North Dakota. High noon. Plains browned by a long winter lie under the backdrop of a blue sky dotted with picturesque clouds. Suddenly, oil wells and fracking stations scar the tranquil scenery as one crosses the boundary onto the Fort Berthold Reservation. Semis routinely thunder by, their wheels spraying swirls of dust, blanketing the landscape […]
Chapter Four: Snapshot of Crime
At night, Fort Berthold loses its stars. Troika Yaskovic, an 18-year-old working at the Four Bears Casino gift shop, said, “You can’t see the sky because the smoke is so thick.” So it’s only fitting that Annita Lucchesi, called “Evening Star Woman” (Hetoevėhotohke’e) in her language of Cheyenne, would come to shine a light on […]
Chapter Six: Jurisdiction and Justice in Indian Country
Justice in Indian Country is a nebulous idea, mired in splintering jurisdiction, lackluster law enforcement, and severe tribal government underfunding. Poor tribal-government relations along with government mistrust and high declination rates have only exacerbated the lack of justice administered for Native Americans and their families. So when did this all begin? As with most current […]
Chapter Seven: Missing in Media
When the face of a missing person flashes across a television screen, it sends a message to those watching: This person is valuable, someone misses them. But rarely, according to Zach Sommers’ 2016 report, is that message sent for Native Americans. After studying five news sources (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution without AP contributions, Atlanta Journal-Constitution with […]
Elusive Justice: The Case of Susan Poupart
Twenty-nine years ago, Susan Poupart vanished from a party on the Lac Du Flambeau reservation, forever altering the lives of her two children in their tumultuous quest for truth and justice. Alexandra (“Alex”) and Jared Poupart, now older with children of their own, struggled in the immediate aftermath of their mother’s disappearance and long after, […]