Retiring Standing Rock Tribal Chair Credits North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission With Facilitating Connections

Standing Rock Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire, left. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Days before the end of her term, the first woman elected chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said South Dakota leaders could learn something from their neighbors to the north.

Janet Alkire, a U.S. Air Force veteran, twice served as the tribe’s executive director before being elected as chairwoman in 2021.

At the Grand River Resort near Mobridge, she told the South Dakota State-Tribal Relations Committee she’ll continue to work “from afar” for her people.

The tribe of 16,000 members — 11,000 of whom live on the reservation that spans the border of North and South Dakota — will elect a chair, vice chair, and eight tribal council members Wednesday.