🐾 From Dog-Killing to Dehumanizing Immigrants: "Dirtbag" Kristi Noem in the Spotlight

The troubling journey of Kristi Noem, who exemplifies the dark side of political opportunism and racism.

Jan 29, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

🌟 Kristi Noem is a powerful politician who used to be the governor of South Dakota 🇺🇸 and now works in charge of Homeland Security 🔒. There’s a story that shows she killed her family’s dog 🐶 because she thought it was too difficult to train. This story reveals her harsh and unkind attitude 😠, which reflects on how she treats others today, especially immigrants 🌍. Some people think she doesn’t care about important histories 📜 or communities, especially Native Americans 🪶, and is promoting unfair rules and ideas about people 🚫.

Give a gift subscription

🗝️ Takeaways

🐶 Kristi Noem killed her family's dog, reflecting her harsh views on life and value.
🏛️ Appointed as Secretary of Homeland Security, she perpetuates Trump-era immigration policies with racist language.
🔴 She has a hostile history with Indigenous communities, even being banned from their lands.
✍️ Noem's governance aims to erase Native American history and promote distorted narratives.
✊ The need for collective action to resist oppressive policies and amplify marginalized voices.

Kristi Noem: 🐾 From Dog Killer to Homeland Security - A Chronicle of Colonial Violence

Dispatches from the Borderlands

Listen up, mis compañeros. Another day, another colonizer climbing the ladder of white supremacy—this time, it's Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor turned Homeland Security Secretary who's making waves by turning systemic racism into performance art.

Who is Kristi Noem? A Primer in Political Opportunism

Let me introduce you to the woman who embodies the worst of white settler politics. Kristi Noem isn't just another politician—she's a walking testament to how colonial violence gets repackaged as "leadership."

Born and raised in South Dakota, she's spent her career doing what settlers do best: erasing Indigenous presence and criminalizing Brown bodies.

But before we dive into her political sins, let's talk about the story that first exposed her callous nature—the infamous dog-killing incident.

In a moment that reads like a metaphor for her entire political career, Noem wrote in her memoir about killing her family's hunting dog, Cricket, because the dog was "untrainable." She described shooting the dog point-blank, then disposing of the body in a gravel pit—a story so cold-blooded that it made national headlines and revealed something fundamental about her character.

Who casually writes about killing a family pet? The same person who now sees human beings as disposable "dirtbags."

The Twisted Irony: From Campaign Rhetoric to Cruel Reality

Let's talk about the exquisite, stomach-churning irony that only American politics can serve up.

Remember during the 2024 presidential debates when Trump dramatically claimed immigrants were "killing our cats and dogs"? Pure xenophobic performance art.

And now? He's appointed Kristi Noem—a woman who literally killed her own dog—to head Homeland Security and oversee immigration policy.

The layers of hypocrisy are so thick you could spread them on toast. Trump rails against imaginary immigrant violence while installing a white woman who admitted to killing her family's hunting dog "because she couldn't train it."

Cricket never got a chance at redemption, just like the migrants Noem now plans to deport. One life deemed disposable because it didn't meet her narrow standards of "usefulness"—whether that life has four legs or two.

Homeland Insecurity: Noem's Racist Rhetoric Reaches New Heights

As the new head of Homeland Security, Noem isn't just continuing Trump-era immigration policies—she's weaponizing them with a special brand of racist vitriol. During a recent immigration raid in New York City, she referred to arrested individuals as "dirtbags," a term dripping with dehumanization.

This isn't new territory for her. Remember, this is the same woman who has consistently attacked Native American communities, painting tribal reservations as hotbeds of criminal activity. She's accused tribal leaders of benefiting from drug cartels, a statement so loaded with racist dog whistles that tribal chairmen rightfully denounced it as "gossip and lies."

Banned and Branded: Noem's Relationship with Indigenous Communities

Her relationship with Indigenous nations isn't just strained—it's been systematically destroyed by her own actions. Multiple tribal nations have effectively banned her from their lands, a remarkable achievement that speaks volumes about her toxic approach to governance.

Noem has:

Proposed curriculum changes that would virtually erase Native American history
Signed executive orders blocking educational grants related to American history and civics
Joined conservative movements aimed at preventing the teaching of systemic racism
Used what tribal leaders call "MAGA-style rhetoric" that consistently marginalizes Indigenous voices

The Broader Context: A System Working as Designed

What Noem represents isn't an aberration—it's the system working exactly as it was built. From her dog-killing story to her racist immigration rhetoric, she embodies a colonial mindset that sees certain lives as expendable, certain bodies as threats, certain histories as insignificant.

How We Fight Back

But here's the thing, mis compañeros—we don't just expose these injustices. We organize. We resist. We build.

Call to Action:

Support local migrant defense funds
Amplify Indigenous voices and stories
Donate to organizations fighting anti-Native legislation
Educate yourself and others about the real history of these lands

Your Turn: Engage and Reflect

I want to hear from you. Drop a comment below and tell me:

How have you seen colonial violence manifested in your community?
What strategies of resistance give you hope?