{"id":101144,"date":"2026-01-16T08:59:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=101144"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:59:55","slug":"oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Safiyah Riddle, Rebecca Santana And Graham Lee Brewer -Associated Press-The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an \u201cimmigration agreement\u201d out of the tribe in return for information about their members&#8217; whereabouts. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it can&#8217;t verify claims that any of their officers arrested or \u201ceven encountered\u201d members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or found anyone in their detention centers claiming to be a tribal member. They denied asking the tribe for any kind of agreement. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including after his updated memo&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F16%2Foglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Safiyah Riddle, Rebecca Santana And Graham Lee Brewer -Associated Press-The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an \u201cimmigration agreement\u201d out of the tribe in return for information about their members&#8217; whereabouts. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it can&#8217;t verify claims that any of their officers arrested or \u201ceven encountered\u201d members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or found anyone in their detention centers claiming to be a tribal member. They denied asking the tribe for any kind of agreement. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including after his updated memo... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F16%2Foglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Safiyah Riddle, Rebecca Santana And Graham Lee Brewer -Associated Press-The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an \u201cimmigration agreement\u201d out of the tribe in return for information about their members&#8217; whereabouts. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it can&#8217;t verify claims that any of their officers arrested or \u201ceven encountered\u201d members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or found anyone in their detention centers claiming to be a tribal member. They denied asking the tribe for any kind of agreement. Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out has not responded to repeated requests for comment, including after his updated memo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T13:59:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T13:59:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/16\\\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/16\\\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-16T13:59:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-16T13:59:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/16\\\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1028,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/16\\\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/16\\\/oglala-sioux-president-walks-back-claims-of-dhs-pressure-member-arrests\\\/\",\"name\":\"Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests - 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