Wakpala Woman Sentenced to 13 Years in Federal Prison for Killing Her Mother within the Standing Rock Reservation

ABERDEEN - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann has sentenced a Wakpala, South Dakota, woman convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter. The sentencing took place on June 23, 2025.

Malania Rose Fast Horse, age 25, was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Fast Horse was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2025. She pleaded guilty on March 6, 2025.

Fast Horse quarreled with her mother in their Wakpala, South Dakota, home, within the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, on Christmas Eve 2024. Fast Horse lost her temper and stabbed her mother several times in the chest, arm, and hand. Fast Horse ambled to her grandmother’s home next door and told her grandmother and brother she had stabbed her mother. She then grabbed some cigarettes and left. Fast Horse’s brother ran next door, finding his mother lying in a pool of blood on the floor, alive but incoherent. Although EMS was promptly dispatched, Fast Horse’s mother later succumbed to her injuries.

This matter was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because the Major Crimes Act, a federal statute, mandates that certain violent crimes alleged to have occurred in Indian country be prosecuted in federal court as opposed to State court.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs – Office of Justice Services. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Thunem prosecuted the case.

Fast Horse was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.