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Speaker 2: Hello, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil. I'm Roshia Peccurero,
Speaker 2: and surprise, my beautiful sister is not here with us today,
Speaker 2: but we have someone very special filling in.
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Trevor Young here. I am one of the
Speaker 1: producers of the show and I am happy to be
Speaker 1: filling in for Evet today.
Speaker 2: Yes, Trevor is our brother from another mother, and we're
Speaker 2: very happy to have him here today. I am, and
Speaker 2: I know Yvette wishes she is here, but she is
Speaker 2: on a much needed vacation in Italia, like she likes
Speaker 2: to call it in Italy. But the show must go on,
Speaker 2: So just for today, Trevor's agreed to co host with
Speaker 2: me for event. So mahallo, Trevor, Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: And today we are going to be revisiting a very
Speaker 2: important issue that we tackled back in September when we
Speaker 2: did a case about Tina Fontaine. And if you remember Tina,
Speaker 2: she was a young Indigenous girl who went missing and
Speaker 2: was sadly later found dead in Canada.
Speaker 1: Right, So, I think that case made evidence a much
Speaker 1: like bigger, major crisis that's going on not just in
Speaker 1: this country, but across North America, and as we'll explain
Speaker 1: in this interview today, really across the globe. And that
Speaker 1: issue is that Indigenous women and girls are at incredibly
Speaker 1: high risk violence, kidnapping, sex trafficking, and often homicide, and truthfully,
Speaker 1: they're not getting the proper attention they need from either
Speaker 1: the media or law enforcement. And this is something we've
Speaker 1: been hearing about quite a bit regularly, especially if you
Speaker 1: listen to Up and Vanished season three, which spent the
Speaker 1: whole season on that very issue.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I honestly didn't know a whole lot about
Speaker 2: what was happening until I listened to Up and Vanished.
Speaker 2: And today, you know, we are going to be talking
Speaker 2: about a heartbreaking case of a young Indigenous girl named
Speaker 2: Savannah Lafontaine Graywind. And this was horrific in the fact
Speaker 2: that Savannah was a pregnant Indigenous woman she was killed
Speaker 2: in North Dakota in twenty seventeen and joining us today
Speaker 2: to talk about Savannah and really the bigger issue at
Speaker 2: large is a personal friend of mine. Candy brings plenty,
Speaker 2: and Candy is an Indigenous activist and spiritual practitioner. And
Speaker 2: Candy is such an incredible human that I am looking
Speaker 2: forward to speaking to and I'm looking for to everyone
Speaker 2: listening to her. But first, Trevor is going to take
Speaker 2: us through today's case.
Speaker 3: Today, the gray Wind family learned the gruesome details behind
Speaker 3: their loved ones murder. I hope no one else in
Speaker 3: this community, in the United States and the world ever
Speaker 3: has to under the payment I do that do gray
Speaker 3: Ones have to?
Speaker 1: I learned of how my daughter was murdered and how
Speaker 1: my granddaughter was taken from her. Savannah Lafontaine gray Wind
Speaker 1: was a twenty two year old woman who was murdered
Speaker 1: in August of twenty seventeen in Fargo, North Dakota. Her
Speaker 1: body had been discovered wrapped in plastic against the banks
Speaker 1: of the Red River. Savannah was an Indigenous woman and
Speaker 1: a member of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe. She was
Speaker 1: also eight months pregnant at the time of her murder.
Speaker 1: Just a year earlier, Savannah had moved to Fargo to
Speaker 1: start a new job as a nursing assistant. She and
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, Ashton Matheni, got an apartment and were expecting
Speaker 1: their first child in September of twenty seventeen. On August nineteenth,
Speaker 1: Savannah visited her parents before stopping in to visit her
Speaker 1: upstairs neighbors, Brooke Cruz and William Hayne. That was the
Speaker 1: last time anyone saw Savannah alive. According to other tenants
Speaker 1: in the building. Loud banging sounds erupted from the apartment
Speaker 1: of Cruise in Haine, but no one thought anything of it.
Speaker 1: Savannah never returned home or respond to text recalls from
Speaker 1: her family. Police searched Savannah's apartment as well as the
Speaker 1: apartment of Cruise in Hayne, but they didn't find anything.
Speaker 1: A search began, and many believed the authorities were slow
Speaker 1: to respond because Savannah was Indigenous. Then days later, police
Speaker 1: learned from Haynes's co workers that he had a new
Speaker 1: baby in the apartment. The authorities then obtained a search
Speaker 1: warrant and raided the apartment. There, they discovered the infant
Speaker 1: baby of Savannah Lafontaine gray Wind and then on August
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, eight days after she went missing, Kayakers discovered
Speaker 1: Savannah's body in the Red River, wrapped in plastic and
Speaker 1: duct tape. Hain would later say he came home on
Speaker 1: August nineteenth to find blood all over the apartment. He
Speaker 1: discovered that Brooke Cruz had lured Savannah there to trap
Speaker 1: her and take her unborn baby. While Savannah was alive,
Speaker 1: she cut the baby from her womb. Hain then helped
Speaker 1: Cruise dispose of Savannah's body. Cruse had apparently wanted the
Speaker 1: baby for herself because she was under pressure from Hain
Speaker 1: to conceive a child. After they took the baby, they
Speaker 1: hid Savannah's body in a dresser, which the police failed
Speaker 1: to find on their initial investigation. Brook Cruise pleaded guilty
Speaker 1: and was sentenced to life without parole. William Hayne was
Speaker 1: also sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap
Speaker 1: a baby and helping to dispose of a body. The
Speaker 1: child survives and her name is Hazley Joe. She lives
Speaker 1: with her father, Austin Atheni, who has full custody. This
Speaker 1: case points to a troubling epidemic of missing and murdered
Speaker 1: Indigenous people across North America. In twenty twenty, a new
Speaker 1: law called Savannah's Act was passed to improve the resources
Speaker 1: available to support and investigate these types of missing persons cases.
Speaker 1: And So who was Savannah Lafontaine Graywynd, what led to
Speaker 1: her troubling murder? And how does this case reveal a
Speaker 1: need to address a crisis impacting Indigenous communities across the globe.
Speaker 2: So I am incredibly pleased to welcome to the show
Speaker 2: a friend of mine, Candy brings plenty and Candy is
Speaker 2: a two spirit Oglala La Cora su An activists and
Speaker 2: spiritual practitioner. Candy Ekomo may welcome to Facing Evil.
Speaker 4: You say, thank you so much for having me and
Speaker 4: also for being so progressive and a tentative to the
Speaker 4: need of this topic. It's something that's extremely, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: more than just an activist or a platform. It's it's
Speaker 4: within my blood lineage. It's part of traditional protocol as
Speaker 4: the Oglala Lakota Sioux and someone you know, an Indigenous
Speaker 4: person to Turtle Island. You know this is you know,
Speaker 4: missing and murdered Indigenous women is such an epidemic candy.
Speaker 2: That is so so so true, and you know full
Speaker 2: disclosure to our facing evil listeners. I have the pleasure
Speaker 2: of knowing you in real life when you spent your
Speaker 2: time in the Portland area. You were supportive of me
Speaker 2: and my wife when we owned Dapperdee and we got
Speaker 2: to help and fundraise together and do all kinds of
Speaker 2: fun things. And I've always respected you and admired all
Speaker 2: of the work that you've been doing and continue to do.
Speaker 2: So I know so much about you, but I would
Speaker 2: love before we start, you know, talking about the case
Speaker 2: that we want to talk about today, and of course
Speaker 2: the bigger issue. I would love to know more about you,
Speaker 2: where you come from, where you grew up, and of
Speaker 2: course your beautiful culture and your family and all the
Speaker 2: things if you could share with us.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I come from the Piner's' Reservation. It's also
Speaker 4: known or initially before it got the name Piner's Reservation,
Speaker 4: it's known as the Prisoner of War Camp number three
Speaker 4: three four, and you can google that, and every single
Speaker 4: Indian reservation in the United States and beyond are prisoner
Speaker 4: of war camps. So I have ten siblings, you know,
Speaker 4: and all of them still reside and have grown up,
Speaker 4: born and raised on the prisoner of war camp, including
Speaker 4: you know, that's where my father was born and passed away.
Speaker 4: And so there's a lot of tribal nations and tribal
Speaker 4: people who have been born and raised and still living
Speaker 4: in the conditions of these prisoner of war camps, and
Speaker 4: which is extreme poverty, and all of it is definitely
Speaker 4: still defined and restricted under the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Speaker 4: I truly feel that a lot of folks who are
Speaker 4: not indigenous to Turtle Island, you know, they definitely have
Speaker 4: a huge learning gap when it comes to a cultural
Speaker 4: perspective or an indigenous lens. There's definitely like the law
Speaker 4: of nature, and then there's you know, mad made laws,
Speaker 4: and then there's the law of the land. And so
Speaker 4: one of the huge aspects that a lot of non
Speaker 4: indigenous folks have a hard time comprehending is that as
Speaker 4: indigenous people, and I'm going to speak specifically la Quota,
Speaker 4: as a Loquota person, we belong to the land. The
Speaker 4: land does not belong to us. And so in every aspect,
Speaker 4: that's why the water, the trees, the air, the moon,
Speaker 4: the suns as are relatives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Candy, I think before we go any further too,
Speaker 1: it would be really great, since there is kind of
Speaker 1: a lack of education around the history and terminology of
Speaker 1: indigenous peoples across North America, if we could like define
Speaker 1: some of those terms you were bringing up, Like, I'd
Speaker 1: love to know more about the tribal title of Oklala
Speaker 1: lakotas who. I'm hoping you could kind of define that
Speaker 1: as well as explain a little bit about the significance
Speaker 1: of that for our listeners.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, you know, I use the term
Speaker 4: indigenous to Turtle Island a lot because I want there
Speaker 4: to be the inclusivity of our indigenous relatives to the North.
Speaker 4: Up in Canada, they're also known as First Nation folks.
Speaker 4: You know, so First Nation people are the tribal nations
Speaker 4: and indigenous people of Canada. And then we have our
Speaker 4: southern relatives in Mexico, and you know, even the Pacific
Speaker 4: Islands Andaians. Yes, you know, so we're all part of
Speaker 4: this Turtle Island. And you know, some people just say
Speaker 4: North America, but it's so much more than that. And
Speaker 4: I do not identify with Native American or Indian because
Speaker 4: in itself am Arigo Vesputi was a cartographer who was
Speaker 4: a Cis white male who was extremely violent and problematic
Speaker 4: to women. I will never carry his name with my identity,
Speaker 4: and so that's why I'm very comfortable with indigenous. And
Speaker 4: so I get more specific when I say indigenous Turtle Island.
Speaker 4: And when it comes down to my tribal identity being
Speaker 4: Oglala Lakota, sue I am Oglala, which is my tribal nation.
Speaker 4: Lakota is a dialect in the language that I speak,
Speaker 4: and sue is the is the identity of the nation
Speaker 4: that I come from. And so you know, a part
Speaker 4: of the northern plains, the Great Cue Nation, we have
Speaker 4: the Ocheti Shock going, which is the seven Sacred Fires,
Speaker 4: and it's the tribes and the tribal nation that protected
Speaker 4: the Minisosu which is the Missouri River. And so you know,
Speaker 4: every tribal nation has their natural resources. And of course
Speaker 4: for every single one of us, you know, water is
Speaker 4: sacred to us. Water is life, meaning with Tony and
Speaker 4: in every entity that we have, that is how we
Speaker 4: are all related. So when it comes down to even
Speaker 4: modern times of having clean water to drink, clean air,
Speaker 4: to breathe, healthy food, to eat. That's what makes us
Speaker 4: all relatives.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that this case is actually like very tied
Speaker 1: to water in a very kind of dark and specific way.
Speaker 1: But you know, I guess I'm curious too. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of listeners may not understand the significance of
Speaker 1: the term two Spirit. So it's hoping you could also
Speaker 1: define that and why that's and what that means.
Speaker 4: The term two Spirit is actually a contemporary term. It
Speaker 4: is an umbrella term that was coined in the early
Speaker 4: nineteen hundreds by our two Spirit elders who are in
Speaker 4: a time of definitely being unseen, who were still being used,
Speaker 4: who are still being called burdash, which is a term
Speaker 4: that means kept person are basically sex slave. And so
Speaker 4: you know, yes, and so these elders had said, we
Speaker 4: need to find a term that identifies us so that
Speaker 4: we can be a part of mainstream society, so that
Speaker 4: we can be identified as a cultural term for lgbtq
Speaker 4: AI plus people who are indigenous Turtle Island. And the
Speaker 4: intention for that is because there's over just in the
Speaker 4: United States alone, over five hundred and eighty recognized tribes,
Speaker 4: and every single one of those tribes has our own language.
Speaker 4: And so can you imagine how many words and terms
Speaker 4: there are just for the al, the G, the B,
Speaker 4: the T, the Q, the A, the I, you know,
Speaker 4: and that's just one tribe, so exponentially, in the United States,
Speaker 4: there's a million terms. And that's not even including our
Speaker 4: relatives who are First Nation in Canada or Mexico relatives
Speaker 4: who have all their own languages and their indigenous tribal nations.
Speaker 4: So you know, two spirit is this term that is specific.
Speaker 4: It's a cultural identifier for Indigenous people from Turtle Island.
Speaker 2: So talking about you know, Savannah Lafontaine Gray wind Candy,
Speaker 2: how familiar are you with a Savannah Lafontaine gray win
Speaker 2: case And do you remember when you found out about it?
Speaker 2: And was it a big you know talk in your
Speaker 2: tribe and in your nation.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean it was humongous. I don't think not
Speaker 4: a single Indigenous person wasn't impacted by it. Because in
Speaker 4: my language we say matakiasse, which is all my relatives
Speaker 4: or all my relations because like I had said, initially,
Speaker 4: we were all related, all connected, yes, And I had
Speaker 4: met her at Standing Rock at the camp, and so
Speaker 4: it was profoundly impacting myself and you know, even at
Speaker 4: the time, I myself was going through my own custody
Speaker 4: battle with my two children and their father. And it
Speaker 4: was the very first time, you know, because I moved
Speaker 4: to Portland when my girls were in first and second grade.
Speaker 4: Yeah they were, and we stayed, yes, and you know,
Speaker 4: and that was like the first year that their father
Speaker 4: had wanted to see them, and so he ended up
Speaker 4: trying to keep them, and he was trying to use
Speaker 4: tribal jurisdiction against me, and you know, so we ended
Speaker 4: up finding a common ground, and you know, I let
Speaker 4: him have a test trial with my children to keep
Speaker 4: them for the school year. And that's why I ended
Speaker 4: up going to Standing Rock.
Speaker 2: I remember watching you go through all of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, And I had said, you know, if all
Speaker 4: I know how to do is be a mother, what
Speaker 4: am I going to do with all this energy and
Speaker 4: all this love? And I said, I'm going to go
Speaker 4: take it to Standing Rock and see what I can
Speaker 4: do with it. And that's when I initiated the two
Speaker 4: Spirit Nation camp. I felt this horrendous, heart breaking feeling
Speaker 4: of knowing, you know, her child was stolen from her
Speaker 4: sacred womb, you know, and she was just exposed of
Speaker 4: so you know, every single part of me felt it.
Speaker 4: I felt like it happened to me too.
Speaker 1: And then you know, as far as the kind of
Speaker 1: implications of Savannah's murder, what kind of like seismic impact
Speaker 1: did it have on you know, the tribe and the
Speaker 1: people in the indigenous community who saw this on the news?
Speaker 1: You know, what were people saying and thinking about this?
Speaker 4: So you know, the only thing I can really measure
Speaker 4: it next to with the seismic actual impact that it
Speaker 4: had is when I watched these movies about you know,
Speaker 4: JFK being shot and it was like the world said
Speaker 4: still and everybody was impacted, to teachers and students and housewives.
Speaker 4: You know, That's how it was for us when we
Speaker 4: learned the details and when they found her body. And
Speaker 4: again it goes back to MMI w and even beyond that,
Speaker 4: because you know, for these entitled non indigenous people, these
Speaker 4: white folks, these colonizers, to feel that they can take
Speaker 4: such a sacred being. And in our language we say
Speaker 4: wakaya and that's children. That means child because is sacred
Speaker 4: and yisha is chosen ones. So our children are the
Speaker 4: sacred chosen ones. So you know, it was just such
Speaker 4: you know, there's not even a word to convey, but
Speaker 4: it was like one of the most I don't even
Speaker 4: know a colonial term to use for it, but it
Speaker 4: was witnessing the worst possible impact of this post apocalyptic
Speaker 4: state of being when colonizers come to divide and conquer.
Speaker 4: They literally divided her and conquered her from this sacredness
Speaker 4: of her own wa Kaysha.
Speaker 1: And that makes me wonder too. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think Savannah was targeted for being indigenous or do you
Speaker 1: think she was more victim of opportunity and happened to
Speaker 1: be indigenous. In any case, she was taken advantage of
Speaker 1: by you know, white people. But I'm curious how you
Speaker 1: perceive the sort of motive in this murder.
Speaker 4: Okay, let me take you back to the word white
Speaker 4: people in Lakota in our language, so the word white
Speaker 4: people is washichu, So that breaks down to washe, which
Speaker 4: is fat echo is to take. So if we translate
Speaker 4: that word for word in English, it's called the fat takers.
Speaker 4: This goes back to the time of the fur traders
Speaker 4: and to manifest destiny. And there is this like iconic
Speaker 4: black and white photo of these like thousands of buffalo skulls,
Speaker 4: and there's like this one man standing on top so proud,
Speaker 4: and maybe there's one more man at the bottom to
Speaker 4: show how how high this mountain a buffalo skulls was.
Speaker 4: And so these fur traders would come in and scalp
Speaker 4: and take what they wanted off of these buffalo And
Speaker 4: meanwhile the northern plains, the Great Sux Nation, people were
Speaker 4: dying of starvation. And we would come across and find
Speaker 4: our herd of buffalos and they would be rotting carcasses
Speaker 4: and with all the meat and everything on them, but
Speaker 4: they would just skin them for their fur and for
Speaker 4: and a lot of them were just headless because they
Speaker 4: were taking the skulls. And we've learned that these white
Speaker 4: people are we didn't even know the word white people,
Speaker 4: but they were taking the fat. They would take the
Speaker 4: best part and leave the rest. And so that's what
Speaker 4: the term fat taker means. And so when I was
Speaker 4: educating folks, when I worked at the ACLU, I think
Speaker 4: they felt defended, but that was the actuality of how
Speaker 4: they have lived and continue to live. And so absolutely
Speaker 4: it was because they were white people. You know, they
Speaker 4: seen Savannah as less than they didn't see her as
Speaker 4: a human being. They've seen her as someone who was
Speaker 4: carrying something they wanted and they were going to get
Speaker 4: it by any means necessary. And they did, and they
Speaker 4: didn't see no consequence to that, because that's what white
Speaker 4: supremacy is. White supremacy is filling and seeing and believe
Speaker 4: that they are the supreme beings with no consequence. And
Speaker 4: you know, that's why I argued a lot with the
Speaker 4: Constitution in itself, because you know, the only way we
Speaker 4: were even thought of, because the Constitution and amendments were
Speaker 4: not written for people of color, for women, for queer people,
Speaker 4: especially for Indigenous people to Turtle Island, we were described
Speaker 4: as as the savages, the merciless savages. That's the only
Speaker 4: way that you know, Indigenous people were written into the Constitution.
Speaker 4: And so that continues to be the mindset regardless of
Speaker 4: even you know, this podcast of people thinking, was it
Speaker 4: really because you know, white people think differently than in
Speaker 4: Native people, you know, and that's absolutely one percent correct.
Speaker 4: It was because you know, they had she had something
Speaker 4: that they wanted.
Speaker 2: So, Candy, I think I know the answer to this question.
Speaker 2: But do you think that the police that were initially
Speaker 2: investigating upstairs, you know, just from Savanna's home and her
Speaker 2: neighbor's apartment. You know, do we think they did a
Speaker 2: good enough job. I mean, I think they searched the
Speaker 2: home when her beautiful temple, her body was there, and
Speaker 2: they didn't find it until eight days later.
Speaker 4: I definitely feel like they did not do a good job.
Speaker 4: And a part of that, too, is because of Standing Rock.
Speaker 4: You know, there was this humongous division between even the
Speaker 4: police department, the sheriffs, the DAPPO officers that you know,
Speaker 4: we actively watched some of the officers walk off the
Speaker 4: job because they knew it was more than just a
Speaker 4: protecting of the land that them on the other side
Speaker 4: were doing. They were taking the opportunity to violate and
Speaker 4: harm and hurt us, you know, And to this day,
Speaker 4: like I still have a permanent egg bump on my
Speaker 4: head and I'm missing a tooth from getting beat.
Speaker 2: Down so badly at Standing Rock.
Speaker 4: At Standing Rock, they were there to break us down.
Speaker 4: They were there to put fear into us, and so
Speaker 4: you know, I still have PTSD from that. And it
Speaker 4: was a learned behavior. When we would go to Bismarck,
Speaker 4: when we would go to Fargo, there was a continued
Speaker 4: white people versus Native people across that whole state. So
Speaker 4: I believe with my whole heart that a lot of
Speaker 4: these missing and murdered Indigenous women cases in North Dakota
Speaker 4: continue to be put on the back burner, and you
Speaker 4: know a lot of times they're continued to just use
Speaker 4: the jurisdictional component of tribal entities versus stay entity. And
Speaker 4: I feel if it was a young wash Youto girl,
Speaker 4: a young white girl, pregnant white girl who was missing,
Speaker 4: there would have been a heck of a lot more
Speaker 4: of a search and rescue for her.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, yeah, that's interesting. I don't think it had
Speaker 1: occurred to me that, you know, there had been this
Speaker 1: kind of like stronger divide than ever before as a
Speaker 1: result of standing rock between police and Indigenous people that
Speaker 1: might result in them, you know, not only not giving
Speaker 1: cases what they deserve, but you know, being actively harmful
Speaker 1: to that process and in many ways, and not just police,
Speaker 1: I mean we're also talking about the media here. I
Speaker 1: think the media has not done as good a job
Speaker 1: as they can when covering a lot of these cases
Speaker 1: of missing and murdered Indigenous people. I'm curious, do you
Speaker 1: see that also as just like you know, racism, plain
Speaker 1: and simple, definitely.
Speaker 4: Plain and simple, you know, like I was saying, it
Speaker 4: was more than just a young Indigenous woman who was
Speaker 4: pregnant and missing. It was racially motivated, and the resources
Speaker 4: that were offered, even within the court system itself, this
Speaker 4: was just horrendous of an act on a human being.
Speaker 1: One other, you know, interesting thing, and I mentioned this
Speaker 1: earlier when we were talking about water, is that many
Speaker 1: of these cases of the missing and murdered Indigenous people
Speaker 1: happened to take place around the Red River. Strangely, and
Speaker 1: I know this has been talked about too in the community,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious to get your thoughts on that and
Speaker 1: why the Red River is sort of this epicenter for
Speaker 1: a lot of these crimes to take place. One of
Speaker 1: the other cases that happened there was that Tina Fontaine
Speaker 1: was a young girl whose body was discovered along the
Speaker 1: Red River, as well as Savannah Lafontaine and Gray Wind.
Speaker 4: Yes, and so you know, even with Savannah being pregnant,
Speaker 4: that and itself goes back to the water, and that's
Speaker 4: why water is so sacred, you know, And that was
Speaker 4: that was a symbolic violation especially, you know, because this
Speaker 4: was just so fresh and around the time of the
Speaker 4: No Adapple movement and Standing Rock, and to know that
Speaker 4: a lot of these missing and murdered Indigenous women, we
Speaker 4: do find them in the water. And I feel like,
Speaker 4: regardless of it, if it's Indigenous people, are non Indigenous
Speaker 4: people who who are being you know, the violators that
Speaker 4: the return to the water for me, I feel like
Speaker 4: it's a component of these people trying to remove themselves
Speaker 4: from the human act that they're doing at the same
Speaker 4: time symbolizing washing themselves from the sin, or you know,
Speaker 4: putting these women in the water so that there's no
Speaker 4: trace of them regardless. You know, people don't see how
Speaker 4: much we are related to the water, and even if
Speaker 4: they're not spiritual or cultural, they continue to go back
Speaker 4: to the water. And that's why a lot of these
Speaker 4: as I was stating, extractions from Mother Earth, they impact
Speaker 4: us to our core, regardless of gender.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting take on that, and it's heartbreaking and
Speaker 2: healing at the same time. I know that, you know,
Speaker 2: sounds awful, but one light in this very very dark
Speaker 2: case at least is that the killers were swiftly brought
Speaker 2: to justice. But as we all know that does not
Speaker 2: often happen. And I know how much of an activist
Speaker 2: and advocate that you are. Can you tell our listeners,
Speaker 2: like how prevalent are these cases? Are people you know
Speaker 2: going missing and getting murdered every single day? This is
Speaker 2: truly an epidemic, right.
Speaker 4: It's absolutely an epidemic. And that's the major component of
Speaker 4: it is is that there's a lack of data because
Speaker 4: there is a lack of even resources across the states.
Speaker 4: And I know, you know, there's this ambulert system and
Speaker 4: that is for you know, the use and for kids,
Speaker 4: and for you know, a whole another scope of human beings.
Speaker 4: But when it comes to the numbers of Indigenous women,
Speaker 4: there is no data whatsoever and have there been? You know,
Speaker 4: I know that in itself would create a whole brand
Speaker 4: new scope of how to deal, how to prevent, and
Speaker 4: how to educate about missing and murdered Indigenous women. And
Speaker 4: like I said, it goes back centuries. It goes back
Speaker 4: to you know, first contact, It goes back to the
Speaker 4: first fourteen ninety two May Flowership, you know, because women
Speaker 4: are not commodities, you know, and to come and bring
Speaker 4: the practices of fat takers and apply that to women,
Speaker 4: especially Indigenous women, especially on our own ancestral lands, that
Speaker 4: has been defined by the doctrine of discovery by the
Speaker 4: palpables over across the ocean, that has stated that we
Speaker 4: were savages because we were not baptized or we did
Speaker 4: not follow Catholicism, our Christianity. That in itself is the
Speaker 4: sin h.
Speaker 1: So, Candy, I think you probably know this, but for
Speaker 1: you know, our listeners who might not, there is one
Speaker 1: small silver lining in this case, which is that the
Speaker 1: savannahs Act was signed into federal law in October of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and so according to the Justice Department, this
Speaker 1: law is quote a bipartisan effort to improve the federal
Speaker 1: response to missing or murdered Indigenous persons, including by increasing
Speaker 1: coordination among federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies
Speaker 1: end quote. So that feels like a step in the
Speaker 1: right direction. But I'm curious what your take on that
Speaker 1: is and if that feels like enough or is that
Speaker 1: even actually happening in practice or are we even doing
Speaker 1: anything with that law.
Speaker 4: Well, I do feel like that definitely is a silver
Speaker 4: lining with the Savannah Act because I have used the
Speaker 4: wording in itself and the Act to lobby and to
Speaker 4: create legislation in South Dakota. And you know, our legislators
Speaker 4: were the ones who passed the bill for creating Tribal
Speaker 4: Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in the Attorney
Speaker 4: General's Office in South Dakota. So we were able to
Speaker 4: create this, Yes, we were able to create this position
Speaker 4: because there are young women who are missing weekly and
Speaker 4: pretty much daily, even here in my city, in Rapid City.
Speaker 4: And you know, when we look at the website it
Speaker 4: lists the missing people and majority, like there is ninety
Speaker 4: percent Indigenous people on this missing list. And so, you know,
Speaker 4: to have an actual act on a congressional level that
Speaker 4: is bipartisan was you know, a big catalyst to start
Speaker 4: conversations and to say what are we doing on a
Speaker 4: local level, what are we doing on a state level?
Speaker 4: You know, but we need more. You know, that in
Speaker 4: itself definitely was the beginning of these political and legislative conversations.
Speaker 4: And so you know, I'm so grateful that we can
Speaker 4: continue the narrative and that there are podcasts and that
Speaker 4: there are continued allies and continued conversations, but we need
Speaker 4: to go beyond conversation we need to start taking action.
Speaker 2: Yes, and how do we do that? Candy? I would
Speaker 2: love to know, Like on Facing Evil, we always always
Speaker 2: always look for the light in the darkness, and that
Speaker 2: is exactly why my sister and I do this show,
Speaker 2: and my honorary brother Trevor does this show. And it's true,
Speaker 2: like he's our not only our producer, like he's become
Speaker 2: a you know, a sibling to us. And I want
Speaker 2: to know what can we as listeners, as podcasters, as humans,
Speaker 2: what actions can we take to be good allies?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, you know, I really feel like
Speaker 4: there should be a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Task
Speaker 4: Force in each state and here in South Dakota we
Speaker 4: finally initiated hours as of last month as we went
Speaker 4: through the position as I stated, we lobbied for, and
Speaker 4: you know, I feel like everyone should be reaching out
Speaker 4: to their elected officials and asking them what can we do?
Speaker 4: You know, like I said, we decided the place we
Speaker 4: needed to go to was the Attorney General's office, So
Speaker 4: you know, definitely ask what are we doing for missing
Speaker 4: and murdered Indigenous people? And you know, if you want,
Speaker 4: you can begin there, or you can even just start
Speaker 4: reaching out to some of these organizations. In each state,
Speaker 4: there is a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives People women entity.
Speaker 4: I know that there are during women's marches, they're also
Speaker 4: for the missing murdered Indigenous women. And we have just
Speaker 4: gotten our it's called oh Chetti Shockgoing Missing and Murdered
Speaker 4: Indigenous People task Force, so we knew that South Dakota
Speaker 4: has such a big epidemic. But it's beyond that, you know,
Speaker 4: we want to continue building forces across Ochette Shockgoing and
Speaker 4: within the tribes. So a lot of times too, I
Speaker 4: think it's very important for every person in each state
Speaker 4: to learn and educate themselves on what lands they're occupying
Speaker 4: and what are the tribal nations of their state, because
Speaker 4: you can always just reach out to those tribes themselves too.
Speaker 2: And before we let you go, I would love for
Speaker 2: you just to share a little bit about everything that
Speaker 2: you're doing right now, because I see it on social
Speaker 2: media and I've told our listeners back when we you know,
Speaker 2: started almost a year ago, they needed to follow you
Speaker 2: at Candy Brings plenty and see everything that you're doing.
Speaker 2: But if you could share, I would I would love
Speaker 2: for you to share with the world what you're up
Speaker 2: to now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you can all on my social media as
Speaker 4: I go by two Spirit Woyri or Queen, so you
Speaker 4: can find me at two Spirit Warrior Queen. Yes. And
Speaker 4: you know, Pride is coming up and I have a
Speaker 4: really you know, push pull tug of war with Pride
Speaker 4: months because two spirit people have been here since before
Speaker 4: first contact. Two spirit people have been celebrating and have
Speaker 4: been proud of themselves since before the riots at Stonewall.
Speaker 4: And so a lot of times I feel like two
Speaker 4: Spirit Pride leave out the indigenous component of the lands
Speaker 4: they're marching on. And a lot of times these are
Speaker 4: boxes the LGBTQ plus identities. And to add two spirits
Speaker 4: to every single component of pride, every single component of
Speaker 4: the rainbow. And don't just put the number two in
Speaker 4: the letter s, write it out and say two spirit
Speaker 4: so those young two spirits out there who feel unseen
Speaker 4: unheard can be recognized.
Speaker 2: I love that. Candy brings plenty. Thank you for being
Speaker 2: hearing you absolutely beautiful human.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Now for our message of hope and healing. Today's emula
Speaker 2: goes out to Savannah Lafontaine Graywind and to every missing
Speaker 2: and murdered Indigenous person out there, we will not let
Speaker 2: the world forget you. We are committed to using our
Speaker 2: voices to help spread the word about ending the systemic
Speaker 2: violence on Indigenous people. Savannah had her entire life ahead
Speaker 2: of her before she was murdered, but thankfully her beautiful baby,
Speaker 2: Hazley Joe, survived. We are sending love and light to
Speaker 2: Hazley Joe's father, Ashton Mathony, who is raising their young
Speaker 2: child in a world without her mother. Today, we would
Speaker 2: like to honor the memory of Savannah Lafontaine Graywind. Onward
Speaker 2: and upward. Emoa. Well, that's our show for today. We
Speaker 2: would love to hear what you thought about today's discussion
Speaker 2: and if there's a case you'd like for us to cover,
Speaker 2: find us on social media or email us at facingable
Speaker 2: pod at tenderfoot dot tv. Until next time.
Speaker 1: Aloha, Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted by Russia Paccuerero in Avet Gentile,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
Speaker 1: Albright and Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Carolyn Talmadge.
Speaker 1: Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
Speaker 1: social media or email us at facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.