Oglala Sioux Tribe Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Pine Ridge is the first reservation in South Dakota to take legislative action on marriage equality

On Monday, July 8, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed a same-sex marriage ordinance in a 12 to three vote, with one abstention. With the ordinance’s passage, the Ogala Sioux Tribe (OST) became first in South Dakota to legalize same-sex marriage.

Two days later, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Law and Order Committee passed a resolution recommending that the tribe adopt a hate crime ordinance amending Law and Order Code Chapter Nine to include verbiage modeled on the Matthew Shepard Act.  

“These are historic days for our tribe, and for the rights of all people who seek equality, justice and recognition under the law,” said Chase Iron Eyes, who serves as lead counsel for the Lakota People’s Law Project and as Oglala Sioux Tribe President Julian Bear Runner’s public relations director.

Chase Iron Eyes interviews Felipa DeLeon and Monique "Muffie" Mousseau after the Oglala Sioux Tribe's passage of the first same-sex marriage law in South Dakota.

“My wife called the tribal courthouse because it was legal across the United States. So she called the courthouse to see if we were able to get a marriage license from here, from our tribe,” said DeLeon. “But they wouldn’t give us one.” 

Mousseau says that denial was part of a larger pattern of discrimination and violence. “We have seen and felt and heard the pain, the cries of suicide, sexual assaults, rapes, murders. We have had to come back to different funerals, different events concerning LGTBQ,” she said. “And nothing has changed as far as the gay bashing.” 

The two began petitioning for changes to the laws in May, culminating in the passage of the new ordinance and resolution last week.

As of 2015, a survey from the Center for American Progress and Movement Advancement Project reported that 36 percent of Native American transgender people have lost a job because they are transgender. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that “homeless youth are disproportionately African-American or American Indian and are often from lower-income communities.”

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