Lower Brule Tribe establishes road block, check points

Boyd Gourneau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, signed Executive Order 01-2020 on Thursday, April 30, establishing a road block and check points to monitor traffic in and out of the community of Lower Brule.
“I know there are mixed feelings within the community regarding the establishment of check points at the entrance roads into Lower Brule,” stated Chairman Gourneau. “Please understand that this decision was made not to infringe upon your freedoms and rights but to simply exercise our tribal right to keep our community safe from the coronavirus. As a tribe, this is all new to us and we are doing the very best we can to keep coronavirus out of our community for the safety of all.”
The executive order states, in part, “Whereas, travel will be monitored and it is recommended that travelers refrain from areas of high concentration with COVID-19 such as Minnehaha (Sioux Falls) and Beadle (Huron) counties of South Dakota. Whereas, the officials manning check points are hereby authorized to question travelers entering and exiting Lower Brule for information such as destination and purpose of travel and whereas, access in and out of the community is not closed and tribal members and residents of the reservation, as well as commercial traffic, vendors and employees who do not reside but work in Lower Brule
are able to deliver goods and/or travel to and from work. These measures are a part of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe’s mitigation response plans and are subject to change as the situation evolves.”