National | Politics

Bill Janklow, polarizing politician in South Dakota, passes on

Friday, January 13, 2012

Bill Janklow, the former Republican governor of South Dakota and a former U.S. Congressman, died on Wednesday. He was 72.

Janklow began his career with a legal aid program on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in the late 1960s. Just a few years later, he won election as the state's attorney general and went on to serve four terms as the state's governor, the longest in history.

"I was in high school when he was working at Dakota Plains Legal Services," Rosebud Sioux Tribe Chairman Rodney Bordeaux told The Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "He was very effective defending tribal members in tribal court. Initially, he was well thought of. That changed when he left here."

"Here, he was a well-respected attorney. What we say is he went to the other side, opposing tribal sovereignty. It is fair to say within tribal governments he is not as well respected as he is by the rest of South Dakota," Bordeaux added.

Michael Jandreau, the chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, was far less critical. Janklow agreed not to fight one of the tribe's land-into-trust applications but the attorney general went ahead and filed a lawsuit.

“He was my friend. I worked with him for many years. I will surely miss his involvement in our lives and the continued life of the reservations," Jandreau told the paper. "He was always willing to respect me for who I was. We dealt with some significant projects that made South Dakota better, made opportunities for tribal people better.”

Throughout his life, Janklow frequently drew criticism for his stances on sovereignty, jurisdiction, land-into-trust, taxation and race relations. As the state's top law enforcer during the 1970s, he lashed out against the American Indian Movement and presided over one of the worst periods of violence in Indian Country.

Janklow was always controversial but he remained popular in the state until he was convicted of manslaughter in 2003 and forced to give up his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served 100 days in jail for a speeding accident that claimed the life of a motorcyclist.

Get the Story:
Bill Janklow, 1939-2012: Larger than life to the end (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 1/13)
Reactions to Janklow's death (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 1/13)
Timeline of Janklow's life (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 1/13)
William J. Janklow, former S.D. governor and congressman, dies at 72 (The Washington Post 1/13)