I
Page 2
Spilyay Tyrooo, Warm Springs, Oregon
September 50, 2004
GirPs death is blamed on
(AP) - Senior Bureau of In
1 dian Affairs officials ignored
warnings that jail cells at Ameri
can Indian boarding schools
could prove lethal, and should
be held responsible for the
death of a 16-year-old girl at an
Oregon school last year, a fed
eral inspector testified.
Earl Devaney, the Interior
Department's inspector general,
told the Senate Finance Com
mittee last week that the Depart
ment of Justice should take ac
tion against senior Indian Af
fairs officials for the death of
Cindy Gilbert Sohappy, who
Report says prison conditions deplorable
(AP) - Indian prisons are "a
national disgrace" in which 11
people have died and hundreds
have tried to kill themselves or
escaped over the past three
years, government officials say.
U.S. senators said they were
deeply troubled by the report of
the situation from the Interior
Department's top watchdog and
likened the jails to the U.S.
military's mistreatment of Iraqi
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad.
Earl Devaney, the
department's inspector general,
painted a grim picture for the
Senate Finance Committee. His
report, capping a year of inves
tigation, found at least 11 fatali
ties, 236 suicide attempts and
632 escapes since the Bush ad
ministration took office in Janu
ary 2001.
The report's release coincided
with the opening Tuesday of the
Smithsonian Institution's Na
tional Museum of the Ameri
can Indian.
The Interior Department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs had
2,080 people in 70 Indian jails,
''detention centers and other cor
rectional facilities as of mid
"2002, according to the latest fig
ures from the Justice Depart
ment. One jail in six held twice
its recommended maximum of
prisoners.
Problems chronicled by
Devaney included mixing of
juveniles with adults that re
sulted in the raping of a youth;
poorly trained and inadequate
numbers of staff; "countless"
assaults on detention officers;
and broken toilets, showers and
sinks. His staff toured 27 jails
and interviewed 150 BIA and
tribal officials.
Parent advisory
meeting Oct. 13
There will be a meeting
of the Title VII Parent Ad
visory Committee starting at
5:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
Oct. 13.
The meeting will be at the
the Warm Springs Elemen
tary School Library.
Ft. Still school
reunion in Oct.
The 2004 Fort Still Indian
School reunion is set for Friday
and Saturday, Oct. 22-23, at the
campus gym at Lawton, Okla.
Friday dinner will be at the
Camanche Nation Senior Nutri
tion Center, from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Saturday events start at 9 a.m.
and last throughout the day.
Raffle items and donations
are appreciated, but your par
ticipation is what is really appre
ciated. There will be a $100 for the
former student coming from
the longest distance.
Contact for information are
Tommy Johnson (580) 512
6311; Phyllis Bohay Hunter
(405) 247-1558; Hazel or
George Paul (505) 463-5395;
Darlene French DeFoe (828)
497-7417; Richard or Pat Bread
(405) 643-2770; Albert
Pohocsucut (405) 257-2113.
died after she was incarcerated
while under the influence of al
cohol. "There were senior people in
the BIA who knew about this
years before," Devaney said.
According to federal records,
on the night of Dec. 6, Sohappy
was placed in one of the
Chemawa Indian School's hold
ing cells after staff found her
to be intoxicated. A dormitory
worker stationed outside the
cells was supposed to check on
her every 15 minutes but did
not
The worker finally checked
The report singled out the
detention center at south-central
Washington's Yakama Nation
Reservation, where an inmate
hung himself from a light fix
ture in June. The body of Ricky
Owens Sampson was left hang
ing in his cell for at least five
hours because the jail had just
one staffer on duty that night.
In May, the Yakamas were
forced to stop housing juveniles
at their 50-bed jail in order to
separate younger offenders
from adults.
"I reject the notion that it's
simply a matter of money. I
think it's a matter of will," he
said in answering senators' ques
tions. Congress has increased
BIA's yearly budget for law en
forcement, including prisons and
other detention facilities, to
$170 million from $149 million
three years ago. Another $150
million for new construction has
come through Justice Depart
ment grants since 1997, but the
agency completed only two of
13 planned new jails.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
who chairs the Finance Commit
tee, described the events in Iraq
as a reminder that the way
people are jailed is a measure
of the United States' commit
ment to human rights.
"I think the IG has it exactly
right when he says these jails are
a national disgrace," Grassley
said. "The IG notes that the con
ditions are often worse than
those in Third World countries.
Once again our government has
failed to uphold its responsibili
ties to Native Americans."
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.,
who requested the committee
hearing, said he was shocked,
dismayed and angry at findings
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In the past three years,
the bureau has paid
$855,000 to settle
lawsuits related to
"neglect and misman
agement" of its jails.
on Sohappy about three hours
after she had been placed in the
cell and discovered that she was
not breathing. She was declared
dead a few minutes later.
Bill Williams, an assistant U.S.
attorney in Oregon, declined in
such as BIA's inability to show
how it spent $9.8 million of the
$1 1.4 million it received this year
for opening new facilities.
Grassley, however, called it "not
a problem of this administration,
or the previous administration.
This is a problem of an en
trenched bureaucracy that isn't
, getting the job done."
Dave Anderson, the Interior
assistant secretary who heads the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, said
his agency was trying hard to
correct long-standing problems.
"We are making progress but
recognize a lot more work needs
to be done," he said.
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senior BIA officials
June to prosecute school staff
members, saying he lacked evi
dence of a crime.
Devaney said after Tuesday's
hearing that he would be look
ing beyond staff members and
focusing on school and national
administrators.
He said the bureau's law en
forcement and education divi
sions were blaming each other
for the death.
Sohappy's case was one of 1 1
deaths, 236 suicide attempts and
631 escapes documented in
Devaney 's report to the commit
tee. The report condemned the
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BIA's operation of 72 detention
facilities as a "liability time
bomb" and compared condi
tions to those found in Third
World jails.
Dave Anderson, the head of
the BIA, and about 40 federal
staffers and two tribal leaders
attended the hearing.
Anderson defended the staff
of the bureau he was appointed
to head shortly after Cindy
Sohappy's death. .
"I want to make sure we
don't paint a portrayal of them
as all inefficient, bad people," he
said.
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For as much knowledge as
bureau officials had about
Chemawa, Devaney said, over
sight was lax for facilities the
bureau funded, owned or
staffed.
He said that top bureau law
enforcement officials were sur
prised to learn of 98 percent of
the incidents cited in his report.
In the past three years, the
bureau has paid $855,000 to
settle lawsuits related to "neglect
and mismanagement" of its jails.
Another $11 million in claims
are pending, Devaney said.
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