a South Dakota Native in every sense of the word. She grew up in Sisseton on the Lake Traverse Reservation before moving to Sioux Falls, the largest city in the state and where she currently lives.
“I think I moved here (Sioux Falls) with the intention of getting involved politically,” Renville said. “I was not anticipating as much involvement as I’ve had, but it’s really welcome and it’s allowed me to learn so much about the city from so many different directions. And I feel well informed making this decision to run for governor.”
Renville got her start in politics nearly 10 years ago while participating in the widespread protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its construction directly north of the Standing Rock Reservation.
The pipeline’s construction threatened nearby burial sites and the Missouri River, which provides drinking water to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota.
“There was an incident where a recording came out and it said, ‘Take it up to the next person,’” Renville said. “And the next person in line was the governor’s office. So back then (I thought) well, one day I might have to run for governor if it’s who is in control of not just law enforcement, but in control of the response to some of the civic engagement actions that we’ve been taking.”
Renville stayed involved following the Standing Rock protests. She campaigned for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 run for United States President and in 2017 she created a Political Action Committee called Dakotas for America aimed at getting Native candidates in office on all levels. Her PAC was met with challenges from the state of South Dakota, Renville said.
“They made the assumption that any money that we were getting from tribes was federal dollars,” Renville said. “Well, that’s a discrimination because of the fact that tribes do have business entities and we do have money far beyond the federal dollars that were allotted.”
Action against her PAC was dismissed, Renville said, as the committee was registered on the Lake Traverse Reservation.
Later, she took her work to the local level, organizing in Sioux Falls and running a campaign for city council.
In mid-October, Renville announced her run as an Independent candidate for governor and on Oct. 28, she had officially compiled enough signatures to appear on the ballot.
Renville said the decision to run as an Independent stems from the desire to move past party lines.
“I honestly don’t think I’m disillusioned by party politics anymore,” Renville said.
Right now is a critical time for protecting American Democracy, Renville said. This year has brought threats to healthcare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and a federal government shutdown that’s strained tribal nations.
“We don’t know what our democracy is going to look like in the next two to four years, with everything coming down from not just this administration but from the state level,” Renville said. “Rules and laws almost don’t exist anymore. How are we going to sustain not just our lifestyle, but sustain our state?”
Renville aims to address several issues across the state affecting not just the Native community but all South Dakota residents. One major issue is housing, South Dakota has grown exponentially since 2020 with well over 100,000 new residents and is projected to reach 1 million residents by 2030.
While this growth is great for the state’s economy, it also looks like higher housing costs, increased homelessness and widespread gentrification in Sioux Falls and Rapid City pushing previous residents out.
“Growth should be smart, sustainable, and inclusive,” Renville said.
On her campaign website, Renville detailed her plans for a renovation over gentrification approach. This approach focuses on repurposing existing buildings and investing in revitalizing neighborhoods rather than wholesale tear-downs.
Linked hand in hand with gentrification is homelessness, another issue Renville aims to address.
If elected, Renville would work to provide increased resources for homeless individuals across South Dakota and increase availability of resources and funds for homeless-serving organizations.
Too many South Dakotans, Native and non-Native, live without safe stable housing, Renville said. If elected, she’d pledge a comprehensive strategy for homeless individuals that combines safe shelter with services, mental health care and pathways to housing across the state.
This could look like prioritizing partnerships with nonprofits and community-led initiatives to lessen reliance on policing as the default response reinforcing statewide coalitions, she said.
“It’s so important to make sure that we fight to keep (these relief groups) not just funded, but to feel supported that they can continue to grow and thrive,” Renville said. “We have recently really looked into community and language as a solution to not just the prison population, but to also build that community that can support people who are houseless here in Sioux Falls.”
Renville would also work to make new South Dakotans feel welcome while understanding the state’s deep Native history and roots.
South Dakota is a state ripe with blatant examples of discrimination against Native American people, both historic and current.
In 2024, the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Report released a report citing Rapid City Area Schools for discrimination against Native American students in regards to discipline and access to advanced placement courses. The Rapid City Area Schools’s district superintendent was later fired for making disparaging remarks about Native people.
Also in 2024, then-governor Kristi Noem was banned from all nine reservations in the state after she claimed that tribes were benefiting from the alleged presence of drug cartels on their lands and for saying Native parents were “failing” their children. Now as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Noem is still banned from eight of the nine reservations.
Racism, discrimination and the poor relationship between the governor’s office and tribes are all elements Renville said she’d aim to address if elected.
“I think a lot of (change) starts with education,” Renville said. “There’s so much that we’re missing with educating not just our kids, but as they grow on how to be a decent human being I think that starts with the proper introduction to South Dakota history, to Native American history, but also to the history of settler colonialism. I think there’s a lot to heal from. I think that there’s a lot to learn from, but also a lot to grow.”
Missing and Murdered Indigenous People remains a crisis in South Dakota, but we’re past the awareness stage of the crisis and now it’s time for change, Renville said.
“Now we’re on to action,” Renville said. “And you know, if we’re out here doing all that we can from every angle and really putting all of our minds together, I think that there’s a solution that we can come up with, especially if we’re putting our resources together. Something that I really have been working hard on here in Sioux Falls specifically is looking at the cause and effects.”
Renville said addressing MMIP means filling gaps in access to healthcare, family planning and sexual healthcare.
“We don’t have abortion access in South Dakota. What happens to girls who are women or even men who are being attacked in these situations?” Renville asked “Where do they go? We have a great healthcare system here in Sioux Falls, but how are we challenging the healthcare systems to put back into the community so people who aren’t on Medicaid or people who aren’t able to afford coverage are being able to be taken care of?”
In Sisseton, S.D., tribal and community members have to drive several hours for OBGYN and prenatal care following the closure of the only local women’s health clinic.
“They’re no longer birthing babies in my hometown,” Renville said. “I had my son about six years ago now and I really couldn’t imagine having to drive 50 miles in any direction in the state that I was in.”
Renville is planning on visiting different communities around South Dakota to raise awareness as the election draws closer, and on Oct. 31 she launched her campaign website to promote her platform.
“I’m a strong believer in South Dakota being the easiest place to vote in, and so over the next couple of months, we’re trying to figure out how to go about maximizing every opportunity that already exists,” Renville said.
The South Dakota gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 3, 2026.