Latin america starts august 18th on d. W. The my grandmother was kidnapped when i was 9 years old. Kind of created fear in me as a child that you know you could be taken the i wouldnt go missing and they are murdered at this the person. It rates anywhere that on top of the Socio Economic impressions that are communities often face tied with the lack of access to resources such as internet and phone. Sometimes its really easy to get targeted by predators. I want you to think about the life and the love and the energy that this mother earth is giving you when the verdict was it. Oh yes, we had a march downtown one time. We had a lot of marches and walks. So its a banner for savannah cleveland. Yeah, yep. She was murdered. The stella, i need some help cracking the eggs. Can you help me . Is there like crap the go to. Youre going to get it for breakfast and i see you have a chipotle, a cup in your room. Do you like having apps . And the video it says as an artist and a curator, im interested in artwork. That highlights issues impacting the native community. This is a piece done by james audio this titled out there. It totally brought like a flash back to me of like watching my dad when i was a kid. Go out to look for my grandma and we were in the car, were driving home and he pulled off on the side of the road and walked out into the woods. And i remember like watching my dad kind of disappear into the woods and i was scared because i was afraid that he would come running back out and say that hed found her body, you know, and that is the role that you know, families take on when someone goes missing is you know they, they go out and search themselves, the women are lice. Givers women, sometimes run a household. Theyre the glue to the family. A being from a matriarchal nature lineal people. When a woman goes missing it, it completely ends the lifeline for a clan to continue. So its, its big, its a big deal. I cant figure out how to change it back to english because i was in uruguay about a month and a half ago. How i got involved and kind of pushed into the forefront of missing and murder. Indigenous women was when a young indigenous mother when she went missing in fargo, police, they didnt jump into action when the parents went to them and told them, our daughter is missing. That just hit all of us like just we saw the Justice System fail, our community and the family the this is 100. Are the one for person. Let me just say i know were top, hold it down while youre talking. Ok, you do it now. The grand ive been trying to, i cant find the bull horn. Ill go take care of it. Ill just take care of it while youre doing you. I got this missing and murdered indigenous march. That happens here. Minneapolis was a 1st initiated by the Minnesota Indian Women Sexual Assault Coalition and it was just to march to bring awareness to the stuff a demick for years ive just participated. There were some incidents that have happened years prior, and we just wanted to make sure that the Indigenous Community could creve in morin and hill together in a safe space. Oh my god, i think this isnt a big enough venue. Was trying to. 7 escape of capable, then we can be blocked and the people need to be able to get in and out and say, i dont think the work that im doing right now is prompted on file. Instead, it was perpetrated upon me somebody i care about very much. Im just getting it by about 12 minute and then you know, it always gets a little different when its somebody who loves because for some reason we dont love ourselves as much as we love our families anyway, just because i couldnt sit and do nothing answer any of them are yeah. I had to get some stuff for my son. Hes coming from his the high school. Oh, theyre coming out with his indian ed class. Yeah. Im heading to the end of my w march, and im thinking about my grandmother. And im thinking about what my family went through when she went missing, searching for her. Those are the things i think about when i go to the marches to think about those women who they were as individuals who my grandma was not how she died, but who she was as a person. Yeah this is the 1st time that ive been out here since i was 9 years old. You know, my dad come home and said that my grandmother was missing and that was kind of this like shock of like where does that mean . Like how can she be missing . Shes, you know, a grandma my grandmother, her name is virginia bernard, and she was my grandmothers sister about like a native way. You know, she was like grandma and she was a tiny lady. I remember her being in a wheelchair and she liked to play. Bingo. My uncle went to her apartments to check on her. They found her wheelchair and it was abandoned in the back of her apartment building. And it was bloody. And so do you know, it kind of leads you to believe the worst the we are we are going between your girl here with just a piece of ranger to keep it rosie dolly. And these are also dignitaries the if the hiring are certain and i follow it part of your fear. So what are you doing . Pretty good. Going to be a great day. The face, the, it was like the last fall i kept trying to, he almost ran into me and i was like, you cant come in here the watchful and hes like, is that how you watch the media sounds like youre not special . Like these people are special to me. No, no, hes out of here. But i want to know who the reporter is because thats what i want to talk to you from here. Give me that baby. Jeremy and i bear in mind that a little more and more people are in despite with the shoulder to shoulder to ensure that our native women and girls are to spare community that we are of value that we deserve to be seen and heard of rejected when i was 13 years old. I witnessed my grandmother being murdered in front of me and i had been a victim to a Sexual Assault multiple times. I was living in rome, minnesota. There is a disabled vehicle. I was just trying to help them get home. And they were supposed to drop me off on the way back home and they kept going on. And once they passed the exit i was like, well you can just turn right here just take her right here or started screaming. I said tom part of the vehicle and let me out. One of them said that they had a gun in the car and they would kill me. I think i kind of went into a shock to the men left the vehicle in the garage while the other one helped me down and reach me in the truck after it was done. He um, turned his back to me for a 2nd and i pushed them and i ran out and there is a gas station that was um, just down the hill. I ran back to the bathroom and i just sat in there and i cried. But anything, every one of family is desperately searching for a fargo woman who is 8 months pregnant. Shes been missing for more than 48 hours. Now. Family believe she may be in danger. Many people from del cord, from dun see then several other cities came to help with this search, all wanting to bring comfort and peace to savannahs family. When savannah la fontaine, great when flint missing it really hit home because it was an a young, native american women and working mom preparing for the arrival of their daughter. I didnt realize how traumatic the experience was just helping with the search until i drove to north fargo one time. But yeah, this whole area with a certain the search headquarters, the family and put a call to action on facebook that week. And so everybody just showed up here the, there was a young lady standing on top corner, last tables shooting. She was Emergency Management students. They had the map of the whole area, assessing out your search assignment. You just left everybody realize the sense of urgency we were coming the river down here. So we did that until i got start. I was asked by 2 women from tournament and if i would leave the search just following day the when we went out to search for a sweet smile, just use it. But we also stuck small balls of seeds in our shoes, just because we didnt know what were going to be coming across in the search. We were still hoping that she was alive, but we were still trying to prepare ourselves and protect ourselves the i want to welcome all of you here and thank you all for coming. We know that there have been attempted abductions, if you have or no of somebody that this has happened to in our Community Reach out to a trusted person might not be calling 911, and might be calling our American IndianCommunity Advocate or navigate or with the Police Department to make sure that our people are safe here. All of us have relatives that have been impacted by this. Im going to give a minute for us to call out those relatives and just holler at out. It doesnt have to be one by one, just call out their name, send them some love the the me glad. We havent forgotten them. Well never forget them. And today is for them. The as a culture of the society as a species, we have sick yourselves into believing that the strictest and domineering is the way to be we have to learn how to live in harmony with the Natural World and each other. Please. Group here in montana has a population of 218 people. They have 48 registered sex offender living in that area. The structure project came through and that to the 600 the, the, the tribal community. When you look at the statistics, the men who are by sex, on average, their middle class white man. And sometimes thats who these construction workers are. They get away from this family for extended periods of time. They have an access and money and time because the government and the price is the govern ourselves. We cant do anything about this. And this is your. C 10, a good one. So after we shut down the search headquarters, drove back to our host and salt fargo, and it wasnt even long when life breaking news came on. Savannah great. When who disappeared . Well, 8 months pregnant was found dead wrapped in plastic in the red river. Savannah le fontaine gree. Whens body was found by volunteers that were helping with the search. At the time she was staying with her parents in their apartment. They stayed in a lower level apartment and the people upstairs on the top floor were brook cruise and william hand and that couple is responsible for her death. Her murder broke cruise, got lice, and then the amended William Haines sentencing to kind of be a little bit lesser i attended the hearings and heard like the, the recordings thats on the Law Enforcement. And it was very telling that the Police Officers didnt find a couple upstairs suspicious in any way. And that they had in turn put their focus on the family, told the family they couldnt go up past the 2nd floor. Hearing him say, you know like that she always goes missing, which is completely false, but whether or not that played a part in police has implicit bias will never know the the good morning. My name is great grandmother mary lines my story began in 1990. When my baby sister was murdered on new years eve, my daughter was missing and 1996. We were denied the opportunity to file a missing persons report. Theres not a system to record accurately the number of missing and murdered women in indian country. The 1st time i testified it was helpful and motivated to see that at least somebody in my state was trying to address this here. So i told myself, i am going to go live you on behalf of this stuff. Im going to share some of my story that i have it shared before the woman who gave birth to me disappeared when i was 3 years. All that fun me. And so the foster care system i had my virginity taken at the age of 9 years down the road. I was born of years old. I was kidnapped, i was born, i was where it was that all the way down here to saint paul where i thought for my freedom and i kept having a good Police Officers. I know thats because i havent counted them. But on that day, when i lay down the squad guard on ray street, fast or help me to a sweetheart, do you live nearby . You must be very healthy. There is a family of eagles that lives like almost straight across the lake over there. And you can see a lot of wildlife around here. I have lived in this area for 10 years, and this is the lake, the ive always, lets close this to since ive lived here. So i often come here and i bring tobacco to her. A she remembers when you come and talk to her this task force bell got wrapped up in one of these messy omnibus bills. That also included a bill that would have creased charges against people peacefully protesting near critical infrastructure. So early its sacked, but it had, it had to tell people the call and veto that bill sworn. I vetoed the omnibus budget bill was 985. 00 pages of mostly policy the atrocities. And theres nothing we can do about it every time. A lot of Us Government thing, we all feel it. Activism we called pretty big i dont remember much about the actual investigation, but i remember our family searching for her body. And they knew right away who it was. It was her neighbors, son had actually just gotten out of prison for raping and murdering another woman. And you know, like within 2 weeks, my grand and going to sing they caught this guy, i guess, somewhere down by sioux falls, they found blood in his truck that matched my grandma. It was actually my uncle who had went to this man in prison and asked, could you tell us where she is . And you told him like youre going to be in prison the rest your life anyway. Like can you just tell us where she is . So that we can bring her home so we can bury her. And so the guy did, he told me, ill go where her body was. And so our family came out here where her body was discovered. Theres so many women that go missing and their families dont find out where they are. They are still looking. I think thats the worst part is to have somebody be missing and not get that closure to bring them home. So i think that thats one thing to be grateful for that our family was able to get that. Robert, how is your dear good, thats good to still hon. License. Maybe the fluid still down there are probably still have to throw it out and they get home about it again fargos the largest city in north dakota and the most populated. But the native americans, me has always been very supportive of one another. And a lot of us have experienced injustice within our lifetime. So thats kind of a common theme. There still really are gaps within the Justice System, whether its intentional or by design is true. You know, you hear that old saying if youre not at the table youre on the menu. The teams really elected legislators are sworn in the office today. Im on the new comers is roof buffalo, who became the 1st native American Democratic movement elected in north dakota. I got sworn in december 8th of 2018. I really didnt put much thought into like what i was going to where, but i did bring my regalia just in case i bounced this question off with one of my sister friends. And i was like blazer medallion, a shell earrings or out to dress isnt she responded right away of dress. So i was like okay, im going to do the update. Yes. So this is a replica of. Ready my grandmas dress, this was made from a lady from back home and boundaries im used to being uncomfortable or unfortunately having other people be uncomfortable by my presence or by wearing a dress, you know, even with um, being a native woman in the, in the legislature. The attacks are a little bit different. Its kind of vicious at times with the land olakes us getting rid of the maiden. But her maiden, i was getting attacked a lot like to the point where i had to get a new number, like i have a separate number just for my family. So that way too, if i need to just take a break packages, smudgin clean a waste my sofa. Some things i have encountered, i guess you could say in like the state legislature, i want to stay whole unhealthy so i can continue to serve for people in a good way. No. See that he runs off all the other squirrels that try to come onto the street and hes like this big. Yeah, so we need to napoleon, is that the boy thinks of us here by his hes going to hang out with a friend of a friend, ordered him a lyft to go to wherever theyre going to hang out. Yep. You a nice library. So i went to Public School, insisted 10, and while it was on the reservation, you know, the Public School did not provide you know, history on dakota, people in general. I did not start learning about our history until i went to college at the sister walked in college, and thats where i started to learn about and how we ended up in the system on the Lake Traverse reservation. And so thats where i started learning. Really the details about the uprising and the outcome legislation that made it illegal for dakota, people to reside in minnesota beings separated from our homelands as part of what has caused you know, the historical trauma that our people are suffering from. Didnt understand that until i moved to minnesota and is like, this is home. This is like my home like the reservation. Thats just where they put us. So the water in it dont drink that when i moved here to minnesota, i had access to speakers. But when i would meet somebody who spoke the language, that person would speak to me, and it was like a brick wall when up in my head. It was literally like my years would not hear what was being said. And i felt so bad because i was like, im just artist that using language in my work. Like, why can i not speak english, but it was an understanding for me of thats part of my trauma. For me creating artwork that reconnects me to my culture and my language has strengthened my identity as a dakota woman. And its part of healing from historical traumas and from being displaced from our land and being separated from our language so much that has been done to eliminate native presence in this country. Part of that is what goes into y issues like and then my w exists. Good afternoon the im just on a house of Public Safety and criminal Justice Reform will come to order representing corners. Pretty. Thank you chair. I would invite missy beth, i know to come speak now. Welcome experimental. Mister chairman, committee members. Like to start by taking representative mary for bringing this bill forward. I think everyone in this room, everyone at this committee, everybody who can hear my voice ready now to not allow this bill to become a bargaining chip on the table at the end of session, this bill needs to go for housing before hearing miss bill needs to arrive on teams desk and he needs to sign. Its been too long. We fight for this bill. Last year we got it into the omnibus bill. And due to politics, we lost it. Not this year. I am for you please. Our community for the service healing is Women Deserve justice. This is not something new. 500 years weve been waiting for this. My sisters, my people have gone missing since european settlers said i am here and turned away when its time for joseph. This is time for healing the hurts, every time to step in being on the ceilings is really painful. So im a secret being sky box. But every time we testified, it seemed like there was one more woman there to share her story or to share her loved one story. There was one more person that was sitting there in the audience, holding us in their hearts. And then it was just really beautiful to see the people to be able to come out and support that and to feel seen, to feel hurt the reality in this moment. Is it the fact that we are all still here . Speaks to the resiliency of so many of our ancestors introduced to you. Another sister in this fights, she just has into the battle of the north Dakota Legislature as the only need a woman to serve. There we give it up for my sister representative brewed buffalo, the i just want to say thank you. Good people for welcoming my family, my community, my district. 27. My try but into your home loans. Its a Beautiful Day and its a good day today. My base again. I have my daughter here with me. Shes out in the crowd there. Shes 17. And she is why i do this work. The many of you know, in august of 2017, a young indigenous woman went missing. Savannah la Fontaine Gray when she went missing in fargo, in our bound garret, so to speak right in our community. And many of us were forced to the front lines to search for her. And many of us just like you and me, you were big sisters and we have no choice but to take action. We didnt want to waste time convincing Law Enforcement that we are human beings, and that we deserve rapid response. The through the trauma that were all so familiar with in our indigenous communities. We took actions just like youre doing today. We farmed a local task force. The task force gave me a list of legislation that they wanted to see introduce. I brought those with me to the state capital and got them successfully introduced and passed into law. So i share that to share the possibilities. Not until we see these possibilities in front of us, and we know fully that any one of us can do this get within these systems and fix the systems to work for us to honor us as human beings. And then the drummer is, you guys will be inside right behind this box document. It will be the rest of the curb. And then ill do the rest of the body of the mart get calls to get warm. Your karen remind tried to hit me with his band earlier. I dont appreciate that. Yeah, the before i get started, i just wanted to ask you to explain the significance of the cloth that you have on the table. The skirt was made by an individual by the name of agnes woodward, and they represent are missing and murdered Indigenous Women and girls. Our sisters and their ribbon skirts also represent prayer because we are a powerful people. The hundreds of communities hold stories of choose from generation to generation. Our communities know which relatives have yet to return to their families. We must have those stories told by giving them tools and resources to do so. The members of this committee may have some additional questions for the witnesses, and we will ask you to respond to those in writing. Just from my personal note, im deeply sorry that we and congress have not addressed this for so long. It is a tragedy. It is, i send that we have done, and we need to do everything we can to fix this. Thank you representative ruth buffalo for running and winning your seats. You are met to serve an uninspired positive as the amount of work that youve already done. Since youve been in your state, so thank you so much for that. So members, im asking you to be problem solvers. Im asking you to go green. The clerk will take the role on the bill. But it passed through the senate. I was at home watching it on my tv. I jumped up and i was like, yeah, good. So it was, uh, it was a great day. I think we celebrated with the side pizza that nice here at the corner of chatsworth, in summit street over chatsworth, this is that, that way to the, the for being here. Its all about the unity said the these cops, not the troopers are being sold. Are you the officer in charge . Yes. Okay. Now what ive been told by or will you people do that on the side. Okay. So does like up to the bike way and can we use that face . Thatll be on you then to protect yourself. Yeah. You know, as well, hopefully theyll respect it. Were in ceremony. Dont interrupt praying people well, you are in the public real data. Im not gonna argue about it, but yeah, i dont understand. I see your side, but i also see, you know what i sympathetic that what then we got to also be careful of people are trying and on that where theyre suppose to be. Well, well take care of that. Thank you. Officer. Thank you, the the do you have a caller to the board bodies have to deal with every day we do that you and we deserve that healing. So thats why were here today. The, the heroes, the de medicine person who had a dream for those dresses is what this medicine man saw