Oglala Sioux Tribe vice president arrested for domestic violence
Authorities arrested the vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota on Thursday, Aug. 29, according to tribal jail records.
Alicia Mousseau was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, as well as the sale and possession of alcohol. The Pine Ridge Reservation is a dry reservation, meaning the consumption, possession or sale of alcohol is prohibited there.
Neither tribal leaders nor Mousseau could be reached for comment Friday.
It is at least the second arrest of an Oglala Sioux Tribe councilmember in 2024. In March, Howard Rooks was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse, having allegedly assaulted a 13-year-old girl on Aug. 13, 2023. Both charges carry the potential of a life sentence.
Rooks pleaded not guilty to the charges on March 29.
Mousseau was elected tribal vice president on Nov. 3, 2020, becoming what many considered to be the first openly LGBTQ person to win a seat on the tribe’s executive council.
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Mousseau earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Wyoming.
Following her election, Mousseau – born and raised in the town of Porcupine on the Pine Ridge Reservation – talked to ICT about her love for her tribe.
“There’s no place like Pine Ridge; my whole family is here. I can go up and down the creek and see relatives. I can stop into my auntie’s house for dinner, pre-COVID that is,” she said.
“Our communities are so close.”
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