Red Dawn Foster is an American politician serving as a member of the

South Dakota Senate The Senate is the upper house of the South Dakota Legislature. It consists of 35 members, one representing each legislative district; it meets at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Composition :''92nd Legislature (2019)'' Officers L ...

from the 27th district, which encompasses the Pine Ridge Reservation as well as Bennett, Haakon, Jackson, Pennington and Oglala Lakota counties. Elected in November 2018, she assumed office on January 8, 2019 and is the current incumbent.

Early life and education

Red Dawn Foster graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in political science from the

University of Colorado Denver The University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) is a public research university in Denver, Colorado. It is part of the University of Colorado system. History University of Colorado System Anschutz Medical Campus The University of Colorado creat ...

and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. She is a member of the

Oglala Sioux The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

and Navajo tribes.

Political career

South Dakota State Legislature

Elections

In 2016, Foster ran alongside state Senator Jim Bradford for a seat in the

South Dakota House of Representatives The South Dakota House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Dakota Legislature. It consists of 70 members, two from each legislative district. Two of the state's 35 legislative districts, Districts 26 and 28, are each subdivided into ...

from the 27th district. However, in the general election she and Bradford lost to Republican nominees Liz May and Steve Livermont. In the 2018 Democratic Primary, Red Dawn Foster ran against James Bradford and won 55.6% of the vote. In the general election, Foster ran against Republican Bill Hines and won 58.6% of votes. In 2020, she ran against Republican Judd Schomp in the general election, winning 56.3% of votes. In 2022, Foster ran as incumbent and beat Republican David Jones in the general election with 51.45% of votes. According to South Dakota state legislative term limits, Foster can serve one more term in the Senate and is eligible to run for re-election in 2024.

Tenure

From 2019 to 2020, Foster served on the Agriculture and Natural Resoures, Health and Human Services, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Transportation committees. In the 2021-2022 legislative session, Foster served on the Commerce and Energy, Health and Human Services, and Local Government committees. In 2022, Foster also served on the Ag. Land Assessment Task Force, Rules Review, State-Tribal Relations and Study on Juvenile Justice interim committees.

= Native American Rights

= Foster has spent her career advocating for the rights of Native American people in South Dakota and has sponsored a number of bills aimed at recognizing the achievements of Indigenous people as well as bills aimed at providing Native Americans the right to hunt, fish, and visit state parks free of licenses and fees. A controversial topic in South Dakota, Foster advocates for the inclusion of Native American History in South Dakota curriculum.

= Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons

= Senator Foster has introduced and sponsored a number of bills dedicated to drawing attention to the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons movement, which focuses on the high rates of unsolved murders and disappearances of Native Americans, specifically Indigenous women and girls, who are far more likely than other demographics to be victims of violence in their lifetimes.

= Medicaid Expansion

= The expansion of

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and per ...

and Medicare programs are a heavily discussed topic in many states, and Foster is a strong advocate for the expansion of these programs in South Dakota.

Covid-19 Controversy

When the

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

virus spread to South Dakota in 2020, the

Cheyenne River Sioux The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey ...

and Ogalala Sioux tribes instituted checkpoints on highways leading through reservation land in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. During this time, the Navajo nation had been suffering high rates of infection and death due to the virus after reaching out to the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

and receiving little help. South Dakota's Governor

Kristi Noem Kristi Lynn Noem (; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician serving as the 33rd governor of South Dakota since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, she was the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2019 and a member ...

, who refused to implement any measures to combat Covid-19 and prioritized keeping the state open to benefit the economy, threatened to take legal action against the tribes, accusing them of breaking the law. The tribes combatted the threats with arguments that the checkpoints were legally instituted because the tribes are sovereign nations. Senator Red Dawn Foster stood with the tribes in criticizing the governor's lack of action and threats against tribes, stating that the Coronavirus was "a matter of life and death on a reservation.".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Red Dawn Democratic Party South Dakota state senators Women state legislators in South Dakota University of Colorado Denver alumni Mendoza College of Business alumni Living people People from Pine Ridge, South Dakota Oglala people Year of birth missing (living people) Native American women in politics 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans