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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 22 Februari 2022

California tribe confronts crisis of missing, murdered women

(AP) — The young moth- those cases are not listed in for colonizers, said Judge
er had behaved erratically state or federal databases for Abby Abinanti, the tribe’s
for months, hitchhik- missing persons. chief judge.
ing and wandering na-
ked through two Native Hupa citizen Brandice Da- The trauma caused by those
American reservations vis attended school with the removals echoes among the
and a small town clustered daughters of a woman who Yurok in the form of drug
along Northern Califor- disappeared in 1991 and now abuse and domestic violence,
nia’s rugged Lost Coast. has daughters of her own, which trickles down to the
ages 9 and 13. youth, she said. About 110
But things escalated when Yurok children are in foster
Emmilee Risling was charged She cautions her daughters care.
with arson for igniting a fire about what it means to be fe-
in a cemetery. Her family male, Native American and An analysis of cases by the
hoped the case would force growing up on a reservation: Yurok and Sovereign Bodies
her into mental health and “You’re a statistic. But we found most of the region’s
addiction services. Instead, have to keep going. We have missing women had either
she was released over the National Congress of Ameri- to show people we’re still been in foster care themselves
pleas of loved ones and a trib- The crisis has spurred the can Indians. More than 80% here.” or had children taken from
al police chief. Yurok Tribe to issue an have experienced violence. them by the state. An analysis
emergency declaration and Like countless cases involv- of jail bookings also showed
The 33-year-old college brought increased urgency to In this area peppered with il- ing Indigenous women, Em- Yurok citizens in the two-
graduate — an accomplished efforts to build California’s legal marijuana farms and de- milee’s disappearance has county region are 11 times
traditional dancer with an- first database of such cases fined by wilderness, almost gotten no attention from the more likely to go to jail in a
cestry from three area tribes and regain sovereignty over everyone knows someone outside world. given year — and half those
— was last seen soon after, key services. who has vanished. arrested are female, usually
walking across a bridge near But many here see in her for low-level crimes. That’s
a place marked End of Road, The recent cases spotlight an Missing person posters flut- story the ugly intersection an arrest rate for Yurok wom-
a far corner of the Yurok Res- epidemic that is difficult to ter from gas station doors and of generations of trauma in- en roughly five times the
ervation where the rutted quantify but has long dispro- road signs. Even the tribal flicted on Native Americans rate of female incarcerations
pavement dissolves into thick portionately plagued Native police chief isn’t untouched: by their white colonizers, the nationwide, said George,
woods. Americans. He took in the daughter of marginalization of Native the University of California,
one missing woman, and peoples and tribal law en- Merced sociologist consult-
Her disappearance is one of A 2021 report by a govern- Emmilee — an enrolled forcement’s lack of authority ing with the tribe.
five instances in the past 18 ment watchdog found the Hoopa Valley tribal member over many crimes committed
months where Indigenous true number of missing and with Yurok and Karuk blood on their land. The Yurok run a tribal well-
women have gone missing murdered Indigenous wom- — babysat his children. ness court for addiction and
or been killed in this isolated en is unknown due to report- Virtually all of the area’s In- operate one of the country’s
expanse of Pacific coastline ing problems, distrust of law In California alone, the Yurok digenous residents, includ- only state-certified tribal do-
between San Francisco and enforcement and jurisdic- Tribe and the Sovereign Bod- ing Emmilee, have ancestors mestic violence perpetrator
Oregon, a region where the tional conflicts. But Native ies Institute, an Indigenous- who were shipped to board- programs. They also recently
Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa women face murder rates run research and advocacy ing schools as children and hired a tribal prosecutor, an-
and Wiyot people have co- almost three times those of group, uncovered 18 cases forced to give up their lan- other step toward building
existed for millennia. Two white women overall — and of missing or slain Native guage and culture as part of an Indigenous justice system
other women died from what up to 10 times the national American women in roughly a federal assimilation cam- that would ultimately handle
authorities say were overdos- average in certain locations, the past year — a number paign. Further back, Yurok all but the most serious felo-
es despite relatives’ questions according to a 2021 summary they consider a vast under- people spent years away from nies.
about severe bruises. of the existing research by the count. An estimated 62% of home as indentured servants

Was Arbery killing a hate crime? Jury hears dueling views

(AP) — Before Ahmaud It’s been nearly two years The McMichaels and Bryan The federal hate crimes trial the day of the shooting.
Arbery was chased by since the 25-year-old Arbery were all convicted of mur- is all about whether racism
three white men in pickup fell dead from two shotgun der last fall in a Georgia state motivated the pursuit and Still, those security videos
trucks and fatally shot on blasts on Feb. 23, 2020, after court. The U.S. Justice De- killing of Arbery. Legal ex- showed Arbery taking noth-
a residential street, the a five-minute chase through partment charged them sepa- perts have said that’s tougher ing from the construction
trio had expressed hostil- the Satilla Shores subdivi- rately in federal court with to prove than the crime of site. An officer told the Mc-
ity toward Black people in sion just outside the port hate crimes, alleging that all murder. The McMichaels Michaels there was no evi-
text messages and social city of Brunswick. The slay- three men violated Arbery’s and Bryan have all pleaded dence of him stealing. Bryan,
media posts riddled with ing was captured in a graphic civil rights and targeted him not guilty. who knew nothing of the
racist slurs. cellphone video that sparked because he’s Black. They are security footage, told inves-
outrage far beyond Georgia. also charged with attempted Defense attorneys have in- tigators he assumed Arbery
Does that history of big- kidnapping, and the McMi- sisted that the trio pursued had done something wrong
oted remarks prove that Ar- Basic facts of the case aren’t chaels face counts of using Arbery based on an earnest, when he ran past Bryan’s
bery was the victim of a hate disputed. Father and son guns in the commission of a though erroneous, suspi- house with the McMichaels
crime? Greg and Travis McMichael crime. cion that he had committed in pursuit.
armed themselves and chased crimes in their neighbor-
A jury of eight white people, Arbery in a pickup truck after Regardless of the outcome hood. Before the day of the
three Black people and one he was spotted running past of the hate crimes case, the shooting, security cameras
Hispanic person was hear- their home on a Sunday af- McMichaels have been sen- had recorded Arbery several
ing closing arguments from ternoon. A neighbor, William tenced to life in prison with- times inside a home under
prosecutors Monday morn- “Roddie” Bryan, joined the out parole for their murder construction a few doors
ing in U.S. District Court, pursuit in his own truck and convictions. Bryan also re- down from the McMichaels’
where the hate crimes trial recorded the video of Tra- ceived a life sentence, with house. Greg McMichael told
over Arbery’s death began a vis McMichael firing the fatal parole possible only after he’s police he recognized Arbery
week ago. shots at point-blank range. served at least 30 years. as he came running out of
the same unfinished house