A Native American tribal leader backed out of providing testimony to Congress this week after allegedly receiving a death threat from a Mexican drug cartel.
Jeffrey Stiffarm is the president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. He told the House Natural Resources Committee that the unnamed leader faced a threat that seemed genuine, a regular occurance that gets overlooked.
Stiffarm explained, “We had the tribal leader from Montana that declined to testify here today because he received death threats that he was going to testify.”
The committee convened Wednesday to examine evidence of the influence of Mexican drug cartels on Native American reservations. Lawmakers expressed shock at learning that they would not hear testimony due to pressure from an international criminal organization.
Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) expressed deep concern over such influence. “That’s horrible to think that an American citizen has been threatened by a foreign cartel if they come to Congress and testify about what they’re doing.”
Stiffarm’s area is hundreds of miles from the border. Still, he told captivated representatives that cartels control the drug trade in the community.
The #BidenBorderCrisis deeply affects our Tribal Nations. Cartels threaten our sovereignty and leaders with death threats. Stronger border measures and completing the wall will save our country and our Tribal Citizens. @NatResources pic.twitter.com/5s0gACyDN7
— Mike Woestehoff (@mikewoestehoff) April 11, 2024
He noted that the Native American leaders are “fighting a losing battle and the cartels are winning. The drug dealers are winning. They’re overrunning our reservations.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland last week visited the Crow Reservation and spoke with tribal leaders about the crisis.
The leaders requested assistance from the federal government in handling the insidious influence of the cartels. After all, it is Garland’s and the Biden administration’s lax border policies that allow these criminal outfits to infiltrate Native American lands and spread their poison.
Tribal Secretary Levi Black Eagle told reporters after meeting with Garland that the area has radically changed.
He recalled, “You could walk around, you didn’t have to worry about anything, you could leave your doors unlocked.” But not now. “Cartels are things you watch in the movies, you read about on the news, not something you expect in your own backyard.”
Unfortunately for the law-abiding people, that’s exactly what they can expect in Biden’s new America. Millions of unvetted illegals given free access to the heartland, and the destruction they bring with them is felt far and wide.
