The consequences of non-compliance with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s mandate that protective face masks be worn in all businesses on the reservation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were clearly spelled out last Thursday, July 16, by CRST Attorney General Tracey Zephier when she joined Chairman Harold Frazier on his daily radio broadcast.
The order, issued by tribal officials the weekend of July 10 after an outbreak of more than 30 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed on the reservation, makes it mandatory that all customers and employees of businesses on the reservation wear face covering designed to reduce transmission of the virus. It also encourages compliance with the Tribal Health Dept. in notifying them of suspected infections within businesses and lays out penalties and fees for failure to adhere to the measure.
“If a customer enters a business without a mask, the first time fine is $100. Second is $250 and the third is $500,” Zephier explained. “If a business owner fails to enforce the face mask order or does not provide employees with face masks, the fines are $250 for the first offense along with possible closing of the business for cleaning. The second offense is $500 and again, possible closure to clean. The final fee is $1,000 and may result in the loss of his or her tribal business license.”
She added the purpose of the order is to protect people in public places, so any place the general public can walk into can be considered a business.
Chairman Frazier said any business in need of face masks should contact the CRST Command Center in Eagle Butte and they will be provided free of charge.
The latest numbers
On Tuesday, July 21, the State Dept. of Health reported 48 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Dewey County and 45 of those remain active.
Ziebach County has had three cases of the virus and two are currently active while early cases in Corson County have recovered so now only four of 23 individuals are active. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is also reporting 38 cases in Sioux County in North Dakota. For the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation as a whole, there have been 71 cases with 64 recoveries.
In Walworth County, 14 out of 18 cases have reportedly recovered while Campbell County had just one case which recovered. Perkins County has now had four confirmed cases with only one still active. Harding and Potter counties are the only two remaining in the state with no confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Checkpoint update
It’s been nearly two weeks since either side fired a volley in the battle between the CRST and state and federal governments over the tribe’s health safety checkpoints. Chairman Frazier has stated publicly that if the government had any ground to stand on in the matter, it would have already taken action. As such, the checkpoints will remain in place.
During one of his daliy radio reports last week he praised the efforts of those manning the checkpoints, saying they are doing an “awesome” job and said the numbers speak to the success of the border monitors.
“Even though we’ve had 45 positive cases, they can all be traced back to the original six, which were cases that were detected or identified at one of the checkpoints,” Frazier pointed out. “There are between 1,700 and 1,900 vehicles going through our health safety checkpoints every day, so six cases is a small number compared to the volume of vehicles and people.”