Making A Stand

144 years after resisting invaders at Little Bighorn, Native Americans are in another fight for survival.. this time against deadly Covid-19

- Christopher Bucktin

In 1876, Chief Sitting Bull sent the US government a defiant message by standing up to the brutal military machine threatening his people.

The Hunkpapa Lakota chief led the forces that crushed General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana – also known as Custer’s Last Stand.

And now, the Native Americans of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota are channelling that fighting spirit as they take a new stand against authorities.

This time, it is to keep the coronavirus out of their community as President Donald Trump’s push to reopen America, against all expert advice, threatens a calamity.

Mr Trump’s handling of the pandemic has been slammed after landing the US with the world’s highest death toll, at 85,000, and a tanking economy.

Yet despite 1,500 lives being lost a day, the President wants businesses open and people back at work. This is a nightmare for the vulnerable reservation, so tribal leaders set up nine checkpoints on routes into the 4,267-square-mile territory, manned by 145 police officers.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem declared them illegal roadblocks and threatened the Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux with court action. Last Friday, they were given 48 hours to remove them.

But tribal chairman Harold Frazier said: “No matter what happens, we’re still going to maintain these checkpoints. It is the only thing we can do to try to prevent this virus coming in. We’re not backing down. We’re going to stand strong for our people.