Motorist checkpoints on roads with access to the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota operate 24 hours per day. To help prevent the spread of Covid-19, only residents, essential workers, and commercial vehicles are allowed to enter the reservation.Staffing the checkpoints was hard work. South Dakota’s winters are brutal, and some drivers were angry that they couldn't access the reservation. Still, hundreds of tribal members stepped forward to be deputized as special health and safety officers. Remi Bald Eagle, the intergovernmental affairs coordinator for the tribe, told me, “​We have to do what we can with what we have. And what we have is strong, resilient and beautifully humorous people who are willing to lay down their lives and stand on our borders...and do the work necessary to help keep this virus from spreading." October 24, 2020.