Transcripts For ALJAZ UpFront 20240703

Such a at human rights watch, has been telling us to take some steps to prosecute most the low ranking soldiers as to the abuses were committed. But unfortunately, we didnt see any officers held accountable under the command of doctrine as commanders onto which is something that the us has failed to do. And unfortunately, unfortunately, we also havent seen prosecutions, of perpetrators coupled with repressed their victims a fall and says it will end its military presence in the shed by the end of the yeah, it will also with thoughts about self digitalized to protest against its presence, the large numbers of migrants are continuing to cross into the United States from mexico. Nearly 9000 arrived on site today. And they of el paso says that the Board Associates at breaking while another assistant eagle pass has also declared state of emergency. Margaret numbers had dropped to the recent months, but this revised this generation of a new wave of political tax on president joe biden. Armenia says its making provisions for tens of thousands of people who may flee. Nicole or cadillac helps the latest round of fighting within a 1000 Ethnic Albanians have crossed over. So fall from the in place in as advised on a meeting, and as advised on a need to say they will hold. Who talks to the side . What happens next . Hollywood screen writers have reached a breakthrough with us studios and streaming companies and a deal that could end in nearly 5 months long strike thousands of television and film. Why just dont walk back in may off of disagreeing from pay and working conditions. Okay. Theres a headlines as a ways you can check out a website out. Is there a dell come stay . Tune upfront, coming up next time. Charles times you want a rate of 400. 00 sites. Dramatize to put cost from. Ill just here to invest, hasan re here from some of historys blogs, notable women, and unconventional and extraordinary office. I am 40 that kind of the communist revolution of everyone in china, new my state. Youve heard all of them power its time you have from these and 6 of hindsight is out now subscribe. Wherever you listen to pub, the Indigenous Women in the United States are going missing and getting murdered at an alarming rate. 10 times the National Average on some reservations, more than 4 and 5 native american women have experienced pilots in a lifetime. Thats 1. 2 times the average for white women already experienced this proportionately high rates of pilots compared to man. So whats behind this epidemic of violence, and why arent we hearing about it constantly . Well take a closer look. For the 1st in canada, the covering of unmarked graves containing the remains of indigenous children leads to a moment of reckoning from the country since may. Within 1300 bodies have been identified here, former Residential Schools. These were government sponsored church one centers, aim that, eradicating Indigenous Culture as a search continues for whats believes to be thousands more grades. What impact is the story habits and whats next . And the struggle for justice will talk the former senator in chair of canadas truth and Reconciliation Committee dismiss headliner, where we think like the more reason clear. Thank you so much for joining me on upfront. The uncovering of some 1300 raves, containing the remains of indigenous children at former Residential Schools. Its made headlines all around the world. How has this revelation impacted the struggle for historical justice among canadas Indigenous People . Whether you are having me on the show and i thank you for the question. I think its an important issue for us to be thinking about and talking about one of the things that we talked about in the report that was sharing that was that the issue of children going missing at the schools and then dying at the schools was one that was often played out for us and we had asked for a mandate to look into that more completely, sometimes 2 or 3 children to be buried in a gray. Sometimes we heard stories from some of the survivors, a Residential Schools, the children actually being killed deliberately. And the one thing that we did point out was that because the government had forcibly removed the children from their families and from their communities, they have some obligation tomorrow. Obligation is not a legal one to work with the families to return the bodies of the children. To the families and their communities in accordance with the traditions and the practices of those particular communities. And they never did that. But we also pointed out that we had good benefit of both the 6500 names of children who died in the schools that we could determine from the records of the schools. But we believe quite honestly that there were many, many more probably as much as 8 or 9 times that number. Maybe maybe even more. Thats a, thats a cutting, thats a standing number to think about. And even as you talk about the stories that youre hearing from people and Indigenous People have been telling me stories for years of deplorable conditions, abuse and disappearing. Class mean, its really no surprise to the indigenous communities that this was happening, but it seemed like the broader canadian public was surprised by this pulling suggest that why is it taking so long for the broader public to catch up them to know whats going on . Well, it would appear to us that there was a deliberate effort by the government of canada along with the churches that ran schools to cover up the desk of the children. There was actually a study that was done by a, in the medical director of the Residential Schools by the name of the member, the name of the doctor, peter brice back in the early part of the 20th century, about 1910 or so. And he looked at the desperate sub children in Residential Schools and so scattering in the estimated, based upon the studies that he had done. And the evidence that he big, heavy farm, that between 25 and 49 percent of the children in those schools either died at the schools or died shortly after leaving the schools, the poor of living conditions, department attrition, the core lifestyle, the abuse that they experience all contributed to the early test, and when dr. Bryce asked to issue his report to the public, they prevented him from doing that. And they actually fired him and he managed to issue his report on his own private play. But then he called that the national crime, this report, but the uh, the government refused to endorse that. They refused parted. And in addition to that, it was never really picked up in the media so that the connected society was also implicated and covering up the story in particular and media. It seems to me as you point out, that the government has claimed ignorance to some extent around this stuff. And thats somewhat puzzling, a former Prime Minister showing a fight in, in october of this year said that while serving as the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the 1960, the seventys, he said that he quote, was not informed of any abuse at that time, many other government officials said they had no idea of what was going on. How could they have not known is that, is that even possible . You know, theyre not, theyre not being crude. So when i say that, because we know for the records again, because we had access to all the Good Government records that were accessible to the public generally. That there were several reports over the years that were made to ministers that were made to government officials and departmental officials at the senior level. And that those records showed the death rates of children. And these were not Indigenous People who are writing their honorable tommy douglas. For example, when he was later the n d p in the house of commons raised it as an issue. And he was told, basically, to go back to scratch one and stop talking about these things. So he was verbally criticized where you can try to raise it. So theres an issue of claiming ignorance on pretending that it never happened. And then theres the idea. Alternatively of saying, oh, thats the distant past. Thats a relic of ancient canadian history. When in fact uh, the last Residential School to close was in 1997. Its a fairly recent part of the canadian historical narrative. How do Residential Schools continue at this moment to shape the present and shape how the indigenous experience plays out . When the last reserves of schools closed in the ninetys and in the 80s . Some of them had been taken over by indigenous communities. So many of those schools are closed at the end were much better run and there was a more significant openness which still are very bad memories from the people who are there. And some of them have now been destroyed by the communities themselves. But so the, the impact of the schools is widely known as talked about in our report. And then generally, what we said was that the children who were taken away from their families forcibly, were not only separated from their families separated from the communities and their traditions, their elders, their support, the people within the community. But they were also separated from their culture, from their language and they were abusing the schools if they continued to try to function in a way to maintain their language, to maintain their culture. They were also taught and brainwashed into believing that they came from an inadequate group of people. And other people were in fact socially, mentally. And in terms of civilization inferior people to the white european settlers who would come here after colonial period started. And today and history of course, was only taught from a call you perspective. So what we said was that the Public Schools picked up on that message and taught kids in Public Schools. The same thing. And we, we have had a Public School system in canada. It is founded on when supremacy of 4 generations, and thats why theres such a schism between the leadership in this country uh, usually non indigenous man and indigenous community. One of the most troubling realities for indigenous children is the foster care system. There are more than 40000 indigenous can is in that system. And for context, they make of 8 percent of the total population. More than half of the foster care system. Do you see the crisis of Child Welfare as an extension of the Residential School problem . You know, what we said was that in reality, the Residential Schools themselves were a Child Welfare system and the Child Welfare system. We see today is just a newer version of the Residential School system. The intent beings take children away from their families and to put them into a situation where the system believes that they will become better citizens. So theyve become more civilized to be better taken care of. Then the Indigenous People can do. And even when the system has to acknowledge that they themselves have failed to do children in their care, they still are authorized by the courts to continue to take children and huge numbers to the training session. But judges, and i said, where in the world would we ever have a Justice System that continually gave children or to people who had failed the children that we had already given over to them before. And yet, were doing it without hesitation without question. When it comes to jo, welfare but we would never do it. These were the private guardians, we were trying to take children into their homes. The Catholic Church ran upwards of 70 percent of the Residential Schools. In september, the canadian conference of catholic bishops issued an official apology. But now theres pressure mounting for the pope himself to apologize. This month, the delegation of Indigenous Leaders will meet the pope at the batt again to press for an apology. Its certainly a symbolic gesture, but why is it so significant to get that apology . Well, when we should the truth and Reconciliation Commission report to which one of our calls to action to call upon population an apology when you go through a central, as soon as candidate has gone through with regard to its treatment of Indigenous People, there has to be a level of awareness, it has to be a tournament and there has to be apology. And so what we said is that if the Catholic Church is serious about showing its tongue and for what is done in the past, it has to apologize and it has to show what kind of action is going to take. And we havent seen the apology of the apology from the bishops that have been made in the past not beneficial made on behalf of the church and served as the chair of candace truth and Reconciliation Committee. And in 2015 your team lead out 94 costs to action, which are designed to sort of help begin to repair some of the damage that have been done by the Residential Schools. The Prime Minister trudel promised to fulfill all of them so far, only 14 had been fulfilled. 20 have yet to start. What does that mean was just as taking so long as well as i have said to the Prime Minister and 2 other government officials. The problem that is happening within government says that they dont have a plan. They dont think through what it is theyre committing to the what it is theyre apologizing for what it is that they need to do. And that plan is missing because there was a, a feeling at the beginning of the truth and reconciliation process on the part of government. And i think the public generally was that, uh, if we draw enough money at this wills good was settling down, it will be able to get them to be quiet. And so theres a been a lack of planning lets. Its that simple, laurie sinclair, thank you. So much for joining me on upfront. Thank you for having me. Its been a good conversation. Thank you. The in 2017. 32 year old olivia alone there in indigenous mother, a fire from north dakota with missing her family, searched for her for months and pushed Law Enforcement to take the case more seriously. 9 months later, a volunteer Community Member found her body in a pickup truck submerged in a lake within a mile of her home. This is just one case of thousands of native american women who go missing in or later found it. In the United States and vision as women and girls are disappearing and being murdered at alarming rates compared to other women and whats often called epidemic of violence. Joining us to discuss this are Mary Catherine legal, citizen of Cherokee Nation and lawyer focused on tribal sovereignty and safety for native women and children. Terry call for member of the clinic of tribe of Southeast Alaska and national Indigenous Womens Resource Center senior native affairs advisor. Thank you both in joining in upfront, Mary Catherine, in recent years, thousands of native american women had been reported missing Law Enforcement is often slow to react, and families are often left waiting month for answers. And theyre often dismissed and told that going missing isnt a crime. Whats at the root of this crisis . You know, such an important question and i think we have to understand that this crisis is both cultural and legal in nature. I say cultural because violence against aid of women is a practice that began with the colonial conquests of the United States. I mean, all you have to do is read christopher columbus, his journals to understand that this is a man who literally bragged about raping and murdering Indigenous Women when he got lost and washed up on the shore line over here. So youve got that. Youve got the history of the us military using, raped and homicide against data women as a military tactic to conquer tribal nations. We dont talk about that history is not a mystery as to why theres a high rate of violence against our native women today. At the same time, we have a Legal Framework that allows that violence to continue and 1978 the United States Supreme Court and all the font versus squamish indian tribe eliminated tribal criminal jurisdiction over non indians who come on to tribal lands and commit crimes. So today, non indians can walk on to a reservation or onto indian lands and murder and native women with no consequences. And they do. The Supreme Court is taking that jurisdiction away while im and i want to unpack the legal part of that in just a sec im. Im still trying to wrap my mind around. No. This idea that when a crime is committed or when someone is just reported missing, carry that the response is indifference or, you know, its not a crime to go missing to get dismissed. I mean, why is that . I think in part native women are really under represented in data. And so we know that the statistics of missing a murdered indigenous america strongly high, but we know that the dark thats actually directly likely a lot higher. And so all of these historical factors, in addition to these jurisdictional that um barriers, im a failure of federal the federal government to adequately fund just as a victim server systems in Indian Country has led to predators. Knowing that they can target needed women without repercussions. And no ones really going to care because the Mainstream Media doesnt really cover it very well often. Okay, there kevin, i mean, youre one of the people who said that we have a culture that promotes and celebrates violence against native women. The data seems to bear that out. Native american women are 2 and a half more likely to be raped compared to all other races. And in some reservations, murder rates of native american women are up to 10 times higher than the National Average. For all races, can you speak to this dynamic . Yeah, in terms of culture, up until this last summer, native womens bodies were still used to sell butter and other commercial products that is starting to change, you know, land olakes just changed their label. But Many Americans still think that its completely appropriate to dress up as poca, hottie for halloween, pocahontas was a child victim of rape. Could not being in homicide. She was an indigenous girl, a little girl who lost her life to violence, to sexual violence. And shes not a Halloween Costume, but so long as are real women who are murdered and raped are just treated as Halloween Costumes. It creates a culture that just honestly accepts this violence. So that way the native woman is raped or goes missing or as murdered. I think because we have been dehumanized and over sexualized its, its harder for americans at large to, to have that kind of emotional response of we need to find her. Her life matters when, when the native woman goes missing, carry this pop culture piece is interesting to me that how much of it is the kind of indifference to the lives in the well being of native women and how much of it is an ignorance of history i think its a combination of all of it. I think its a lack of understanding about our history. I think most of the time in history class need is make up like the 1st chapter, despite the fact that weve been here for all of American History and, and century is thousands of years prior to that. And then i think there is also willful ignorance. I think it feels these issues often feel very far away to other need to other non need of people who dont live on or near tribal lands. And so they can sort of ignore all of these issues that native women face and they never really have to deal with it or think about it. And frankly, they dont want to tear it. But let me ask you another question because we started to talk about this idea of non native perpetrators of violence. 96 percent of the time violence against Indigenous Women is from a non native perpetrator. A tribal courts, a Tribal Police, for the most part, dont have the ability to prosecute crimes on reservations from non need of perpetrators or even arrest them without backup from non native Law Enforcement. Its hard for many people myself included to understand how this is legal. Yeah, i think its, its hard for native subjects to figure out how its legal, as well as married, catherine said after the Supreme Courts decision, in all the sign in 1970 total Justice Systems can no longer hold accountable criminally abusive non natives who are continuing to harm their need of partners resulting in situations where a non native defendants piled up repeated in multiple prior contacts with Tribal Police. So essentially, Tribal Police and courts were unable to do very much to stop need of perpetrators. And then federal and state courts also just failed to protect anita victims. And thats where we are today and, and issues were facing today and, and how all of this mess has been created back after that. Thats the best part of it. The, the crisis here, right . I mean, on the one hand, you dont have jurisdiction in this area, then you have the state and the federal police and in, in bodies that can intervene. But dont absolutely. In most cases on tribal lands, if a native woman is murdered, the federal government does have jurisdiction. So were looking at the federal government and saying, why are you doing your job . You know, you took the jurisdiction away from us. So do something step in, you know, we have, we have native women like olivia alone, there is a great example because her brother for 9 months bang, the f b i to search for his a certain date. I mean, you know, he wasnt, he was on national tv. He was sending letters who was making phone calls and they did nothing. And they had jurisdiction. Mary, catherine, youve said placing paternalistic restrictions on tribal courts and the name of due process is nothing more than a disguise for prejudice. What do you mean by that . Sure, cause i think, you know, youre right. A lot of folks will throw out this idea of, well, non indian defendants. Their Due Process Rights are not protected and travel court. The problem with a strong man argument is that the folks who say that actually cant point to a single piece of evidence, shred of evidence, where a non indians rights have been violated. And thats the irony of these arguments. Im not saying travel courts are perfect. If you look at state and federal courts, theyre not perfect. And thats why i think its based and on projects because, you know, i, for instance, and all the font when the Supreme Court in 1978 took away travel criminal jurisdiction over non indians. One of the things that chief rank west at the time said is, you know, we just, theres, theres no way to think that a non indian is going to get a fair shake in travel court. Well, wait a 2nd because that non indian is not a citizen of that tribe that non indian cant vote and that tribes elections. Well, im not a citizen of the state of kansas, but if i walk into kansas and start murdering people, i dont get to have a constitutional right to avoid a criminal prosecution because of due process. Im sorry, thats not how i be the cable for to exactly the kansas governor or pick whos on their Supreme Court. And one thing really quick about due process. There are due process protections in the violence against women act, you know, right to counsel right . To notice right to file a heavy us and federal court, basically all the protections you would have in state court or federal court and still the conversation there are still people out there saying, well, we just dont think that Due Process Rights are protected in travel court even though its, its in the law and no one can point to a shred of evidence that it hasnt been provided. And so i really do think were talking about projects. Lets say it was top of the balance against and act the renewal passed in the house of representatives in 2019 carry, but its languishing in the senate if passed in would expand tribal jurisdiction to include other offences like Sexual Assault, stocking, trafficking, and child abuse. What kind of difference would that make again on the ground, on a day to day level . Yeah, i mean, it would make a huge difference. What weve heard from tribal leaders, judges, advocates since 2013 since certain tribes started exercising special jurisdiction under about 2013 is that although its been really successful in protecting tribal communities, from perpetrators who commit dating my violence or Domestic Violence. The narrow ness of jurisdiction under valez. Her 3rd 2013 is a continual source of frustration. And thats because it creates those loopholes for offenders and leaves victims unprotected and it limits how effectively tribes can prosecute Domestic Violence of vendors for crimes that co occur with Domestic Violence. So enhancing you know, these provisions and expanding to travel jurisdiction will help to better protect travel communities surrounding communities. And ultimately hopefully we would see a decline in the rates of abuse of native women. We know that there is a long history of institutional racism against and vision as people in this country. The question that i want to get an answer from, from you to a is sort of how we go about reversing that history. As a practical matter, what can we do and how do you specifically go about doing that work . Ive certainly may gather is a huge question. You know, and i think that theres and visibility right. It most people, if they know of a native woman, they know of Halloween Costume and thats it. Were starting to change that. You know, weve got our 1st native woman member of the cabinet, the secretary of interior dep holland. Right . Weve got native women in congress. We have a lot of work to do in the curriculum. In the United States, you know, most law schools dont teach all fine. Right . So most law students who go to law schools dont study the Supreme Court decision. That is the reason why our native women faced the highest rates of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and homicide in the United States. America has started a lot about the kind of educational piece and the bit of the cultural peace care. What else can be done to undue this violence, this legacy of violence against Indigenous People . Well, 1st we need to adequately fund and provide resources to tribes. Tribes are consistently set up to fail by this chronic under funding. So we need to ensure that tribes not only have the authority, which is what we talked about, a little bit with vala, but also the resources to hold defenders accountable to provide culturally centered services to their community. To prove Data Collections that we really know the extent of the problem and can help identify more victims across jurisdictional lines. And so the sooner we give native people and thats especially need of victims and families of victims, a seat at the table in decision making. And im sure that theyre part of these larger conversations the sooner we can come up with solutions that are actually tailored specifically to the needs of native nations, terry america. And thank you both so much for joining me in this conversation. I really appreciate everybody that is our show upfront. Well be back next week the, the the, the objective l cap was so daunting. So to focus on success at the top finding of the physical support but free. So in your so mental well climbing legend, alex 100 on how to be the best and make the world a better place. I think that theres more than enough for everybody to get around. Its more about equity distributing. What we have. Youre trying to protect the environment, it starts by helping to make sure that people have everything they need generations. Thoughts on. Ill just say of the rock nation, richard woodland, mike and an expert dedicated to defusing them, one by one, equip with only a 9 and the pairs wired for the faces death every day for dose is what make you make you or talk witness the minor on the jersey to the us as a case of failing to compensate it, rocky is detained on torture, that abu ghraib and all the prisons that controlled. So on a i thought of of that with im asking for financial compensation and an apology, the online, sorry, this is all just their life from time or so coming up fine with all ive been job aide at