Murder investigations lead to rare cooperation between state and tribe | The Mighty 790 KFGO

The Charles Mix County Jail in Lake Andes. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

BY: JOHN HULT

LAKE ANDES, SD (South Dakota Searchlight) – A double stabbing attack that left one man dead and another hospitalized led to a rare extradition order of the Yankton Sioux Tribe into federal custody last week.

Mackenzie Antelope, 18, of Lake Andes, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and gross murder in connection with the death of 22-year-old Quinlan Ream, of Lake Andes.

Antelope is accused of stabbing Ream and 33-year-old Dylan Oulette of Lake Andes at a motel in this Charles Mix County city. He faces a charge of aggravated assault for the stabbing attack on Oulette.

Oulette stumbled into the Lake Andes Gus Stop at 10:41 p.m. on May 21 with multiple stab wounds and reported the stabbing, according to an affidavit signed Tuesday in Antelope’s criminal file. He was taken to a Sioux Falls hospital soon afterward.

Sheriff’s officers followed a trail of blood to the Landing Strip Hotel, which is across a freeway from the Gus Stop, and found Ream’s body on the floor of one of the rooms.

Police later interviewed two witnesses who had been drinking with the victims and the suspect that night, the affidavit states, and heard a description of a verbal altercation that ended with Antelope stabbing the victims. From his hospital room, Oulette identified Antelope as his attacker.

After the stabbing, Antelope fled the scene onto Yankton Sioux tribal land. State and county officials typically cannot arrest people suspected of committing state crimes if they enter Native American land, and tribal officials cannot arrest suspects if they are accused of state crimes.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe’s jurisdiction is “checkerboard,” meaning tribal lands and other territories are intermingled. Some of South Dakota’s nine tribal nations, including Rosebud and Oglala, are located on larger reservations with extensive boundaries.

Recent controversies over jurisdictional issues

In recent months, jurisdictional disputes have sparked controversy between Gov. Kristi Noem and tribal leaders. Noem has called on tribal leaders to sign memoranda of understanding with the state to allow foreign law enforcement agencies to assist tribal law enforcement agencies.

Tribal officials, meanwhile, are outraged by Noem’s accusations that some of them “personally benefit from the infiltration of tribal lands by drug cartels.” Many tribal leaders deny this, even though drugs originally produced by the cartels are widely available.

Attorney General Marty Jackley and Noem recently launched a tribal law academy to help recruit more tribal law enforcement officials. The introductory course begins Monday in Pierre.

Noem also recently convened a summit of tribal legislators and invited tribal leaders to attend, even though the governments of all nine tribes had voted to evict them from their land.

On Thursday, Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said in a press release that the summit was a “divide-and-conquer tactic” and announced that he would not attend.

Jackley has since begun meeting with tribal officials to discuss law enforcement issues. On Thursday, he met with the Lower Brule Tribal Council.

In a recent opinion column, Jackley emphasized that state and tribal law enforcement agencies must work together when necessary to overcome jurisdictional issues.

“I do not accept that ‘jurisdiction’ is a barrier to law enforcement’s ability and responsibility to collectively protect all people in South Dakota, on and off reservations,” Jackley wrote, in part. “We can always strive to improve. Recent reporting has made clear the importance of building on and strengthening what law enforcement is already doing to protect all South Dakota residents.”

Stabbings lead to rare cooperation

Antelope’s arrest is an example of the impact of such cooperation when no formal agreements are made between the state and tribal authorities.

To enable Antelope’s arrest on Wednesday beyond the jurisdictional border, the tribe’s chairman first had to sign an extradition warrant, Yankton Sioux Tribe Police Chief Edwin Young said Friday.

That ruling, which was upheld by the tribal court, allowed Young’s department to arrest Antelope on Wednesday. Antelope waived an extradition hearing and will make his first court appearance in Lake Andes next week.

Young, who started working for YST police in 2016, said he can only remember two other cases in which such an extradition order was signed. In the case of misdemeanors and lesser crimes, the tribal chairman does not usually intervene, he said.

“The county government and the tribal government don’t always see eye to eye, but when an incident like this happens, we have to work together,” Young said.

In a press release, Charles Mix County Prosecutor Steve Cotton said the Charles Mix County Sheriff’s Office, State Criminal Police and Yankton Sioux Tribal Police worked together to conduct interviews on both sides of the state-tribal border and in two counties.

Cotton praised the collaboration.

“This case is a prime example of tribal, state and county governments working together,” Cotton wrote. “This joint effort enabled law enforcement officers from multiple agencies to act quickly to protect the public.”

According to his obituary, Ream attended college in Kansas after graduating from high school in Montana. He worked at the Fort Randall Casino and recently became a father.