One Choinumni man's adoption horror story

I have physical reminders of my intro into the system

Lauren Sue November 01, 2022 · DAILY KOS

Emerson Gorman (right) was one of the thousands of Navajo children taken from their families and sent to Christian schools to erase their beliefs. His daughter Naiyahnikai, wife Beverly, and grandchild Nizhoni are pictured (left to right) on his Arizona property May 23, 2020.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Nov. 9 in a case questioning the legality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), legislation passed to prevent Native American children from being stripped from their communities and cultures. Kendall Ciesemier, host of the ACLU's At Liberty podcast, said that in Brackeen v. Haaland, “Texas, together with individual plaintiffs, allege that ICWA is unconstitutional” because “it violates the equal protection clause and discriminates against non-Native families looking to adopt Native children.”

“But honoring tribal sovereignty isn’t about discrimination or race. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of Indigenous rights,” Ciesemier said in an episode meant to draw attention to what’s at stake for Native children.

Jaimie Nelson, a Choinumni Yokuts man from Fresno, California, was once one of those children. He detailed on the podcast abuse he encountered at the hands of a white family who adopted him. For Nelson, legal experts, and activists, the Supreme Court challenge is an outgrowth of an intentional and systematic effort to whitewash Native Americans.

"I am not a victim of some odd set of circumstances where I lost my sister and my brother," Nelson said. "It was an intentional act built around ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man.’"

Nelson referenced words uttered in 1892 by racist American Army Capt. Richard Henry Pratt. He tried, along with the federal government, to strip Native Americans of their beliefs, cultural histories, and traditions. And though Pratt made the speech 130 years ago, the sentiment he championed is far from extinguished.

Nelson said eliminating the very constitutional right that attempts to protect Native children from such cultural atrocities is “a genocidal act.” And he would know exactly what that feels like, because it was attempted on him. 

Nelson told the ACLU of his adoption:

There’s a lot of muddy water in there. I know that it happened at a very young age in the late seventies. My biological parents, they were, my mom was either addicted to drugs, my dad was a pretty bad dude. But it didn’t mean that they had to take us away from our native family. Our native family wanted to keep us, but the courts indicated, essentially that there’s nothing you can do about it. They specifically told my grandmother that there’s nothing that you can do about it. And from what I understand, from what I was told, it destroyed her that she was not able to keep us in the home. I don’t have very many memories of my of my time in the foster care system or any of the sort of lead up to the adoption. What I do have, I have physical reminders of my introduction into the system. I have a tracheotomy scar on my neck and on my sides from apparently when I was abused, like immediately after being taken from my Native family.

Nelson said when he learned of the case that will be before the Supreme Court, he knew he had to do something "because there cannot be another Jamie."

"There cannot be another child that is taken away because of some archaic, just genocidal, bigoted ideas," he said. "It’s unbelievable. It’s unconscionable to me that we still have to go through these hurdles, but we do."

Dr. Twyla Baker, president of the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, tweeted about the case five days before Native American Heritage Month began today. "The thing I can’t get off my mind—it’s about to be Native American Heritage Month, as SCOTUS is about to hear a case that has the potential to knock down the Indian Child Welfare Act," Baker said in the tweet. "This kind of existential dichotomy pops up way too often for Native people here."

She later added:

“My bad, actually this didn’t ‘pop up’—it was a situation crafted, intentionally, over years with much larger implications and intentions to follow. Superficial acknowledgments of our humanity as other structures work to dismantle our Native Nationhood is really pretty standard.”

Stephanie Amiotte, a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and legal director for the ACLU of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming, said when the Indian Child Welfare Act was proposed, 25 to 35% of American Indian children were being raised in adoptive or foster homes or other institutions.  About 90% of Indigenous children were being raised by people who were not Indigenous, Amiotte said.

She explained that, historically, the federal government’s position and policy has been “to remove Indian children from their families in an attempt to assimilate” them “to white dominant culture.”

“It is something that actually threatens the very existence of future tribes and Indigenous peoples as a population,” Amiotte said.

SIXTIES SCOOP: Raised Jewish, Adoptee Sharing Story

Former Winnipegger of Métis ancestry, raised Jewish sharing her experience

By: John Longhurst |  Oct. 31, 2022 

 

Growing up as an adopted child in a Jewish family in Winnipeg, Lisa Wilder knew she was different. She just didn’t know why.

She found out when she was in her mid-20s.

She was of Métis ancestry.

SUPPLIED by Lisa Wilder

“I felt misaligned as a child,” said Wilder, 53, who was part of the ’60s Scoop.

It wasn’t the fault of her family or the Winnipeg Jewish community, she said.

“I had a good upbringing, and my adoption was presented in a positive manner by my parents,” she said. “I just felt something was off.”

Later in life, as Wilder learned more about her adoption, she discovered her mother was 17 when she was born. Shortly after, her mother was told Lisa would soon die. Hospital officials convinced her to sign papers to pay for the burial.

But the baby was not dying. Instead, she was put into a foster home where she was adopted by her new parents — who didn’t know she had been “scooped.”

Today Wilder, a mother of three who now lives in Calgary, is on a quest to learn more about her Indigenous roots and combine them with her Jewish life.

There are similarities between the two, she said, adding both groups “suffered a genocide.”

She also noted that Indigenous people, like Jews in Nazi Germany, were prevented from performing their ceremonies or celebrating their spirituality. They were also confined to reservations, like Jews were, for a time, confined to ghettos.

As she learns more about the Indigenous side of her heritage, she is looking for ways to amalgamate the two. At the same time, although she is of Métis ancestry, Wilder is careful not to call herself Indigenous.

“I’m not trying to pass myself off that way,” she said. “I have not led an Indigenous life. I grew up Jewish. Métis is my ancestry. I’m reaching out to Indigenous people for guidance. I want to learn more.”

Wilder spoke about her experience at a presentation called Uncovering my Métis Roots: A Jewish Woman’s Journey.

“I’m a bit terrified to share my story in the community I grew up in,” said Wilder, noting her adoptive parents, who were supportive of her search for her biological family, will be there.

Her hope in sharing her experience is to promote understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

“I hope I can move the needle of awareness a little bit, to make this a more peaceful and understanding world,” she said. “I’m no expert. I’m just a person with a story who wants a better world.”

To register for the event, which is presented by the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg — Women’s Philanthropy, call 204-477-7426 or visit their website.

REUNION: ‘Where do I belong?’

Another White Earth Adoptee... are you one?  Were you raised in a Jewish family? Please leave a comment on our website.  Let's share your stories... Trace

Native roots, hard realities surface in woman’s search for her past

Dan Gunderson | Moorhead, Minn.| July 21, 2022 

“At first it's such a huge shock, in a good way, but also in an overwhelming way. It's a new family, a new culture. What does this mean? How do I go about this respectfully?” said Aleeza. “Where do I belong? And who's going to accept me?”

Anita Fineday (left) and Peggy Mandel, on the day they first met.

Courtesy Peggy Mandel- Fineday learned that family members at White Earth tried to adopt Peggy

Feeling trepidation and hope, Peggy Mandel dropped a letter in the mail to a woman she’d never met but who held the key to a secret piece of her past.

Adopted and raised in a loving middle-class Jewish family, Mandel didn’t know her own origin story. As a kid, she could remember people asking, “Are you sure you're Jewish? You're too tall to be Jewish.”

She wasn’t sure either but needed to find out.

After decades of searching, she’d come across a name — someone who might be a blood relative, someone who would lead her to a wrenching history of Native people in Minnesota she wasn’t supposed to find.

Mandel had been so scared she couldn’t write the letter. Her husband Joel wrote it. For weeks, there was silence. Then came a voicemail that changed lives across two families and three generations.

“I am pleasantly surprised. I'm shocked,” said the voice. “And I would like to connect with you.”

...

Mandel, who moved to the Twin Cities at age 11, started looking for her birth mother in the 1990s. However Kentucky adoption records were closed and no information was available.

About eight years ago she sought help from a staff member at the Children’s Home Society, a St. Paul adoption agency.

In early 2014, an agency staff member called. “She said, ‘We found her. She is alive and well. But we can't tell you where she lives. And she doesn't want anybody to know. She doesn't want to meet you,’” recalled Mandel.

READ

MMIWG: Bodies in Landfill

 

Police believe remains of three women in Winnipeg landfill, but do not plan to search

SH

By Steve Lambert and Brittany HobsonThe Canadian Press

 Dec. 2, 2022

Winnipeg’s police chief said Friday the remains of three victims of an alleged serial killer are believed to be at a city landfill, but no search is planned.

Too much time has passed and there is no known starting point at the large site, where bulldozers are constantly moving things around, Danny Smyth said, adding that he understands that families are frustrated.

“I would want the remains of my loved ones as well.”

Smyth’s comments, after a police board meeting, came as Jeremy Skibicki, 35, appeared briefly in court.

Skibicki was taken into custody and charged on May 18 with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24. Her partial remains were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building. Police later found the rest of her remains in the Brady Road landfill in the city’s south end.

On Thursday, Skibicki was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and an unidentified woman. Their bodies have not been found.

Contois lived in Winnipeg and was a member of the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. Harris and Myran also lived in Winnipeg and were both members of Long Plain First Nation. Police say the three were killed in May.

The unidentified woman is also believed to be Indigenous. Police believe she was killed in March.

“We caught a break with Rebecca Contois in the timing of that particular search,” Smyth said.

“We were able to take some action to isolate a very specific area of the landfill within hours of discovering her other remains at the scene of the crime. We don’t have that luxury with these other victims.”

Skibicki, his head shaved and sporting a long beard, kept his gaze forward as he walked by family members of some of the women and their supporters in the courtroom. He said “correct” when a judge said his name and asked him to confirm his identity.

Skibicki did not enter a plea, but his lawyer said he maintains his innocence and a trial is likely some time away.

“We just received 10 terabytes today of disclosure and that’s probably not all there is to it,” Leonard Tailleur told reporters outside the courthouse.

Court documents show Skibicki has been accused of violence against women in the past. One woman applied for and obtained a protection order against him in 2019. The woman alleged in the documents that Skibicki stalked her and repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was sleeping.

Another woman applied for a protection order against Skibicki in 2015. The documents say she alleged he repeatedly assaulted her while they lived together and that he held a knife against her stomach while she was pregnant. Her application for a protection order was dismissed.

The court documents also say Skibicki has several Facebook pages. One page with a profile photo matching Skibicki contains antisemitic and white supremacist posts. A post from last January linked to a video questions the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools.

The Crown said it plans to proceed by direct indictment with a murder trial, which means there will be no preliminary hearing to first consider whether there is enough evidence. Skibicki remains in custody.

Members of the Contois family said they are deep in sorrow.

“The last couple of months have been incredibly exhausting. We have experienced paralyzing grief,” the family said in a written statement.

“We also continue to think of the other families. Our deepest condolences to them.”

— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Saskatoon

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

 

No More Stolen Sisters! ✊🏽 #MMIW pic.twitter.com/vx9KjUAepT

— Ember Spotted Elk (@SpottedElk7) December 5, 2022

Indigenous transracial adoptee shares her personal struggle amid US Supreme Court case

NEWS VIDEO

If the Indian Child Welfare Act is overturned, it would make it easier for non-indigenous families to adopt indigenous children.

Author: Victoria Valenzuela |   November 30, 2022

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — When Susan Devan Harness, an indigenous transracial adoptee, was removed from her home as a child, she was placed with a white family, and the resulting experience was a lifetime of otherness.

“You cannot take a child from a colonized race and place them in the midst of the colonizers and think everything’s going to go great,” said Harness, a Fort Collins author who said she is Salish Kootenai, of Western Montana.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act, also known as ICWA, enacted in 1978 to put in place adoption protections for Native American and Alaska Native children. If those protections are overturned, it would make it easier for non-native families to adopt a native child.

Before ICWA, indigenous children were removed from their homes at high rates. Studies showed 25% to 35% of indigenous children were being removed from their homes. Of that group, 85% were placed outside of their family and reservation community.

As someone who was removed from her home, Harness said she struggled to connect with American Indian peers in school and she also faced incredible difficulties trying to reconnect with her tribe.

There are complications to living in between those two worlds. The first, Harness said, is the historic violence and conflict that indigenous communities have faced at the hands of white communities.

“They’ve declared wars on us," she said. "Over a thousand wars, they’ve declared on us, the U.S. Army. They’ve objectified us and moved us when they didn’t want us. They’ve educated us in schools whose motto was ‘kill the Indian, save the man.’ ”

To understand who she was, she went to school to study anthropology. Eventually, she found others like her. They didn’t fit into white mainstream culture but didn’t necessarily have a place amongst American Indian peers, either.

“You can't be funny enough. You can't be scholarly enough. You can't be talented enough,” Harness said. “You're always going to be this person, this American Indian, living in white America.”

Harness wrote a book about her experience, aptly titled “Bitterroot,” named after a medicinal plant that grows near her tribe.

“It has the ability where if it goes through a lot of drought, it doesn’t bloom, but the first time it gets rain, it blooms in amazing ways,” she said.

Her book brought in rain. Harness reconnected with her tribe and even has an honor song. Now Harness knows her biological family, intimately, but that did not happen without a lifetime of emotional struggle.

“I don’t want to see other kids come out the same way I did, the same way a lot of people in my generation did, trying to figure out what happened to us when we’re in our 40s and 50s,” she said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up challenges to ICWA three times — in 1989, 2013 and 2022. The current case is the most significant because it raises questions of equal protection under the Constitution.

The justices heard three hours of arguments Nov. 9. The high court wasn’t expected to rule in the case until next summer. Lower courts split on the case.

As the Supreme Court challenge goes on, Harness has a message: Anyone involved in a transracial adoption has an immediate responsibility to help the child find their place of belonging.

“They better be able to take that kid to the reservation every single year,” she said. “They better make friends with people in the tribe to ensure that child is given a proper education of who they are and where they came from.”

HER FANTASTIC WEBSITE: HERE 

Interview – The Archibald Project – American Indian Transracial Adoption

 

MORE ADOPTEE STORIES

• Return to Seoul Trailer A film about a Korean-born French adoptee who returns to her country of birth.

• Indigenous transracial adoptee shares her personal struggle amid US Supreme Court case. Features Susan Devan Harness.

• New student organization at MSU offers safe space for adoptees. New adoptee-driven student group at Michigan State University.

• Adoption and Culture. Its December 2022 issue is an Open Access issue featuring critical adoption scholars’ responses to the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.

• I met my birth son once, then he died. The man who adopted him helped me grieve. Essay by Candace Cahill, a mother and late discovery adoptee.

• Discovering a Native American Heritage. Video discussion of the film Daughter of a Lost Bird, from the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

 

HISTORY: How the "free" state of California enslaved Native children

Photo of Kate Camden, a Native girl who at age 10 was forced into servitude for a white family living in Shasta County. Photo is one of few records that exist showing Native children entrapped by California's apprentice and guardianship laws // Credit: Camden Family Portrait, circa 1857-1859 courtesy of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, WHIS 9066

 

New Episode of ACLU Gold Chains Podcast Examines Indigenous Child Slavery in 19th century California, Connects to Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court Case Brackeen v. Haaland

How the "free" state of California enslaved Native children

For Immediate Release: Nov 01, 2022

Media Contact: press@aclunc.org, (415) 621-2493

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – California came into the Union as a free state in 1850 with a constitution that banned slavery. So how did white settlers in the mid-19^th century get away with enslaving Indigenous children, some of them as young as 2 years old? And why does this little known, terrible chapter of California history matter today?

Today, the ACLU of Northern California released the third episode of Gold Chains, our podcast about California’s hidden history of slavery. “Indigenous Injustice” examines a 19^th century state law called the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that effectively legalized Indigenous child slavery and encouraged kidnappers to snatch Native children from their tribal communities.

“The horror of what happened in California, the genocidal violence against Native people, and especially the enactment of that violence against children, is unfathomable,” said historian Stacey Smith, who appears as a guest on the show.

“Indigenous Injustice” isn’t just ancient history. Over time, the practice of forcibly separating Native children from their tribal communities has taken on many forms. There were the so- called Indian Boarding Schools. A variety of other government-sanctioned adoption schemes have funneled Indigenous children into Non-Native, mostly white households.

Currently, there’s a landmark case scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 9 – Brackeen v. Haaland – that deals with the very same issue of the forced removal of Native children from their families, tribes and tribal culture. It threatens to dismantle the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which was passed to prevent Native children from being removed from their communities.

The American Civil Liberties Union, along with 12 ACLU affiliates ( including the ACLU of Northern California) have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the court to uphold the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

“Indigenous Injustice” is a timely story that connects the dots between Indigenous child slavery in California to the present.

Link to Episode Website

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November 1, 2022

Episode 3:
Indigenous Injustice

California joined the Union as a so-called free state in 1850. So how did white settlers get away with enslaving Native children until they were young adults?

We explore a little-known California state law called the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that unleashed genocidal violence against Indigenous children. And we connect the dots between that terrible past and a landmark upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case.

---

Episode Credits:

Produced by the ACLU of Northern California

Host and writer Tammerlin Drummond

Senior Producer and Editor Joanne Jennings

Mix and Original Score Renzo Gorrio

Executive Producer Candice Francis

We’d like to thank our wonderful guides Stacey L Smith, William Bauer and Tedde Simon.

Our associate producers are Lisa P. White and Carmen King.

A special thanks also to our voice actors Pauline Schindler, William Freeman, and Avi Frey.

Elize Manoukian provided fact-checking and production assistance.

Field recording was done by Julie Conquest, Ron George and Eric Gleske.

We’d also like to thank the following members of our Gold Chains team: Brady Hirsch, Gigi Harney and Eliza Wee. Thank you also to Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California.

A special thanks to World Affairs, Oregon State University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for providing us with recording studios.

Archival sound was provided courtesy of Periscope Films and Prelinger Archives.

---

Episode Guests:

William Bauer is a professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a citizen of the Round Valley Reservation. He is the author of California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History and We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here: Work, Community and Memory on California’s Round Valley Reservation.

Stacey Smith is an associate history professor at Oregon State University. She is the author of Freedom's Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation and Reconstruction.

Tedde Simon is the Indigenous justice advocate at the ACLU of Northern California and a citizen of the Navajo Nation.

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Additional Resources:

Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California, ACLU of Northern California

Among the Diggers of 30 Years Ago, Helen M. Carpenter

Early California Laws and Polices Related to California Indians Kimberly Johnston-Dodds, California State Library

Federal Indian Boarding School Investigative Report U.S. Department of Indian Affairs

This Land, host Rebecca Nagle

At Liberty, host Kendall Ciesemier

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Democracy Now: Rebecca Nagle

 

The Heartbreaking History & Future of The Indian Child Welfare Act (Session 1 and 2)

Penn Law and Field Center Panel on ICWA [more post-argument discussion] December 2, 2022

Search 101: A Primer (and More)

FREE

ADOPTEES UNITED are launching a series of programs on searching, with the first one this month focusing on search angels, birth searches, and the difference between domestic and intercountry adoptees in finding their origins. Join us for Search 101: A Primer and More, on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, at 3pm Pacific/5pm Central/6pm Eastern (USA and Canada).

We will be with Lynelle Long of Intercountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV) and Annette O’Connell of Adoptees United as they introduce the basics of searching, not only for US-born adoptees but also for intercountry adoptees. We’ll discuss as many questions that we can fit in, plus take on a few we have teed up already. Register today for this AU-produced event.   We’ll discuss many questions: What should I know about the process even if I wanted to search? What are the differences between a domestic (US-based) search and one involving a specific country and intercountry adoption? What’s a Search Angel and how do I find one? What do they charge, or aren’t they supposed to be free? What is an intercountry adoptee birth search and what does it involve? Are there resources to help? What can DNA do for me and what are the limitations of it, especially across the globe? How do I handle cultural and language differences? What are the ethics of searching and what should I be careful about? Who makes contact with a possible birth relative and how should that be handled?

Registration/Info

Global times are December 14, 2022, at 12:00am (Amsterdam); 4:30am (Mumbai) and 10:00am (Sydney). This event will be recorded, though we would still love to see you there. -Gregory Luce

Seeking justice for missing children and unmarked graves uncovers ‘larger’ concerns

Kimberly Murray says an impending bill making Indigenous policing an essential service could make the process of searching burial sites much safer for Indigenous communities.

Raisa Patel  Oct. 30, 2022

 

OTTAWA—For Kimberly Murray, many challenges lie behind the difficult work of crafting a legal framework that would seek justice for children who faced abuse and lost their lives at Canada’s residential schools.

In June, Murray was appointed the country’s independent special interlocutor for missing children, unmarked graves and burial sites.

For two years, Murray is taking on the heavy task of liaising with Indigenous communities to examine how Ottawa, provinces and territories protect and investigate these sites, with the aim of improving Canadian laws and making recommendations for a new federal legal framework.

Nearly five months into the job in October, Murray says some of those challenges are more sprawling than she first believed.

“The records are proving (to be) a larger concern than originally I thought,” she told the Star.

While obtaining and accessing residential school records held by churches and the federal government have long been considered a barrier to achieving reconciliation, Murray said the issue extends far beyond those entities.

She’s encountered cases of children sent to the schools, apprehended by municipal police for running away, entered into the court system and sent to reformatories, before being shuttled back to the institutions they first fled.

“This systemic interconnection of all these organizations and entities and institutions is much larger than I thought,” said Murray, of attempts to lay out a clear paper trail in each of those cases.

The role of special interlocutor was first announced last summer, after ground searches confirmed the existence of hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of several former residential schools. At the time, the federal government earmarked $83 million, on top of other investments, to research and locate burial sites, and to commemorate children who died at the institutions.

Since then, Indigenous communities have grappled with how to go about conducting searches of their own.  As of September, 88 communities have received federal funding to begin that work, Murray said.

The former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said the ongoing battle to access records — including those from local police services, hospitals and universities — is mirrored in the challenges accessing potential burial sites.

She referenced the recent example involving Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in southwestern Manitoba, whose radar survey at a campground in Brandon was stalled after the site’s owner blocked access to the area.

“There’s also issues with other sites that aren’t necessarily where the residential school was located, but was associated with a residential school, or we know that Indigenous children got sent to these places,” Murray said.

“Our legislation and our legal framework doesn’t adequately address those concerns.”

These are issues Murray raised at a meeting with federal, provincial and territorial ministers of justice two weeks ago, where she was able to discuss her mandate with government officials for the first time.

Murray said she hopes to conduct similar meetings with Indigenous relations ministers across the country as part of a wider effort to improve co-ordination between hundreds of Indigenous communities.

One of the topics raised in her discussion with justice ministers was enshrining Indigenous policing as an essential service — a topic Ottawa is hoping to address in the form of new legislation this year.

At present, Indigenous police services are funded through the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, which was established in 1991. While costs are split between provinces, territories, and the federal government, police services are still regularly underfunded.

Ottawa had initially hoped to table legislation on the matter as early as this fall, a deadline that has now been pushed back to this winter. The legislation is expected to help reform the way Indigenous police services are funded, which would provide communities with full-time, culturally-sensitive services.

Murray said having a safe policing alternative is critical for communities wrestling with how to bring law enforcement into their searches.

Such police services could fundamentally change the way investigations are conducted, Murray said, including allowing families and survivors to actively take part in the process.

“I am always offended when I hear a Crown attorney or a police officer say, ‘Well, we have to protect the integrity of the investigation. To me, that’s very demeaning and disrespectful to the families and their communities because nobody wants to interfere with the integrity of the police investigation,” Murray said.

“That to me is a buzzword, a white people buzzword, for ‘Get out of our way.’”

Having legislation in place as quickly as possible would eradicate some of that mistrust, Murray said.

“(Indigenous police) weren’t the ones taking the kids when they ran away and bringing them back. They weren’t the ones that did the failed investigation when survivors were coming forward about sexual abuse,” Murray said. “If we have First Nations police services, trained, properly resourced, with the ability to do this investigation, that could be the solution.”

#MMIWG UPDATE: Alleged Serial Killer in Custody

https://t.co/WdMnIQMmNf

— a mote of dust, suspended on a sunbeam (@CarlaHolley) December 2, 2022

Sadly, as @r_bergen reports in this piece in June, Jeremy Skibicki was already on the police radar for domestic violence charges. https://t.co/pgS7NdAEht

— Anna Withrow (@flozer) December 2, 2022

 

Alleged serial killer in custody and charged in killings of 4 Indigenous women in Canada, police say

 December 2, 2022| CNN

Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth provides an update Thursday to the homicide investigation. John Woods/AP

 

CNN  — 

Authorities in Winnipeg, Manitoba, believe the murders of four Indigenous women came at the hands of an alleged serial killer now in custody in Canada.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, 35, of Winnipeg, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the women, a news release from the Winnipeg Police Service states. It is not clear if he has an attorney.

The investigation dates to May 16, when Winnipeg police shared information on the murder of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois, of the Crane River First Nation, after her partial remains were discovered.

Skibicki was arrested May 18 by the agency’s Homicide Unit and charged with first-degree murder, the release says.

During the investigation, detectives established three more victims murdered between March and May – before Contois’ death.

Morgan Beatrice Harris, 39, is believed to have been killed on or around May 1, and Marcedes Myran, 26, is believed to have been killed on or around May 4. Both women were members of the Long Plain First Nation, according to the release.

A fourth victim also is confirmed but not yet identified. She is believed to be an Indigenous female killed on or around March 15, police said.

And the investigation is not over, Winnipeg Police Inspector Shawn Pike said Thursday during a news conference.

Bodies of those three new victims haven’t been recovered, said Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth, noting police have enough evidence to charge Skibicki in their killings.

“Our officers will continue to search for information with the goal of identifying this fourth unknown victim,” Pike said, adding DNA has helped in their probe without saying how.

Meantime, Winnipeg must better address the safety concerns of the community, Mayor Scott Gillingham said at Thursday’s news conference.

“As a city, we must all grieve their loss and recognize that we have much more work to do to protect the lives of Indigenous women and girls,” Gillingham said.

Skibicki is being held at the Milner Ridge Correctional Centre in Manitoba. 

In his Facebook bio, Skibicki described himself as an "official member of 'Holy Europe,'" which is a small faction of a broader far-right movement, an anti-facism expert told CBC last June.

Jeremy Skibicki is now facing four first-degree murder charges in connection with the deaths of four women, including Rebecca Contois, Morgan Beatrice Harris and Marcedes Myran. (Jeremy Skibicki/Facebook)

 

Support is available for anyone affected by details of this case. If you require support, you can contact Ka Ni Kanichihk's Medicine Bear Counselling, Support and Elder Services at 204-594-6500, ext. 102 or 104, (within Winnipeg) or 1-888-953-5264 (outside Winnipeg).

Support is also available via Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Liaison unit at 1-800-442-0488 or 204-677-1648.