Rep. Peri Pourier, left and Sen. Red Dawn Foster are seen in the South Dakota Senate Chambers at the State Capitol in Pierre. Both took the oath of office on January 5, 2019. Photo courtesy South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations

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Native Sun News Today: Attack targets Native women who won seats in South Dakota

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Assault on new Oglala legislators halted

By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today Contributing Editor
nativesunnews.today

PIERRE – The leadership of the South Dakota Legislature closed the first week of its 2019 session with a statement quelling attempts to provoke disciplinary action against the two Oglala Lakota women elected to District 27.

The move to disqualify Sen. Red Dawn Foster and Rep. Peri Pourier began in December with allegations raised by an anonymous pen, writing in the name of Native Integrity.

“There will be no disciplinary action,” House Majority Leader Lee Qualm (GOP-Dist. 21) told the Native Sun News Today on January 11.

“There is more than sufficient information to show that they are qualified,” he said in a telephone interview.

Documents disseminated by "Native Integrity" claim Red Dawn Foster and Peri Pourier, who were elected to the South Dakota Legislature, were not residents of District 27.

Sen. Phil Jensen (GOP-Dist.33) and Rep. Julie Frye-Mueller (GOP-Dist. 30) repeated the Native Integrity allegations in the leadup to the session, with a media release.

The release announced an official challenge to seating Foster and Pourier, based on copies of notarized affidavits filed in county offices stating the respondents, who are Democrats, failed to meet the state Constitution’s requirement to live in South Dakota for at least two years prior to an election in order to run for office.

Jensen stated that other legislators were “worried about being accused of racism” if they called for a disciplinary action.

He argued: “I don’t think South Dakotans want to set precedent in the state and the Constitutional eligibility requirements to run for office based on fear but based on duties as elected officials that take an oath to uphold the South Dakota Constitution.”

Like Jensen, Frye-Mueller claimed a legislator is bound to look into the evidence. “The last thing any of us want to do at the beginning of session is to deal with this type of scandal; however, first of all, it is our Constitutional duty,” she said.

“We have all seen the ugly widespread effects of election fraud in other states, and if we show we will do nothing now to address these reported violations of our law, then the credibility of our elections is already gone,” she added.

Jensen and Frye-Mueller submitted letters to South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice David E. Gilbertson, requesting that “the Judiciary not intervene in this Legislative matter” by swearing in the lawmakers-elect before the disputes over qualifications are addressed in the Senate and House.

The submitters did not return telephone calls requesting interviews with the Native Sun News Today. Gilbertson swore in both Foster and Pourier along with peers on January 5, and Secretary of State Steve Barnett certified the action.