PIERRE — South Dakota and the tribal nations in the state can make improvements for health care and public safety during the 2026 legislative session, Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Kathleen Wooden Knife said.

Wooden Knife, the first female president of Rosebud, delivered the annual State of the Tribes speech to a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature on Wednesday at the Capitol.

The State-Tribal Relations Committee endorsed bills on health care and public safety before the session began, and both have been filed and have sponsors. 

Lakota and Dakota people have a lower life expectancy than the general population, Wooden Knife said, a sign that the federal government’s treaty obligations to provide for the health of Native Americans isn’t being upheld. Rosebud has sued the federal Indian Health Service more than once for failure to provide adequate health care.

Wooden Knife said the tribes need to look beyond IHS. 

A managed care model for tribal members on Medicaid has the potential to improve outcomes and efficiencies on and off the state’s reservations, she said.

In such a model, tribes could contract with the state of South Dakota to direct federal Medicaid dollars into a pool of funds for health care. An entity of the tribes’ choosing could negotiate costs with off-reservation providers and coordinate care — including preventative care or incentives for healthy habits — for tribal members who seek care on or off tribal land.

“When we stand together for health care, our Sioux Nation tribes, working with the state, can bring the strongest health care resources to the table to improve health care for Native Americans,” Wooden Knife said.

Will Mortenson, R-Fort Pierre, is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and is chair of the State-Tribal Relations Committee, which endorsed a bill he’s now sponsoring that would create a task force to study a managed care model in South Dakota.

The State-Tribal Relations Committee also endorsed a bill that would recognize tribal law enforcement members as certified law enforcement under state law. That would enable legal protections for tribal police who assist state, county or local officers.

On Tuesday, Gov. Larry Rhoden endorsed that bill during his State of the State address. Wooden Knife did the same on Wednesday.

Tribes and state leaders have also pushed in recent years to get more tribal officers trained through the state’s basic law enforcement certification course, as most officers on tribal land are expected to train at a federal facility in New Mexico.

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U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, has pushed for a Great Plains law enforcement academy for tribes, a move also endorsed by the State-Tribal Relations Committee, and, on Wednesday, by Wooden Knife.

“We look forward to working with you to improve law enforcement, to get training locally for our police officers, and to improve public safety for all South Dakotans,” Wooden Knife said.

Crow Creek Tribal Chairman Peter Lengkeek, among the tribal leaders on hand for Wooden Knife’s speech, said cooperation between state and tribal officials can work to improve public safety, provided that tribes maintain sovereignty.

For about a decade, Crow Creek has had an agreement whereby state troopers act as a police force on the reservation during its powwow. This year, Lengkeek said, the tribe expanded that agreement. Now the Crow Creek reservation, which can call on Bureau of Indian Affairs officers for aid but lacks a tribal police force, can call upon the Highway Patrol in public safety emergencies.

“We bring them on when we need them,” Lengkeek said.

Wooden Knife also encouraged state leaders to work with tribes on foster care. Around 70% of children in foster care are Native American, according to the state’s most recent figures.
Efforts to expand the number of Native American foster homes have shown some promise, but most South Dakota foster parents are non-Native.

“We need an equal chance to preserve our children and families as the future of our Native communities, so the state should enter kinship placement agreements with the tribal governments,” Wooden Knife said, referring to a form of foster care placement that connects children with family members. 

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There are no bills directly related to foster care and Native American families on the docket for the 2026 session at this point, but Rep. Peri Pourier, R-Rapid City, said she doesn’t expect that’s needed just yet.

Pourier, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, is on a group called the Indian Child Welfare Act Advisory Council, a state-level group named for the federal act that prioritizes keeping Native American families together. 

The council was born of a bill introduced and passed in 2024, and Pourier said important conversations about collaboration on kinship care and foster family recruitment are moving forward as a result.

The group, Pourier said, is “getting down to the nitty gritty, and they’re going to work together to see what things that they could come up with.

“If we need to step in with legislation,” she said, “we will.”

Wooden Knife also encouraged the state to be in conversation with tribes on issues of water rights, water pipelines and drinking water access in the years ahead, noting the needs yet unmet by projects like the Mni Wiconi water pipeline. That project was first funded at the federal level in 1988 and needs upgrades, Wooden Knife said.

“As the state Legislature plans for water system improvements, we ask that you stay in touch with the Sioux Nation tribes, because we have senior water rights in the Missouri River basin and we are active water system operators,” she said.

Wooden Knife called for the governor and state lawmakers to meet at least quarterly to address the need for “increased consultation, mutual respect and consideration of mutually beneficial solutions to our shared concerns.”

This story originally appeared on South Dakota Searchlight on January 14, 2026. It is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 4.0).

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.