Hes, hes the my grandmother was kidnapped when i was 9 years old. Kind of created fear in me is a child that you know you could be taken the i wouldnt go missing and they are murdered at this the person it rates any way or 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 to banner for savannah grievance. Yeah. Yep. She was murdered. The the the way they left. I need some help cracking the 8. Can you help me with that, like crack a joke. Youre going to get it for breakfast and i see you have a chipotle, a cup in your room. Do you like having an individual with us 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 title 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, of 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. 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 can figure out how to change it back to english because i was in uruguay. But 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 to hit all of us like just we saw the Justice System fail or 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 bullhorn. Ill go take care of it. Ill just take care of it while youre doing you. I got this the 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 had 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 vendor or trying to. 7 escape escape him all then we can be blocked and the people need to be able to get in and out there because i dont think the work that im doing right now is prompted on pilots that it was perpetrated upon me. Somebody i care about very much just getting it by about 12 man and then you know, it always gets a little different when somebody you up cuz for some reason we dont love ourselves as much as we love our family anyway, just because i couldnt sit and do nothing is. Are you able to mars . 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 and then 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, you know, 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. My dad come home and said that my grandmother was missing and that was kind of this like shock of like what does that mean . Like how can she be missing . Shes, you know, a grandma my grandmother, her name is danielle bernard, and she was my grandmothers sister about like a native way. You know, she was my grandma and she was a tiny lady. I remember her being in a wheelchair and she liked to play bingo. My aunt 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 that kind of lead you to believe the worst the we are . We are going between your girl here with just a piece of furniture to keep it rosie dolly. And these are also dignitaries, the the, [000 00 00;00] the, the hiring are certain and i follow it friday or are you doing . Pretty good. Were going to be a great day. The same as like the locks for i mean i kept trying to, he almost ran into me and i was like, you cant come in here. The last phone hes like, is that how you want treat media that was like, youre not special. These people are specialist no, no, hes hiding here. So i want to know who the reporter is cuz thats what i want to talk to you from here. Give me that baby. Jeremy and i bear, bear in mind that the 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 the the 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. And once they passed the exit, i was like, well you can just turn right here just take her right here or started screaming nice at home 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 them and left the vehicle in the garage while the other one helped me down and reach me in the truck. Ready 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. Good evening. Everyone in the family is desperately searching for a fargo woman who is 8 months pregnant. Shes been missing for more than 48 hours. Now. Family believes she may be in danger. Many people from del cord done seed and several other cities came to help with this search. All wanting to bring comfort and peace to savannahs family. The point sevalla fontaine, great. When flint missing it really hit home because it was an, a young, native american women working mom for paying for the arrival of their daughter. I didnt realize how dramatic 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 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 wireless tables. She think she was Emergency Management students. They had the map of the whole area assessing at your search assignment. You just left everybody realize the sense of urgency we were coming the river down here. So we did that till i got start. I was asked by 2 women from turn them out and if i would leave the search just following the the when we went out to search 1st we smudged use it, but we also stuck small balls of seeds in our shoes. Just because we didnt know what we 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, 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 know of somebody that this has happened to in our community, reach out to a trusted person might not be calling 911. It might be calling our American IndianCommunity Advocate or navigator 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 to make which we havent forgotten them. Well never forget them. And today is for them. The as the culture of the society as a species, we have 6 ourselves into believing that be instructive 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 type of a population of 281 to be 600, not just the, the time or community. When you look at the statistics, the men who are by sex, on average, their middle class white men. And sometimes thats who these construction workers are. They get away from this family for extended periods of time. They have an access in money and time because the government and the price is the govern ourselves. We cant do anything about this. And this is youre going to ask 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 lived 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 greens 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 the lower level apartment and the people upstairs on the top floor were brook cruise and william hand and that couple was responsible for her death. Her murder broke cruise got life 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 place 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 that 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 be on behalf of this the, im going to share some of my story. Then 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 have my virginity taken at the age of 9 years down the road. I was born in years old. I was kidnapped, i was born and i was met. That was that all the way down here to see what i felt for my freedom and i escaped having a good Police Officers. I know this because i havent counted them. But on that day, when i flag down the squad guard on ray street, fast for help them believe me to a sweetheart. You live nearby. You must be a very healthy theres a family of eagles that lives like almost straight across the lake over there. And you can see a lot of wildlife around here. Ive lived in this area for 10 years, and this is the lake the ive always looked close this too, since ive lived here. So i often come here and i bring tobacco to her. She remembers when you come in 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 it really it sucked, but it had, it had to tell people to call and veto that bill sworn. I vetoed the omnibus budget bill, the 985 pages of mostly policy the can enter your reservations. Its a sport atrocities. And theres nothing we can do about it every for a lot of Us Government thing, we all feel it to have them. We called free. They 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 sign, had actually just gotten out of prison for raping and murdering another woman. And you know, like within 2 weeks my grandma got this thing, 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 call 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 and 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. Probably. So you have to throw it out and they get home around about it again, fargos the largest city in north dakota and the most populated. But the native American Community 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 or youre on the menu, the team newly elected legislators are sworn into office today. Among the newcomers 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 until 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, shell, earrings or oh, tooth just isnt cute, responded right away. Ill just. So i was like okay, im going to do the update. Yes. So this is a replica of my grandmas dress. This was made from a lady from back home in boundaries im used to being uncomfortable or unfortunately having other people be uncomfortable by my presence or by wearing a dress or 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 it 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, try to just smudge and clean a wife myself on 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 at his service by his hes going to hang out with a friend, as 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 insist, attend, 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 that the sister walked in college, and thats where i started to learn about and how we ended up insisted in 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. I didnt understand that until i moved to minnesota and is like, this is home. This is like my home like the reservation and thats just where they put us so very wider in it. Dont reset 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 ears 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 is part of healing from historical trauma 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. Uh, are you fabulous on the 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 right 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