A six-year-old boy from South Dakota, home of the Oglala Sioux tribe, becomes the face of a crisis.
Logan Warrior Goings died last May after being shot in the head at home by drive-by shooters.
It was another incident in a significantly increasing crime and violence in the Oglala Sioux Tribe in recent years, including murders, assaults, drug trafficking, and shootings similar to the one that happened to that boy.
With that, native members of the tribe are suing the government for insufficient police presence on their reservations.
South Dakota tribe Sues US government
According to a report by the Associated Press, crime on the 5,400-square-mile Oglala Sioux reservation has become increasingly prevalent.
The reservation is home to over 100,000 residents, and only 33 officers and eight criminal investigators, federally funded, are responsible for handling all of the emergency calls each year.
The tribe has claimed this is not enough and sued the Bureau of Indian Affairs and some high-level officials.
The tribe alleged that the U.S. government is failing to uphold its treaty obligations and trust responsibility to provide adequate law enforcement to address the public safety crisis on the reservation.
However, the U.S. government has argued in court documents that the tribe cannot prove that the treaties require the U.S. to provide the preferred staffing or funding for law enforcement.
After two days of court proceedings, the judge said he would consider the case.
Six-year-old boy becomes the face of crisis
In May last year, Holly Wilson had gone to pick up soda for dinner with her nine grandchildren when her six-year-old grandson, Logan Warrior Goings, was tragically shot in the head.
According to Fox News, despite the situation's urgency, it took at least 15 minutes for a single tribal law enforcement officer to arrive, by which time the perpetrators had fled.
Later on, a father and son who lived near Wilson on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were also killed by an intruder, and their bodies were not found for six days.
These incidents are believed to have contributed to the Oglala Sioux Tribe's decision to sue the government for not fulfilling its obligations to protect the tribe.
America honoring treaties with Indigenous people
The Oglala Sioux Tribe is one of the nine federally recognized tribes of the Lakota people, also known as the Sioux.
The lack of adequate law enforcement resources has been a major concern for the tribe, and they have been advocating for increased funding and staffing for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police force, which is responsible for providing law enforcement services on the reservation.
According to Santa Fe Mexican, the tribe has taken legal action, alleging that they have failed to fulfill their trust responsibility to provide adequate law enforcement services to the reservation, which has resulted in a dangerous and unacceptable level of violence in the community.
Indigenous nations and tribes have been advocating for their treaty rights in the courts and have had some success in recent years.
Treaty rights are agreements between indigenous nations and the federal government that were signed in the past and are still considered to be legally binding today.
According to Robert Miller, a law professor at Arizona State University and a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma, the federal government is responsible for acting as the trustee and guardian of indigenous nations.
This responsibility requires them to provide proper law enforcement to ensure the safety and protection of these communities.
Miller emphasizes that if the federal government does not adequately provide for the security of Indigenous nations, it is not fulfilling its duties as a trustee and guardian.
