Grantee on Panel Discussing Negligence in Tribal Jail Deaths. On Thursday, November 18, 2021, grantee Nate Hegyi was joined by Chris Yazzie, Brandy Tomhave, and Thea Wilshire for a conversation on the future and state of tribal jails.
Hegyi’s Pulitzer Center-supported project, Promised Justice, tells the stories of neglect and insufficient medical care and resources in tribal jails. Yazzie is a Navajo grandfather of four multi-tribal granddaughters and a registered nurse with the State of Arizona. Tomhave, a lawyer, is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation and has dedicated her legal career to untangling federal policies that undermine tribal sovereignty and violate the rights of Native people. Wilshire works as a psychologist, author, and educator.
Leading the conversation, Yazzie spoke personally about having lost his brother Carlos to medical neglect in a tribal detention center in New Mexico, Hegyi reported. The sons of a Vietnam veteran, Yazzie and his brother grew up in a c