01x03 - 103

[bunniefuu]

tense music

I was
born and raised here,

and my identity is with my
people here on the Northern

Cheyenne Reservation.

I'm very proud because every day
I'm reminded of our victory...

'cause right now,
I'm still here.

But we've been subdued into
this lifestyle we're in,

and we're having a real
hard time adjusting to it.

Our menfolk lost our
role as a warrior,

protector, provider.

Our spirit's been stripped.

We've been stripped
of our language.

We've been stripped
of our way of life.

And my grandfather, he
always used to tell me,

"If you want to
address the problem,

address its roots."

That's why I'm here now.

I work for the Northern
Cheyenne Tribe,

and this is the
checkpoint security.

We keep track of
occupants, plate numbers...

and activity.

Law enforcement is pretty
poor at their job right now.

A lot of families have been let
down because of their neglect

over my people.

My role as a man... a
Cheyenne man in general...

You protect the women, and
you protect the children,

and the elders.

Always be ready, 'cause you
never know if an enemy is gonna

come.

We have predators,
child molesters,

rapists that see the opportunity
to prey on a vulnerable female.

We only get one life, and we're
only passing through here.

But right now, we've
kind of become hopeless.

But that's the worst
thing you can do.

Don't give up.

Tense ambient music

tense ambient music

It's 2022.

It's been two years
since Selena's case.

It's been three years
since Kaysera's,

and four since Henny's.

I've seen more representation
of the movement in the media

than I have ever seen before.

You know, five, six years ago,
we weren't getting any news

coverage for these cases.

People have been asking me
about the necklace I'm wearing.

It represents all indigenous
women who went missing.

466 indigenous women and
girls were reported missing.

She went missing two years ago.

Her death is part of a pattern
of m*rder*d indigenous women.

I'll see MMIW on
T-shirts, in music videos,

or in the new season of Dexter.

You know, like mainstream media.

We had a helicopter fly over.

We had people walking.

What these families
really did was help solidify Big

Horn County's m*rder*d and
Missing Indigenous Women's

Movement nationwide.

Justice for Selena!

This movement was
so loud and it was so strong,

you would think that
change would have happened.

But nothing really became of it.

Nobody has answers.

We don't know anything more
than the day those girls died.

We've heard nothing on
Selena, and as far as I know,

her case is sitting in evidence
at the Big Horn County Sheriff's

Office, where her dad now
works as the undersheriff,

and there's still no movement.

When I took the oath in
Big Horn County, Montana,

I made the personal decision
and the professional

decision to insulate myself
from any investigations

because...

I, as a law enforcement
officer, cannot compromise an

investigation that may
or may not be ongoing.

When I resigned
as the undersheriff,

the Sheriff, Lawrence Big Hair,
I think he wanted a Native

American undersheriff, and Leroy
was a good choice at the time.

The Sheriff, he can... he can
appoint you and unappoint you

the next day and he doesn't
have to tell you why,

and I didn't ask him why.

I was actually relieved.

I mean, if you can imagine the
pressure that you felt from just

that one case.

Today, in the Selena
Not Afraid case,

the investigation is
pretty much complete.

There's nothing
left to look into.

In fact, Big Horn County gave
the whole case to another agency

to look at it, and they went
through it with a fine-tooth

comb to see what
we should've done,

could've done, would've done, or
if there's anything ill*gal or

immoral or anything else
wrong with the case,

and they came back with nothing.

She died of hypothermia.

They try to say hypothermia,
but when we were at the rest

area looking, she wasn't there.

'Cause that's what it
is: they took her back.

There's all kinds of roads back
there on that little section she

was found.

So there's a way they got
there and they dumped her,

and she was right there
by that cut across,

just a few feet off of the road.

I suspected that somebody
abducted her right away;

I knew that.

'Cause we couldn't find her.

To my knowledge of
what law enforcement shared with

me on that day, that was
the official cause of death:

hypothermia.

And I'm not gonna dive
into conspiracy theories

or bullshit...

on what everyone is
saying on social media.

There's nothing I can do today
that's gonna bring back my

daughter!

There's a
lot of corruption here;

you can't get nothing done.

You can get k*lled real
easily around here,

and there'll be
no investigation.

We're probably never gonna know
the 100-percent truth about what

happened to each of these girls,
but the factors that played into

the situations that they were
put in the night that each one

of them died, we know.

The social problems,
the family problems...

And when we think about
everything that's happened in

the grand scheme of things,
we wouldn't have these social

issues if we didn't have...

those first initial ones.

All of that played directly
into social problems that are

happening now.

And all of that goes
right back to...

those initial days of being
placed on reservations.

The historical causes
of a lot of the dysfunctions

that we see today was
born in colonization,

was born in these federal
policies to work towards

terminating Indian nations.

"k*ll the Indian,
save the Man."

If they couldn't k*ll
the Indians away,

they were going to k*ll the
spirit and make sure that they

no longer had that cultural
connection and could just be

assimilated into
mainstream society.

The legacy of Indian boarding
schools is a perfect example of

that.

Ominous ambient music

Boarding schools is where we see
some of the first heartbreaking

stories of missing and
m*rder*d Indian children.

Children being taken away
and never seen again.

Parents not knowing what
happened to their children.

Missing and m*rder*d Indigenous
women and girls started with

boarding schools.

Starting in the early 1860s,
boarding schools were run by the

federal government but also the
religious boarding schools...

Baptist boarding schools,
Catholic boarding schools.

There were several
agents that Crows feared.

They would steal kids and they
were called "kid catchers."

They would literally strip the
kids from the homes at very

early ages... I mean,
we're talking, like,

five, six years old... and
ship them off to the boarding

schools.

The boarding
schools wanted to get rid of the

Native way of life.

If they spoke their
language, they were beaten.

If they...

tried singing a
song that we had,

they were beaten.

My great-grandmother, her
name was Jenny Bad Horse.

The agents came and they took
her to a boarding school,

and the meat they
ate was spoiled meat,

and she was so used to it
that, even in her old age,

she would make the
meat turn a little bit,

and that's the way she ate it.

And so...

it was sad.

And she would talk about how
she couldn't speak her language.

We lost our way of life.

Our clan system, our
songs, our dances,

our language...

our norms, mores, because
of boarding school.

So there was some success on
behalf of the US government

trying to do away with
Native way of life.

The people in charge
of the schools molested our

children, generations of
children being subjected to

sexual as*ault, and then coming
back into our communities.

Those traumas and these cycles
of abuse were carried forward.

And so the molestation that
they were subjected to goes into

generations carrying that.

For a lot of people, these
cycles of abuse are hard to

break.

There was entire generations of
Crow people that were taught not

how to be mothers and fathers
because they were raised by the

schools.

So this idea of loving homes and
all of that goes right out the

window.

When you raise a society with
those kinds of social issues in

survival mode, their kids grow
up with those same issues.

Typically, there'd be
one parent or no parents,

kids living with grandparents.

And even if their parents
were in the house,

they weren't raising their kids.

Kids would be
raising themselves...

Not to the extent
that I see these days,

but the amount of
broken families,

children on their own, and
the overall dysfunction,

it just was everywhere.

It becomes a self-destructive
cycle of shame and degradation

amongst the people, which is
exactly what the government

wanted; they wanted
us to self-destruct.

And we didn't self-destruct, we
just learned how to live within

the dysfunction.

It's heavy, it's hard,

and it's heartbreaking.

These families, they're
still trying to heal from the

heartache.

So much of it is this
generations of trauma that we

haven't had the
opportunity to heal from,

and this ongoing lack of feeling

that we have value in the world.

When we internalize that, we see
it play out in higher rates of

domestic violence
in our communities,

these cycles of abuse,
these cycles of addiction.

So I think we start to see

this Native-on-Native violence.

Ominous ambient music

Pull over.

When a crime is committed
in the Native community,

sometimes it's easier for us to
blame an outsider coming in than

it is to really look
inwardly and say,

"Okay...

we're doing a lot of
stuff to ourselves, too."

We can be the villain of
our own stories as well.

When we look at the
Henny Scott case,

Kaysera Stops Pretty Places,
and Selena Not Afraid cases,

I think that if there
is any foul play,

then it would have been
someone that the girls knew.

The night in question
when that happened,

those are all people in
the Native community.

The three girls
Henny Scott is found dead and

yet she was at a house party...

Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, she
was at a house party and found

dead in the next yard...

and Selena was at a house party
and found dead out in a field.

It all goes together.

I believe local Indian men lure
young girls there to come and

party with them and get
them drunk and stuff,

and somebody'll
suddenly disappear.

They're Native
Americans doing this to each

other.

The proud people are
doing it to themselves.

We're not supposed to do that.

We do have situations
where our own tribal members are

committing acts of violence
against other tribal members.

In a lot of Native communities,
there is this idea that there's

this white boogeyman, that
there's someone from the outside

that's coming in to harm us.

And the majority of the violence
that our Native women are

subjected to is from
non-Native people but,

to some extent, we've started to
internalize some of that and...

do these things
to our own people.

But I think the main
vulnerability really is this

hole for accountability
in our Native communities.

All too often, when the
victim is an Indian person,

it just falls
through the cracks.

Tense ambient music

What we do here
really feels like a w*r,

like, the trauma
that we go through.

And I feel like it's exacerbated
when we add in a m*rder*d and

missing persons crisis
in Big Horn County.

My Crow name translates
to "Keeps Things Good."

I've never actually tried
to live up to this name,

but somehow along
the way, I have.

Sharing their stories
is so important,

and I'm doing my
part as, you know,

an Indigenous woman and as
a journalist to inform and

protect.

Well, nearly two years after
the body of a Crow tribal woman

was found facedown in the
backyard of a Hardin home,

the Big Horn County
Attorney says,

"The death of 18-year-old
Kaysera Stops Pretty Places is

not forgotten and is still
under investigation."

We
waited, and finally,

almost two years to the
day Kaysera went missing,

the County Attorney
released a public report.

It was pretty vague.

There wasn't a lot
of detail in it.

There were no names.

And we're not quite sure if
there was an investigation into

the people involved
in her last days.

We know that
testimony was taken,

they were questioned...
We know that...

But we don't know how far the
investigation went into those

people.

18-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty
Places went missing on August

24th, 2019.

Five days later, her body was
found by a jogger along Mitchell

Avenue.

This one is Kaysera's memorial,
but she was found on the other

side of the fence.

Due to the decomposition, they
had to go into dental records to

identify her officially.

The cause and manner of
death are undetermined.

There's still a lot of
mystery surrounding this case.

But at the same time,
I don't think that...

that sheriff's office has ever
been equipped for a m*rder

investigation.

Would you mind
taking some over there?

I don't mind at all.

Okay, great.
Should I take two?

There's some more there
if you need... take!

- Okay.
- Take four.

I think it would do, four.

Tense ambient music

Kaysera was the first
case I took on in Montana.

That really opened my eyes to
how many barriers are in place

to a family who's
fighting to get justice.

Do you just want
"Justice for Kaysera?"

Is that what you want?

- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay.

This is a family who has
worked tirelessly and advocated

tirelessly, and they still can't
get a law enforcement agency to

undertake an actual
investigation.

All these
names out here, right?

These are all our relatives
who are missing or m*rder*d.

I know every single family here
who's lost a loved one has had

doors slammed in their face.

You've had law enforcement
refuse to talk to you.

After Kaysera's m*rder in 2019,
we were writing letters and

emails and phone calls to the
Big Horn County Sheriff's Office

and the FBI saying, "Hey, here
are the names of the people who

last saw her."

And really nothing
was ever done.

And so we're
not going away, right?

We're gonna keep demanding
justice until we get the justice

that we deserve.

Big Horn County Sheriff's
Office might claim to have

investigated the people Kaysera
was with the night she went

missing.

I don't have any evidence to
indicate they actually did.

Today is May 5th.

It's a National Day of Awareness
for Missing and m*rder*d

Indigenous Persons.

President Biden has proclaimed
it to be a national day.

The rally that was happening
here today was organized by

Yolanda Fraser.

She's Kaysera's
paternal grandmother.

She invited all the families in
Big Horn County who have lost a

loved one to demand justice
for all of the 44 victims

who have been m*rder*d or
gone missing in this area.

So, in your case, with
the family of Kaysera,

what are the next steps?

We had our first meeting
with an agent from the Missing

- and m*rder*d Unit this morning.
- Mm-hm.

This unit was actually started
during President Trump's

administration; it was called
Operation Lady Justice Task

Force.

This office had our letter
asking them to investigate

Kaysera's case.

It took a year and a half for
them to agree to just talk to

the family.

Secretary Haaland became the
first Native secretary in the

history of the
Department of Interior.

She transformed it into the
Missing and m*rder*d Unit.

At the Department of Interior,
we will have a Missing and

m*rder*d Unit that will focus
specifically on this crisis.

We're being told by President
Biden and Secretary Haaland that

this unit of BIA law
officers, the MMU,

is what's going to solve the
problem for missing and m*rder*d

indigenous persons.

Did anything new or fruitful
come out of that meeting?

He engaged, he was
very respectful,

he listened to everything
they had to say,

and then sort of was very honest
and said that there really isn't

anything at this time that the
MMU can do since her body was

found outside of federal
jurisdiction because it was 300

yards off the border of
the Crow Reservation.

If the Big Horn County
Sheriff's Office were to say,

"MMU, we want your help," then
the MMU would investigate her

m*rder.

But then the Big Horn County
Sheriff's Office is refusing to

consent to that, and that's why
the MMU can't do anything for

Kaysera's family.

What is the point of the MMU if
you're not gonna work on cases

where local law enforcement
sometimes is corrupt,

or prejudiced, or doesn't
prioritize or value Native

lives?

And so, when is the federal
government gonna show up,

and when are they going
to work on these cases?

Because we just continue to
lose Native lives out here.

We've got a m*rder of an
18-year-old girl that no one's

investigating.

Everyone's trying to blame
everyone else or say,

"Oh, it's not my responsibility
because it's 300 yards off of

where my responsibility starts."

Even in this administration,
with a president that says he

really cares about this
issue, we're still being told,

"No, we can't help you.

No, there's nothing we can do."

Kaysera's life ended in 2019,
but there's still information

out there that can be found.

There are still people that know
what happened to her that can be

talked to.

Poor Kaysera,
it was so tragic.

I mean, it happened so
fast and quick that...

we never...

expected to lose
her the way we did.

Mm-hm.

I want closure.

Yeah, I do want closure for
Kaysera 'cause she deserves it;

she deserves justice.

So I know this is probably
gonna be difficult,

but I wanted to talk to you
about the timeline of events

that happened when
Kaysera went missing.

Well, she...

See, she went out August 24th.

She had her best
friend with her.

Her name was Nakia.

And at the time, we had Isabella
Villegas living with us;

she's my cousin.

And...

they wanted to take her out.

I was like, "Okay, well, I want
you guys back at midnight."

They went out...

and Kaysera never came home.

One of the things that I had
read in the public report was

that...

there were people in a driveway
along the houses in the area.

Yeah, because she was at a
house next door from where her

body was found.

And they were there with a male,
who was the one that provided

the alcohol.

Do you know that man's name?

Natosi Summers.

Do you know where he's from?

His mother is Crow.

His father...

He's from a different
tribe; I don't know exactly.

But his mother is the one that
has the house in town there on

Rangeview.

Tense ambient music

In Kaysera's case,
I wanna know who she was with

the night that she died
and what they were doing.

I wanna know why she
was in that yard...

and why she just
laid down and died.

What could have possibly
happened and how could it be

undetermined?

That's where Natosi
lives with his grandmother.

is not available.

After the prompt, please
record your message.

Hey, Malisa, it's
Luella Brien calling.

I just wanted to give you an
opportunity to see if Natosi

wanted to talk to me.

He's not a
minor, but Natosi's mom,

she's the family spokesperson.

She's a lawyer.

I think this one is difficult
because there's been so much

rumor and conjecture
surrounding it.

And the people that I'm trying
to pin down are people that

those rumors are...

about.

I'm on my way to Lodge Grass.

Nakia Spotted Horse lives
just outside of town,

and she was one of the people
that was last seen with Kaysera

Stops Pretty Places, and she's
actually agreed to give me an

interview.

She has not spoken
to media at all,

so what I get from Nakia
today will be completely new

information for the public.

Okay.

Thank you for coming.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tell me about the night
that you lost her.

So it's August 24th,
it's Saturday night.

When you got to her
house, what was the plan?

I was there
with Kaysera and Isabella.

We were just gonna wait 'til
the nighttime and just head out.

To do...?

Party and...

drink.

Tense ambient music

Isabella, she said that her baby
daddy Natosi could be a buyer.

Oh, okay.

So we
went to his house.

So
that would be you,

Kaysera, Isabella, and Natosi?

Yeah.

And then
what happens after that?

We were
just drinking,

and Isabella and Natosi,

we could hear them
arguing downstairs.

And then he came
and grabbed her.

Mm-hm.

He was just holding onto her,
and she didn't know what to do

'cause she was trying
to pull away from him.

So Kaysera stepped
in and was like,

"Hey, leave her alone!

Quit doing that!

She don't have to stay!"

We walked out the house, and I
remember he ran down the road

and he grabbed
her and was, like,

trying to say sorry
and ask her to stay.

And I remember, at
the end of the road,

we got in front of that house,
and they were yelling around at

each other, and then me and
Kaysera didn't know what to do

'cause, like...

they weren't listening to us.

Yeah.

And then that's when I looked
over and then that car was,

like, going, like, chk-chk,
locking and unlocking.

And then a cop went by
and it, like, scared us.

Everyone just kind of panicked
and started taking off.

We kind of just all
lost each other,

and I was hiding under a truck.

I waited there for a while.

That's when Isabella was
like, "Where's Kaysera?"

And I was like, "I don't know!"

We were yelling her name, and
she wasn't saying nothing,

and then we didn't
see her anywhere.

We started to walk
back to Natosi's house,

and then Natosi was pulling
out of his driveway.

And when he saw us, he started
going faster and kind of chased

us with his truck.

So where did you guys go then?

We ran
through these houses,

and he was following us
in the alleys and stuff.

And it scared us.

We, like, cut around that house
and hid into these bushes,

and then we saw him drive by,
and he drove by real fast,

like he was looking for us.

We saw him go back to his house.

And then that's when
Isabella started crying,

"I'm scared, I wanna go back."

And then that's
when I just said,

"Well...

Kaysera will probably
go back home.

She's smart.

She always... she
always comes back,

and she'll be back."

So we took off back
to Percelia's house.

When you guys were
yelling for her,

you were still in that immediate
area where the house was.

And you didn't hear anything?

You didn't hear her
rustling in bushes,

you didn't hear...

There was no response?

Oh my goodness.

What kind of stuff did you know
about Natosi before this night?

I don't really think
I knew who he was.

I don't think I ever met
him or heard about him.

tense ambient music

What I want to do
is either speak to Natosi or

speak to Isabella to
tell their stories.

Reaching them is incredibly
difficult because...

I had texted Natosi's
mom previously.

She said that she
would think about...

possibly letting
him do an interview.

Hi, it's Luella.

I was just wondering if you had
given any more thought to an

interview with Natosi.

I just want to make sure I give
you every opportunity to have

that interview.

I texted his
mother one more time,

and she wasn't too
pleasant in her response.

Basically, I
shouldn't bother them.

His family says he didn't
do anything to her.

We're heading over to the
Big Horn County courthouse.

I gotta fill out a couple of
forms to get public information

for, um...

Kaysera's case.

I hear a lot of
outcry from the public about how

the County Attorney's Office
is not doing their job,

but I see lack of investigation
on the part of the Sheriff's

Office.

Because that's where any County
Attorney's Office is gonna get

their evidence.

Hi, this message
is for Jeramie Middlestead.

I'm writing a story about the
Kaysera Stops Pretty Places case

and I wanted to get
some input from you.

Jeramie Middlestead
took the initial police report

for the disappearance
of Kaysera.

Trying to talk to law
enforcement is like pulling

teeth.

It's incredibly difficult.

Nobody in the Big
Horn County Sheriff's Office

would ever even return your
calls to do an interview with

you while they're
still employed there.

They just wouldn't do it.

I'm in Idaho, I'm not
in Montana anymore,

so, you know, their tentacles
can't reach me here.

I'd have never
done it in Montana.

Never.

The Sheriff's Office in Big Horn
County would have retribution

against you if you spoke up.

They'd just make
your life hell there.

You'd have to move.

I don't appear today
in my official capacity as the

undersheriff for Big
Horn County, Montana.

I came to the conclusion that
I would have to come in my

personal capacity as a dad.

The Big Horn County
sheriffs really are hands-off

when it comes to the media.

BIA and FBI has a no-media
policy in place for unsolved

cases, so law enforcement
hasn't given anyone any clarity.

The mailbox
is full and cannot accept any

messages at this time.

Tense ambient music

Kaysera's case is
one of many cases they have

mishandled and failed
to investigate.

Still to this day, there's
evidence there that hasn't been

collected.

There are witnesses that
haven't been interviewed.

But knowing what we know about
this sheriff's office and this

criminal justice
system in Montana,

I think law enforcement will
leave it where it is unless we

build up enough public pressure
and momentum that requires them

to do their job.

But it is a crisis
in Indian country.

You have jurisdictional
issues, and oftentimes,

in border towns, you've got law
officers and sheriffs who do not

respect Native lives and have no
desire to do anything to save a

Native life or to investigate
who may have m*rder*d a Native

woman or girl.

- What do we want?!
- Justice!

Nearly a thousand
people made their way down 27th

Street, finishing at the
Yellowstone County Courthouse

lawn.

m*rder*d and missing women have
gone on far before it has come

to attention!

I had to decide if I was gonna
stay quiet or if I was gonna

stay loud, because there are so
many that haven't been brought

back.

I have to be here; I
have to be advocating.

If I don't, who will?

When they close your case and
put it in a filing cabinet,

that's a bad thing.

So that's why you keep
advocating for your loved ones.

Keep saying their names because
once their names are forgotten,

once you stop, they're done.

In a lot of our
traditions, they're told,

"Forget about 'em."

You don't talk about 'em.

You let 'em go."

Why would you forget
about somebody?

Why would you wanna do that?

We've got families 25, 30 years
later finally able to say,

"Hey, what about my sister?

What about my mom?"

Our
life without Henny is...

very hard.

I can't mourn her death
because of the anger I feel.

Don't
give up on Shacaiah.

Her being so strong-willed,
she's still fighting.

And I hope that she knows that
we're still fighting for her.

Kaysera
deserves justice.

She would take the shirt off
of her back to help others.

Why couldn't they
do that for her?

Selena shouldn't
have gone through this.

There should be justice for
her more than what she got.

Tense ambient music

Since these doors back
here are closed to us,

the justice that we need,
answers that we need,

we don't get it.

I just wanna tell
everybody, "Don't give up.

Don't give up."

I want justice.

I want to keep pushing and get
these officials to do the job

that they're
supposed to be doing.

This is what Kaysera
would have been doing.

She was an advocate for
anybody that was an underdog.

I didn't know who to go to, I
didn't know what to do in my

situation, and...

it took a while.

I believe if it
didn't take that long,

that we would have found her,
and she would've still been with

us.

I have no faith
in our justice system.

When I pass that
sign of Henny's,

I wanna find justice for her,

that she didn't
pass for nothing.

She's spreading awareness.

I want her to be remembered.

Justice for Henny!

May 5th is National
Missing and m*rder*d Indigenous

Person's Awareness Day.

There are many events
across the country to highlight

the huge problem facing
Native American communities.

No more stolen sisters!

It's light and dark;
it's like out of the worst,

most horrifying thing
that could ever happen,

we're able to see this community
of mothers and families who have

lost their loved ones coming
together and offering each other

support, and the love that we
show each other as community

members through
this is that light.

When push comes to shove,
our people are resilient,

our people care
about each other,

and we support each other.

Emotional music

I don't
ever come over here.

I don't think your grandma and
papa ever come here either.

Sensitive ambient music

You know how your
papa had a sister?

Her name was Beverly...
Beverly Diane...

And everybody
called her "DeeDee."

When they found her,
they found her over here,

somewhere between...

the cattle chutes and the fence.

Gosh, she was 16 when
that happened to her.

And your grandparents,
they won't...

they won't really talk about it.

Come here over here.

Come stand by me.

Do you know why they
don't talk about it?

'Cause it's sad.

In my family, I
don't think my parents have come

to a place of acceptance yet
for what happened to my dad's

sister.

I don't think that any of
us can tell them it's okay.

I mean, we've tried.

I think they hold
onto a lot of guilt.

And...

I don't think that, um...

I don't think they'll
ever get there,

really.

People who have lost a family
member tragically like this...

there's a guilt associated with

moving on.

If they move
through their grief,

then they're
forgetting that person.

They were one of
the last people that saw her.

I think that's why
I'm so overly protective of you

guys...

'cause I'm so scared
something's going to happen.

My daughter's
gonna be 13 and...

has already had a
target on her...

just simply by being born a
female Native in this area.

Tense ambient music

That, in itself,
makes me fearful,

but it also makes me more
vigilant as a parent.

Everything, really, that
I do with her is based in

situational awareness
and keeping her safe.

And that feeling of being
in danger goes back...

My generation, my
mother's generation,

my grandmother's generation.

It makes up who we are.

I feel like it's part of the
fabric of Native women in this

community.

We grow up thinking that
survival is culture,

and pretty soon, we're doing
things that we think are

cultural practices when
really, they're just survival

techniques.

We have to think, "Okay, what
can we do to preserve what we

have left?"

And figure out what
to do to thrive.

I think sometimes,
we're trying to find a

non-Indian solution
for a Native problem.

The majority of us don't look
to our culture for the answer.

Tense ambient music

Traditionally, we believe that
tribal members hold value.

That you're something.

That you have self-respect;
that you were made by the most

Our universe.

That they took mud from the
ground and the Creator breathed

into it...

and then placed life into it.

And said,...

"The people on top
of the ground."

So, at that point, it's no
longer a male and a female

thing.

We hold value and we
know we're something.

Drumming and chanting

Then he said,...

"You're the ones beside me."

That's not a place
to be discarded.

Tense ambient music

If we just return
to those values,

nobody can be hurt
within that system,

because the traditional Crow
value places the women at a very

high position.

Pre-colonization, violence
against Native women was not

tolerated.

Our communities, our tribes
held perpetrators accountable,

and in the very few
instances when it did happen,

it was addressed.

Because women form the
backbone of our communities,

their safety forms the
foundation for the safety of our

communities.

When we protect
our Native women,

we're able to
protect our families.

It extends out.

We're able to see
strong communities,

strong nations.

Success in all aspects of our
community comes from the home

and the home being a safe place.

It's time that we go back to our
traditional teachings that women

are sacred, that violence
does not have a place in our

community.

Tense ambient music

In order
for us to have hope,

we have to see a future
that doesn't include...

m*rder*d and missing
indigenous women and girls.

I can't see that future yet.

But these stories
have to be told.

These girls were
incredibly bright...

talented...

and worthy of living,

not because they
were Native women...

not because they were
somebody's daughter,

but simply because
they were human beings.

And we're all worthy of living,
we're all worthy of a good life,

because we're human.

Emotional music

ominous ambient music

tense ambient music