Ama
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Ama tells an important and untold story: the abuses committed against Native American women by the US Government during the 1960s and 70s. The women were removed from their families and sent to boarding schools. They were subjected to forced relocation away from their traditional lands and, perhaps worst of all, they were subjected to involuntary sterilization.
The result of nine years painstaking and sensitive work by filmmaker Lorna Tucker, the film features the testimony of many Native Americans, including three remarkable women who tell their stories - Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Asetoyer - as well as a revealing and rare interview with Dr. Reimert Ravenholt whose population control ideas were the framework for some of the government policies directed at Native American women.
It is estimated over a twenty-year period between 1960 and 1980 that tens of thousands of Native American women were sterilized without their knowledge or consent. Due to poor record keeping during this era the number may in fact be much higher. Many of these women went to their graves having suffered this incredible abuse of power.
The film ends with a call to action - to back a campaign to get a formal apology from the US government, which would then open the door for the women to bring a lawsuit.
Questions and Extension Activity with Rubric (courtesy of Frank J. Perez, Social Science Department, San Benito High School, Hollister, CA)
'Thank you for taking back our history and telling it from our narrative. This film is so important because these stories need to be heard - this is the untold history of Native America. Indigenous people hold an intimate knowledge that our women are sacred - we carry life, and the very act of pregnancy is an assertion of sovereignty and resilience. Ama seeks to reaffirm our history so that we can continue to center our women. CSVANW hopes this film begins a critical conversation about breaking cycles of violence that have affected our women for far too long.' Angel Charley, Interim Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women
'Essential watching...Coercion is still happening and there is very little accountability.' Clementine de Pressigny, i-D Magazine
'I would like to pay respect to the elders, both present and past, who have had the courage to tell their stories - we need more documentaries like this. We offer classes in American Indian Health and Wellness, and without fail, my students state that they had no idea of these atrocities, and the fact that they are still happening in the United States is beyond their belief. The US must apologize for the horrendous actions of their medical staff, and admit to the vast amount of indigenous knowledge that has been lost due to their lack of funding for health services. I am teaching the truth in my classes at the University - students are shocked and upset, wondering why the truth has been hidden.' Dr. Linda Bane Frizzell, Eastern Cherokee/Lakota, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
'Full marks...for bringing this shocking story to the fore, exposing an injustice inflicted on women like Jean who are still waiting for an apology from the federal government.' Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
'This important film will no doubt become a staple in activist and scholarly communities as we strive for a more just world. Ama reminds us that reproductive justice is not just about the right to end a pregnancy; at its core, reproductive justice is also about the right to be pregnant, give birth, and raise healthy children.' Sarah Deer, Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The University of Kansas, Author, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America
'Shocking. A moving, must-see documentary about how a generation of Native American women suffered from coerced sterilization via the United States Government - an almost completely hidden tragedy still within living memory. This is the latest testimony as to how Native American women have been targeted with systematic erasure and silencing. Do not miss this well told and desperately important film.' Naomi Wolf, Journalist, Activist, Author, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women and Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love
'Ama should be watched by all who want to understand the impacts of genocide and colonization within the United States. Well into the 1970's the federal government used tactics of persecution, extermination and denial in efforts to eradicate future generations of Native people. This film sheds light on the truth and illustrates the power of Native women in demonstrating resiliency and resistance.' Nicole Lim, Executive Director, The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center
'Meet some amazing women who are still fighting oppression...[Ama] will go a long way in opening up this conversation and enforcing solidarity between women.' Holly Mosley, Female First
'Powerful, heartbreaking, and enraging...The voices, testimonies and ideas of three native American women and activists accompany the viewer in a journey that is a tale of injustices suffered and never repaid, but also - and most importantly - a tale of resilience and resistance, of struggle and solidarity. I will screen Lorna Tucker's beautiful documentary in my classrooms and discuss it with my students: it is a powerful introduction to the imbrication of gender, ethnicity, race, and class.' Cinzia Arruzza, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The New School, co-author, Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto
'A passionate insight into an enormous injustice...The bravery in sharing their stories is undeniable. These women won't be quiet any longer.' Culture Fly
'Traveling on a journey to connect the dots as to why Native women have been systematically sterilized without their informed consent, Ama weaves through historical acts of oppression focusing on a Native woman's lived experience. It is impossible to watch the film and not be moved by the barriers and challenges endured in the past four or five decades by Native women to continue as mothers and culture bearers of their communities. This film is an important resource to understand the current advocacy on behalf of the rights of Native women.' Angelique EagleWoman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, Visiting Professor of Law, Hamline University
'Ama provides support for Indigenous women's demands that the U.S. answer for its genocidal practices to exterminate Indigenous peoples and to examine its human rights record.' Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Dine'), Professor of American Studies, University of New Mexico
'Heart-wrenching...Encourage[s] women to step forward.' Kaleem Aftab, Cineuropa
'A crucially important documentary.' Alexa Dalby, Dog and Wolf
'Ama skillfully fills in an important (and enraging) part of reproductive history in the United States. The film has the added feature of showing seldom-seen footage of matters ranging from Native American boarding schools to leading figures in the population control movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.' Carole Joffe, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California - San Francisco, Co-editor, Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings
'While Ama is undeniably beautiful, in the way it's shot and told, and hauntingly actual, it is not just the power of the film as a work of art that makes it so perfect. It's how perfectly it fits into the age of Me Too movement and the newfound feminism of the Millennials.' E. Nina Rothe, Journalist
Citation
Main credits
Tucker, Lorna (film director)
Tucker, Lorna (film producer)
Tucker, Lorna (screenwriter)
Doherty, Ged (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, Andrea Vecchiato; editor, Claire Ferguson; Native advisor, LaNada War Jack; music, Peter Hellicar [and 4 others].
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Anthropology; Ethics; Gender Studies; Government; Health; History; Human Rights; Indigenous Peoples; Law; Native Americans; Population; Race and Racism; Reproductive Rights; Social Justice; Sociology; Women's StudiesKeywords
[00:00:33.05]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
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[singing in Navajo language]
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[speaking in Navajo language]
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[gentle instrumental music]
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- [Lorna Tucker] 10 years
ago I read a report that said
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thousands of Native American women
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had been sterilized without their consent.
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I couldn't believe that this
wasn't more widely known.
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So I bought a camera
and set out on a journey
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to find out firsthand
how this had happened.
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But there seemed to be a
silence surrounding the issue.
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Finally I heard about a Navajo
woman called Jean Whitehorse.
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So I traveled out to New Mexico
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hoping she'd share her story with me.
[00:03:01.04]
- I am cleaning these seeds off the tea
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and then after-- see,
this is what it looks like
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when it's-- when all the seeds are off.
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And after that I need to get a string
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and then you fold this
like this and like that.
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And then you put the string around it
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and then you string it up.
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When it dries then you boil
it for about five minutes
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and it's tea.
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[gentle instrumental music]
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- [Lorna] I knew I was asking a lot
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as her story was such a traumatic one.
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But a conversation
started that was to span
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over many more years.
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[gentle instrumental music]
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- What did I do to the government?
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What did I ever do to them
to have them do this to me?
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I thought I was the only one.
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People talk about wealth.
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Like people say they're wealthy,
like they have big houses.
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They have so many cars.
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But in Navajo, wealth is your children
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because they carry your bloodline.
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Sometimes I wish I had maybe
at least four, five children.
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Maybe one of them would
be like the black sheep
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but that's OK, they're my children.
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So right now I have one daughter.
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I sign a bunch of papers not knowing
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that one of that piece of
paper was for sterilization.
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I never was told.
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- [Lorna] Did you ask around?
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Did you hear about more women...?
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- No I never did
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because I just thought,
well, it just happened to me.
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[gentle acoustic guitar music]
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- [Lorna] I heard there was
going to be a public hearing
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in Wisconsin that would be taking evidence
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of abuses within Native communities.
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I really wanted Jean to
go and share her story
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and eventually she agreed.
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- [Jean] I don't really
like to go some place new.
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I don't know why.
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When you first emailed me, Rolanda said,
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"Mom, go ahead and go.
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You never been that way.
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Find out who's out there
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that had the same experience as you."
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And then I told her, "Well I'm not going
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until you go with me." [laughs]
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"OK I'll go."
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[gentle acoustic guitar music]
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When I go someplace new my first question
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was, what tribe lives here?
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Where are they, are they still here?
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[singing in Navajo language]
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I'm glad that you persuaded
me to go. [laughs]
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To be part of it.
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And Yvonne, I haven't seen
Yvonne for a long time.
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I didn't even know it was her
because her hair was short.
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She's the one that said, "Jean!"
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I go, "Yvonne!"
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[singing in Navajo language]
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- I'm not American, I'm not Canadian.
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I'm a Sinixt.
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That's my mother's people.
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In 1956 the Canadian
government declared my people,
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the Arrow Lakes people, extinct in Canada.
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So if you can see me, well,
you know that's a lie.
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- Not everybody knows
what went on in the past.
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Nobody talks about it.
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When I was listening to
other ladies talking,
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I said, "Oh yeah, I remember that."
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My mother, my grandmother,
she lived to be 106 years old.
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She was my teacher.
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When I go up into the mountain,
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she would always set me
aside, start talking to me.
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She used to stroke my hair
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and say "This is my hair that you have.
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I don't want you to do anything with it.
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Let it turn white,
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that's what nature want
you to have white hair."
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106 years old, I used to go
up there, hear her stories.
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Up till this day our people
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are still under, you know, oppression.
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It hasn't ended yet.
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The government will not leave us alone.
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They will not leave us in peace.
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Our grandmothers, they are my heroes.
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They set an example for me.
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You don't know how it feels
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unless you go through it yourself.
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Boarding school, relocation,
Native sterilization.
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Like I said, I had my long
journey with the government
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but it didn't stop me.
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I kept going.
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So my journey hasn't ended yet.
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Thank you.
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[speaking in Navajo language]
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[audience applauding]
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[somber instrumental music]
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- [Lorna] Jean has been
researching the history
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of the Navajo tribe for many years.
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And sees the sterilizations
as part of a long
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and sustained attempt to
control the native population.
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Even down to their names.
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- My grandma, she used to tell me,
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"I want my Navajo name back.
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I don't know where this Mary," she said,
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"I'm not Mary, that's an English
name that was given to me."
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And I used to ask her, "Well,
what was your Navajo name?"
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And then she'd tell me, "Baʼáłchíní"
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Nobody can pronounce that.
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Nobody can spell that.
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Then I thought, "baʼáłchíní" in Navajo
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means "many children."
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That's what it means.
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So then I thought, after
what they did to me,
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I say I would never live up
to my name, Many Children.
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Get off the road!
[horn beeps]
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[laughing] I know that girl.
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And a lot of our grandmas, they don't--
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When you have names that have "R,"
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there's no Navajo word that has an "R,"
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so they can't pronounce it.
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So there's Mary, there's
Larry, there's Robert.
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My brother, oldest
brother's name was Robert
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so my grandma couldn't say
Robert, she used to say Wobert.
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And she couldn't say Mary
so she used to say Mehli.
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See? There's no "R" in
our Navajo language.
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It's just like me.
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My name wasn't picked by my mom,
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it was picked by the
nurse that delivered me.
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Jean.
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So I ask her, "What did
you want to name me?"
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And then she goes, "I
wanted to name you Rose."
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I go, ahh.
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I may have thorns, but
I'm not Rose! [laughs]
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[gentle acoustic guitar music]
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When I started working in the library
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I had access to all kind of information.
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Folder after folder, and
I looked at every page.
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Every page.
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Everything they have about the Navajos.
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Because I needed the answer.
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We're learning everybody
else's history but our own.
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This is not taught in school.
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A lot of our history, you know,
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is passed down to the
family, oral history.
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[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[00:12:54.01]
One time I asked this grandpa,
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"Were you part of the Long
Walk when that happened?
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Is that why you're way out there?"
[00:13:05.08]
The story of the Navajo
Long Walk came at the time
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in the United States history
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when the military were called to remove
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the Navajo people from the homeland.
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They were marched from sun up to sun down.
[00:13:20.08]
Soldiers were instructed,
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"Shoot anybody that slows down the march."
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Pregnant women that were
marching on the trail,
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they were just taken behind the rock
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and they were just shot.
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Elderly, children that
got sick along the way,
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they just got shot.
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When they first arrived at Fort Sumner
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they were told to build
homes for the military.
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In the meantime they lived out there.
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All they had was a hole in the ground,
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a couple of sticks with muds and brushes
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and animal hide so they
survive for four winters
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and four summers.
[00:14:02.09]
When you hear grandmas
talking about this--
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my grandma talked about it
when she was still living--
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they call Fort Sumner,
in Navajo, "Hwéeldi,"
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and a lot of people say what that means
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is a place of despair, because
you suffered for years.
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June 1, 1868--
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finally they agreed to
let the people go back.
[00:14:38.05]
That's why they called that Navajo Treaty.
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Every year they celebrate that.
[00:14:44.05]
So after the Treaty was
signed the Navajo came back.
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In our treaty we agreed
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to sent our children to school
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to learn the white man's way.
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When they come back they
will be our leaders.
[00:15:05.06]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:15:10.04]
So these are all the pictures
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of my grandma, my father, Elisa, and...
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You know, I just keep it here
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'cause when my grandma passed
away, they used to ask,
[00:15:22.04]
"Do you still miss your grandma?"
[00:15:24.03]
I said, "Not really, because every morning
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when I wash my face I look in the mirror.
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I see her there every day."
[00:15:31.07]
[laughing]
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So I say she's with me every day
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because her face is,
you know, what I have.
[00:15:42.00]
My grandmother used to
be a Medicine Woman.
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People say that in a large
family they always pick one
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to carry on the tradition,
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'cause she was teaching me at age four.
[00:15:56.05]
She used to ask me to go with her,
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and then when we go to the hogan
she would sit in the middle
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because it's where the Medicine Man
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or the Medicine Woman sit.
[00:16:08.06]
A lot of time people just go like this
[00:16:10.07]
and go here, go here, here
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and then over your heart.
[00:16:17.04]
And she'll say, "Pick this
up and put it on the side."
[00:16:21.01]
Then you go to the next person.
[00:16:23.02]
So I used to do that for her,
[00:16:26.04]
whatever she was using--
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feathers, piece of wood, a stone, a shell.
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I remember when I got tired
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and sleepy I used to lay
behind her and just sleep,
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but I could hear the singing, the songs.
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But all that went away
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when I was put in the boarding school.
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I remember first day, I used
to have a long hair then,
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you know, a bun?
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I know that was all cut off.
[00:17:13.04]
- [Lorna] Jean wanted to
show me the boarding school
[00:17:15.02]
where the government sent
the local Native children.
[00:17:19.00]
This is where she was
sent at the age of five.
[00:17:22.00]
- It's that water tower that
was by the boarding school.
[00:17:26.04]
And this is part of the old campus.
[00:17:28.07]
Some of these buildings are old.
[00:17:30.08]
They took a lot of them down because,
[00:17:34.02]
you know, they were falling apart.
[00:17:37.04]
[somber instrumental music]
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We were denied our childhood.
[00:17:43.04]
We were denied whatever it was
like to grow up as a child.
[00:17:48.06]
The school system was really,
you know, controlling.
[00:17:52.00]
It's all about controlling.
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Everybody had the same haircut.
[00:17:57.05]
We wore uniforms.
[00:17:59.04]
We were all, like, made the same.
[00:18:04.08]
We weren't different from each other.
[00:18:07.05]
When I was there we were
never called by our names.
[00:18:13.03]
We were given a number.
[00:18:15.07]
Through the whole school year
you listened for your number.
[00:18:21.00]
If you did something, they used to use
[00:18:23.06]
a wire clothes hanger on you.
[00:18:27.04]
If you spoke your language
[00:18:28.09]
they used to put soap in your mouth.
[00:18:31.02]
And these were homemade soap.
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They weren't bought.
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So I still know how that tastes.
[00:18:39.00]
They used to have this long--
they call it "runners."
[00:18:42.04]
It's like those rubber mat,
but they had lines in them.
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Grooves.
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And you stand on that on your
knees for hours at a time.
[00:18:53.06]
Our parents were not
allowed to go to the school.
[00:18:56.09]
They weren't there to speak up for us.
[00:18:59.09]
If our parents showed up to visit us
[00:19:02.02]
they didn't tell us until they left.
[00:19:05.00]
I think the reason they did that
[00:19:06.09]
was they wanted us to forget who we were.
[00:19:13.05]
Our language, our tradition, our belief.
[00:19:17.02]
They used to be big
building way in the back,
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two stories high, that was
the classroom, the classroom.
[00:19:24.05]
The boys' dorms were on this side.
[00:19:27.05]
The girls' dorm were on this side.
[00:19:30.05]
And though-- even though I
came, went to school here
[00:19:33.09]
with my brothers, we
couldn't talk to each other.
[00:19:38.05]
That's how it was.
[00:19:39.04]
You can't talk to your brother.
[00:19:41.04]
The brothers can't talk to their sisters
[00:19:43.03]
because this was keeping them apart.
[00:19:45.08]
So even when we pass each
other in the dining room,
[00:19:49.00]
we just used to look at-- carry our tray
[00:19:51.04]
and look at each other.
[00:19:53.09]
They had a 100 year
reunion two years ago--
[00:19:58.08]
July 2010.
[00:20:00.05]
And I was invited and I said, "For what?"
[00:20:03.07]
I said, "That's the
past," I said. "What...?"
[00:20:06.05]
The guys they were saying,
[00:20:07.05]
"Say something about the boarding school."
[00:20:09.01]
I said, "What?
[00:20:11.00]
This is where I was abused
and mistreated" and all that.
[00:20:15.01]
"Do you want me to say that?"
[00:20:16.02]
I said, "You're not going to print it."
[00:20:18.04]
So this is what I did.
[00:20:19.03]
I-- you know, I just let
it go and I didn't go back.
[00:20:23.09]
[melancholy piano music]
[00:20:28.03]
- [Lorna] I wanted to
find out what was going on
[00:20:30.01]
in America in the '50s and '60s
[00:20:32.01]
that could explain what happened to Jean.
[00:20:36.04]
As I was researching the official
[00:20:38.00]
government population control policy,
[00:20:41.08]
one name came up more than most.
[00:20:46.08]
Doctor Raimert Ravenholt,
[00:20:48.03]
now living in retirement in Seattle.
[00:20:50.09]
- Well it's cloudy today,
but I think a beautiful day.
[00:20:55.03]
I see not just the whole sweep
[00:20:58.01]
of Cascade mountains in downtown Seattle
[00:21:03.01]
but there I get the Olympic
mountains, over to the west.
[00:21:08.00]
I feel very fortunate.
[00:21:15.08]
We were all born in this same
farm, all nine of us children.
[00:21:20.06]
We were always poor, but
we had a fantastic mother.
[00:21:26.04]
She was the eldest of 11 children
[00:21:28.05]
of immigrant Danish parents.
[00:21:31.04]
We belonged to that
West Denmark community,
[00:21:36.05]
so we went to Danish church
and Danish summer school
[00:21:39.05]
to learn to read and write some Danish
[00:21:42.01]
and so forth.
[00:21:43.09]
But otherwise it was just the regular
[00:21:47.06]
English public schooling.
[00:21:50.04]
And we grew up in farm fashion.
[00:21:53.04]
We were right by the lake
and we could swim and fish
[00:21:56.06]
and that was wonderful to
have that freedom then.
[00:22:02.06]
Our father was very
intelligent and educated,
[00:22:06.09]
but the one thing they never taught him
[00:22:08.06]
was how to make money. [laughing]
[00:22:13.07]
I managed to get my internship
[00:22:16.01]
in the US Public Health Service
Hospital in San Francisco,
[00:22:20.03]
which was excellent because
they paid a living wage--
[00:22:24.06]
about $350 a month then. [laughing]
[00:22:29.04]
But enough to live on in San Francisco.
[00:22:32.01]
And my friend from CDC there, he said,
[00:22:35.08]
"Well, come and take on this whole problem
[00:22:38.05]
of the world population,"
[00:22:40.06]
and just setting up
then to do a major task
[00:22:45.06]
with respect to global fertility.
[00:22:52.02]
- Poverty is a national problem,
[00:22:55.09]
requiring improved national
organization and support.
[00:23:01.07]
But this attack, to be effective,
[00:23:03.08]
must also be organized at
the state and local level
[00:23:08.02]
and must be supported
[00:23:10.05]
and directed by state and local efforts.
[00:23:15.05]
And this Administration
today, here and now,
[00:23:20.07]
declares unconditional
war on poverty in America.
[00:23:25.09]
[audience applauding]
[00:23:32.00]
- The results were not as
good as they had anticipated
[00:23:37.05]
because of the rapid growth of the family.
[00:23:40.06]
As soon as they added additional resources
[00:23:44.04]
and they were not using any
contraception or abortion,
[00:23:49.01]
boom, they got more children
[00:23:50.08]
and they got poorer instead of richer.
[00:23:54.07]
- [Reporter] There are
today over three billion
[00:23:56.07]
people in the world.
[00:23:58.03]
A billion and a half are
being damaged in body
[00:24:01.09]
or in mind because they
do not have enough to eat.
[00:24:05.05]
By the 21st century the
world will have a population
[00:24:08.02]
of more than six billion.
[00:24:10.01]
Three billion could be hungry.
[00:24:12.08]
What would such a world be like?
[00:24:14.05]
Nutritional Biochemist
Sanford Miller of MIT--
[00:24:18.02]
- This is a kind of a future
[00:24:19.06]
that I shudder to think about.
[00:24:21.00]
I think we don't have any choice.
[00:24:22.03]
I think we are going to have
to do something about it.
[00:24:24.02]
And if we don't, then I'm
going to be very happy
[00:24:27.01]
not to be around to see
what's going to happen.
[00:24:30.01]
- Because of this spurt
increase in young children,
[00:24:35.06]
they were poorer, and
I devised the formula
[00:24:39.04]
for understanding. That is--
[00:24:41.07]
resources divided by population equals
[00:24:47.07]
the human condition.
[00:24:48.09]
I knew that from personal experience.
[00:24:51.04]
You've got a family with nine children
[00:24:54.00]
instead of two children,
you're a lot poorer
[00:24:56.06]
than you would if there
were just two children.
[00:25:02.04]
[somber instrumental music]
[birds tweeting]
[00:25:08.02]
- [Lorna] Jean told me
that when she was 18
[00:25:10.00]
she had been sent away again
[00:25:11.02]
because of the Indian Relocation Act.
[00:25:13.06]
- I finished school in 1968, May.
[00:25:17.08]
Then all of a sudden my father said,
[00:25:20.05]
"There is a letter here.
You're going on relocation."
[00:25:26.00]
I was given a bus ticket,
one-way bus ticket.
[00:25:29.04]
"She's 19 now.
[00:25:31.00]
You have no more control over her."
[00:25:33.07]
- [Lorna] The Act was a key
part of the official policy
[00:25:36.01]
to terminate the tribes by
assimilating Native Americans
[00:25:39.06]
into mainstream society.
[00:25:41.09]
The thinking was that by sending
young adults to the cities,
[00:25:45.03]
they would abandon their families,
[00:25:47.00]
their traditional cultures,
language and way of life.
[00:25:50.00]
- So I was on the bus for about two days.
[00:25:53.00]
And this bus that was
running along the coast,
[00:25:55.07]
I remember seeing, you know,
like, at certain points
[00:26:00.07]
it got, you know, close to the beach.
[00:26:02.06]
I could see the water.
[00:26:03.08]
And then I was thinking,
oh look at all that water.
[00:26:08.08]
My first thing what I said
was, "I want to go home.
[00:26:12.03]
I don't know where I'm at.
[00:26:14.01]
I don't belong here."
[00:26:18.08]
They gave me a room.
[00:26:20.05]
First time in the world I had my own room,
[00:26:24.02]
'cause at home, you know,
we're all in one house.
[00:26:27.09]
I remember that evening
I was sitting on my bed
[00:26:31.02]
tying my shoes and things were moving.
[00:26:35.06]
There was a glass plate on the dresser
[00:26:38.04]
and I had my stuff in, it was shaking.
[00:26:40.08]
I didn't know what it was.
[00:26:42.06]
I didn't think anything of it.
[00:26:44.00]
I was, like, going like
this, tying my shoes.
[00:26:47.04]
When I went downstairs they were saying,
[00:26:49.02]
"That was an earthquake, did you feel it?"
[00:26:51.09]
I said, "What's an earthquake?"
[00:26:55.05]
[intense percussive music]
[00:27:02.04]
- [Protestor] ...a new
tide of resistance...
[00:27:04.01]
- [Jean] I was there at the right time,
[00:27:06.05]
at the right place,
Black Panther. Broadway--
[00:27:10.01]
that was the main street
in Oakland, was Broadway.
[00:27:13.00]
They had their march downtown
and protest and the women,
[00:27:17.00]
children, they were all there.
[00:27:18.05]
I've never seen anything like that before.
[00:27:21.08]
And then, you know, I kept seeing that
[00:27:23.06]
and then I started asking
questions, "What's that?"
[00:27:25.08]
You know, "What's that
about, what's going on?"
[00:27:28.02]
- [Protestor] Black united
front is what we're about!
[00:27:33.03]
- I met this young lady.
[00:27:35.03]
She took me to San Francisco.
[00:27:38.00]
Downtown, there used to be this group
[00:27:39.09]
that was dancing all the time.
[00:27:42.07]
But Dorothy was a little
bit on the wild side.
[00:27:45.08]
She used to like to party.
[00:27:48.00]
[folk rock music]
[00:27:50.06]
When I see a tie-dye T-shirt
[00:27:52.04]
it takes me back to Haight Ashbury.
[00:27:54.09]
It was very colorful.
[00:27:56.06]
Flowers in their hair.
[00:27:58.08]
Sometimes she'll take
us to one of her friends
[00:28:01.02]
and they'll have wine.
[00:28:03.02]
So we'll try that.
[00:28:05.02]
Cheap, sweet wine. [laughing]
[00:28:09.05]
And then all of a sudden
they start talking to us
[00:28:12.03]
about the takeover at
Alcatraz in November.
[00:28:17.08]
"If you want to, you
know, see what's it about,
[00:28:20.08]
go to this pier.
[00:28:22.04]
They'll be boats there.
[00:28:24.05]
We should get on the
boat, they'll take you."
[00:28:26.08]
But it was no fishing boats.
[00:28:30.06]
♪ Blame me for your problem ♪
[00:28:32.01]
♪ I'm not your Indian anymore ♪
[00:28:35.03]
♪ You belong to white man ♪
[00:28:37.06]
♪ Way ah, ha, ha, yah ♪
[00:28:40.06]
♪ Way ah, ha, ha, yah ♪
[00:28:43.05]
♪ Blame me for your problem ♪
[00:28:45.03]
♪ I'm not your Indian anymore ♪
[00:28:48.05]
♪ You belong to white man ♪
[00:28:50.08]
♪ Way ah, ha... ♪
[00:28:51.09]
- People had the mic
and they were talking.
[00:28:55.00]
"This is who I am.
[00:28:56.01]
This is where I'm from.
[00:28:57.01]
This is the tribe I'm with.
[00:28:58.04]
This is what our people
are suffering from."
[00:29:02.04]
So I started listening, started learning.
[00:29:08.00]
[Jean] People ask, "Why
Alcatraz? There's nothing there."
[00:29:11.06]
Correct.
[00:29:12.06]
You go to Navajo reservation,
no running water, no electric.
[00:29:18.00]
That was the reason why that
symbolized the reservation.
[00:29:23.03]
The takeover was about what
everybody was protesting.
[00:29:27.08]
West coast to East coast, equal right,
[00:29:31.02]
equal opportunity, equal education.
[00:29:34.09]
You know, your civil right.
[00:29:43.08]
- President Lyndon Johnson cranked up
[00:29:46.03]
quite a strong program in many ways,
[00:29:50.00]
trying to reduce or ameliorate--
[00:29:54.09]
in many parts of the US--
[00:29:56.08]
the excessive, I mean the obvious poverty.
[00:30:01.03]
But sadly, at that point,
[00:30:06.02]
did not fully recognize
[00:30:10.01]
that you're not-- absolutely essential
[00:30:13.07]
for alleviating poverty among the poor
[00:30:18.03]
is birth control.
[00:30:20.00]
I met with General William Draper.
[00:30:22.01]
He was then Chairman
[00:30:23.03]
of the Population Crisis
Committee in Washington, DC.
[00:30:26.09]
Bill Draper had access to
everybody from the President down.
[00:30:31.01]
And we simply prepared
a one-page statement
[00:30:37.00]
titled "Ten Amendment to
the Foreign Assistance Act"
[00:30:40.08]
asking for monies to be earmarked for
[00:30:46.03]
a population program.
[00:30:47.09]
Right there in the
fiscal '68 budget, then,
[00:30:51.09]
there was earmarked for my program
[00:30:54.00]
37 and a half million dollars.
[00:30:56.08]
That was signed into law on
the 2nd of January, 1968.
[00:31:02.01]
Suddenly we had money,
and my god what a lift.
[00:31:07.00]
I could actually plan something and do it.
[00:31:12.01]
- [Male Voiceover] Family
planning is a matter of free
[00:31:14.03]
and individual choice.
[00:31:16.05]
A number of different
methods are available,
[00:31:19.01]
which may be used safely and effectively.
[00:31:22.04]
The male surgical procedure
known as the vasectomy
[00:31:26.01]
prevents the sperm from
traveling through the tube
[00:31:28.08]
to be stored inside the body.
[00:31:31.05]
A similar surgical procedure is available
[00:31:33.08]
to the female partner,
known as tubal ligation.
[00:31:39.02]
It is designed to provide
a barrier between the egg
[00:31:41.08]
and the sperm in the fallopian tube.
[00:31:44.06]
- We had a strong hand in improving
[00:31:47.04]
the technology for female tubal ligation.
[00:31:52.02]
And my awareness of this began in 1970
[00:31:56.00]
when Dr. Wheels from John's Hopkins
[00:31:58.09]
came to my office in Washington
carrying his apparatus
[00:32:03.01]
that he was using for tubal ligation.
[00:32:06.01]
He insisted that what the
tubal ligation technology
[00:32:11.01]
that he had, he could do this
as an outpatient service.
[00:32:14.06]
The woman didn't have to be hospitalized.
[00:32:17.05]
I was in Guadalajara in Mexico
[00:32:20.04]
for a meeting around about
that time, 1975 in fact.
[00:32:25.05]
I knew that we had a
obstetrician gynecologist
[00:32:29.03]
down there who had a clinic
doing tubal ligation,
[00:32:32.06]
and I went there to watch it one morning.
[00:32:36.00]
And that morning, just
in the forenoon clinic,
[00:32:40.00]
I did tubal ligation on 17 women.
[00:32:45.06]
And that set me to thinking, you know,
[00:32:49.01]
on the average would
prevent about two births,
[00:32:53.02]
depending of course upon
her age or something--
[00:32:54.08]
or it nearly worked about
that, prevent two births.
[00:32:58.00]
Well, that got me thinking
two births times 17,
[00:33:03.01]
that's 34 births prevented
[00:33:05.05]
by this one forenoon clinic.
[00:33:09.00]
That's one schoolroom of children.
[00:33:11.04]
- [Male Voiceover] These
procedures are only for people
[00:33:13.06]
who have thoughtfully considered
[00:33:15.05]
and then decided they are
sure their family is complete.
[00:33:19.03]
The vasectomy and the tubal
ligation are not reversable
[00:33:23.09]
except possibly in a very few cases.
[00:33:27.02]
For this reason, these surgical procedures
[00:33:29.06]
should be considered only by those people
[00:33:31.07]
who are quite sure their
family is complete.
[00:33:35.06]
The best way to learn about
family planning methods
[00:33:39.00]
is by talking to a doctor.
[00:33:41.07]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[00:33:45.09]
- Here just see this, put it here.
[00:33:48.05]
- [Lorna] Oh!
[00:33:49.03]
- See, look at that.
[00:33:50.09]
- [Lorna] That's great!
[00:33:51.07]
Jean's daughter Rolanda had
told me she had been born
[00:33:53.08]
in Oakland when Jean
was on her relocation.
[00:33:56.05]
I wanted to find out more
about this part of her life.
[00:33:59.09]
- ...sort of like I belong in that group.
[00:34:02.03]
And then I met Rolanda's
dad at the Friendship House.
[00:34:05.04]
When I got pregnant with Rolanda,
[00:34:08.00]
an appointment was made for me.
[00:34:09.09]
And the first question I was asked was,
[00:34:13.08]
"How are you going to pay
for your medical care?
[00:34:17.08]
Having your baby here,
do you have insurance?
[00:34:21.01]
Do you have money?"
[00:34:22.01]
I said, "No."
[00:34:24.05]
At that appointment I
was taken into the office
[00:34:27.08]
and they said, "Sign this piece of paper."
[00:34:31.09]
I said, "I can read,
but I don't understand
[00:34:35.04]
what it's saying. Can
you explain that to me?"
[00:34:39.06]
And she said, "Well, you have no money
[00:34:41.04]
to pay for your medical care,
[00:34:43.05]
you have no money to
pay for your delivery.
[00:34:46.07]
So if you sign this piece of paper,
[00:34:49.07]
once you have your baby he
will be given up for adoption.
[00:34:55.04]
Whoever adopts your baby
will pay your medical bill."
[00:35:00.06]
So I said, "No."
[00:35:02.05]
So I never went back,
I walked out of there.
[00:35:08.08]
- [Lorna] I couldn't stopped thinking
[00:35:09.08]
about what Dr. Ravenholt told
me about tubal ligation--
[00:35:13.02]
about how it could be done on
an almost industrial scale.
[00:35:17.00]
So I wanted to talk to an expert about it.
[00:35:20.06]
I traveled to Houston, Texas,
to meet him in his clinic.
[00:35:24.08]
- I'm Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld
[00:35:28.02]
and I've been practicing obstetrics
[00:35:30.03]
and gynecology now for 30 years.
[00:35:33.06]
My main focus right now is in doing
[00:35:38.06]
microscopic tubal reversals for many women
[00:35:42.07]
who got sterilized, usually
when they were young.
[00:35:46.06]
And the surgery itself,
actually, I tell people
[00:35:50.02]
to tie the tubes takes a second,
[00:35:52.07]
to put them back takes a
good two and a half hours.
[00:35:56.03]
And I try to explain it's like
getting your finger cut off
[00:36:00.05]
and somebody trying to put it back.
[00:36:02.03]
It takes a second to cut it off
[00:36:04.02]
but a couple hours to put it back.
[00:36:06.03]
Well, I've seen women in my practice
[00:36:08.00]
who said they don't know if
they were sterilized or not.
[00:36:13.08]
But they never got pregnant
[00:36:14.09]
after their last cesarean section.
[00:36:19.08]
When I was doing my
internship in obstetrics,
[00:36:23.06]
I really saw what I thought
[00:36:26.03]
were really unethical practices of doctors
[00:36:30.06]
talking women into sterilization surgery.
[00:36:35.00]
My first day at the hospital,
somebody showed me a big book
[00:36:40.07]
where they signed up
women for tubal ligations.
[00:36:43.07]
And he looked at us, we were new interns,
[00:36:47.09]
and said, "I want you to
ask every one of these girls
[00:36:51.01]
if they want their tubes tied.
[00:36:54.01]
Remember, each one that you
get to get their tubes tied
[00:36:58.08]
means some-- two tubes for
some internal residents."
[00:37:02.06]
In other words, we got to do the surgery.
[00:37:04.08]
And then he said "And less work
[00:37:07.02]
for some son of a bitch next year."
[00:37:09.03]
So I asked them, later,
real innocently, I said,
[00:37:13.06]
"You know," I said,
"why did you say that?"
[00:37:15.05]
He said, "Well, if we're
gonna pay for them,
[00:37:19.03]
we're gonna control 'em."
[00:37:22.09]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:37:27.01]
- So I only have one daughter.
[00:37:29.06]
The reason that that happened
is, when she was about
[00:37:34.06]
maybe a year old, I had
another health problem.
[00:37:39.09]
I had-- my appendix was infected.
[00:37:43.01]
So I went to the clinic in Crownpoint.
[00:37:45.06]
I drove in by myself, in pain.
[00:37:49.01]
So I left my father's truck there
[00:37:50.09]
and I was taken to Gallup in an ambulance.
[00:37:55.05]
And when I was-- when I
arrived in Gallup, you know,
[00:38:00.02]
they did all kind of testing
[00:38:01.08]
and they told me, "Your
appendix is infected
[00:38:04.07]
and we need to take it out."
[00:38:07.03]
And you know, I-- you know, I said,
[00:38:09.07]
"Just take it out, it hurts."
[00:38:11.08]
So I have a scar right
from my belly button down.
[00:38:15.01]
That's not where my appendix is.
[00:38:19.03]
A lot of time when the
doctor examined me they say,
[00:38:21.09]
"Oh did you have a C-section?"
[00:38:23.03]
I said, "No."
[00:38:25.02]
I said, "I went in for
appendix infection."
[00:38:28.00]
They said, "That's not where it is."
[00:38:29.02]
I said, "Yes."
[00:38:30.09]
I said, "But I was sterilized."
[00:38:33.08]
- [Lorna] And did they
tell you afterwards?
[00:38:35.02]
- They didn't tell me
nothing for about a year.
[00:38:37.09]
Of course then I was thinking, oh,
[00:38:39.07]
I want to have another baby.
[00:38:41.09]
But for some reason, you
know, it wasn't happening.
[00:38:44.09]
So I was given another appointment, and--
[00:38:49.00]
just to find out that
that's what they did to me.
[00:38:51.04]
And I said, "What's that?
[00:38:52.06]
What's sterilization?"
[00:38:55.04]
"You're never gonna have children again."
[00:39:02.04]
- [Dr. Rosenfeld] One night I came home
[00:39:05.01]
and there was this guy following me.
[00:39:08.00]
And he was from the California
Medical Association.
[00:39:12.08]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:39:16.04]
So they brought me up
to take away my license
[00:39:21.06]
because I gave the names.
[00:39:24.09]
I broke the...
[00:39:27.01]
- [Lorna] The silence.
[00:39:27.09]
- Yeah, that, you know,
like, I gave records.
[00:39:33.07]
They were giving women consents
to sign about three minutes
[00:39:39.05]
before they were going to have
[00:39:40.09]
an emergency cesarean section.
[00:39:43.09]
Indeed, follow-up, many of these women
[00:39:45.09]
never knew that they were sterilized.
[00:39:48.03]
And you wouldn't expect it
because they signed a consent
[00:39:51.08]
one minute before they went
under for a-- you know,
[00:39:56.06]
where they thought their baby
was dying and was in distress.
[00:40:02.09]
This, I think, it was for me--
[00:40:04.01]
'cause the ACLU defended me on that.
[00:40:06.00]
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
[00:40:06.08]
- So they wanted to take away my license
[00:40:08.05]
and then, well, then they
finally dropped that.
[00:40:12.07]
I said, "Why are you
taking away my license?
[00:40:15.00]
Why aren't you taking away
the license of the doctors
[00:40:17.08]
who did the sterilizations?"
[00:40:20.06]
- [Lorna] I seriously couldn't believe
[00:40:21.07]
what I was hearing.
[00:40:23.05]
I wanted to know if there had
been any official research
[00:40:25.05]
on just how widespread
these abuses had been.
[00:40:29.01]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:40:32.03]
I was told the person who might know more
[00:40:33.07]
about the Indian Health Services
[00:40:35.01]
was a Native historian, Sally Torpy.
[00:40:38.07]
- I've always been interested
in Native American history.
[00:40:41.08]
Interested in their mythology,
[00:40:43.06]
their ceremonies, their culture.
[00:40:46.00]
They were the First people.
[00:40:47.04]
When I looked at some of the titles
[00:40:49.05]
and actually got hold of
the articles and read them
[00:40:52.07]
I thought, this is a great topic
[00:40:54.08]
but, you know, could I trust
[00:40:57.00]
that these articles are genuine?
[00:40:58.07]
Did these things really happen
to Native American women?
[00:41:01.09]
This one says, "They took
our past with a sword
[00:41:04.07]
and our land with a pen.
[00:41:06.07]
Now they're trying to take
our future with a scalpel."
[00:41:10.09]
The more I looked into it
and looked at the articles,
[00:41:13.08]
I realized that Native American women
[00:41:16.08]
were being sterilized
either by blatant coercion
[00:41:21.05]
or subtle coercion through
the Indian Health Service
[00:41:24.04]
facilities in the 1970s.
[00:41:27.00]
And there's two cartoons here.
[00:41:30.01]
And the first cartoon says "Before,"
[00:41:33.02]
and it has a picture of a tepee
[00:41:35.08]
and one horse and ten children.
[00:41:39.06]
And the man is hunched
over, he looks burdened.
[00:41:43.02]
And then the picture
"After," but it has the wife
[00:41:48.01]
and husband holding hands--
they weren't before--
[00:41:50.09]
one child and ten horses.
[00:41:53.01]
That was the white man's
concept of happiness and wealth.
[00:41:57.08]
Totally opposite of what
a Native American family
[00:42:02.06]
values really are.
[00:42:04.00]
There was this paternalistic
attitude in the 1970s--
[00:42:08.01]
and there still is today,
[00:42:09.07]
that's never going to go away--
[00:42:11.03]
but particularly with
Native American women.
[00:42:14.06]
They were like the father saying,
[00:42:16.04]
"This is what we think you need.
[00:42:18.06]
We know this is what you would need."
[00:42:21.05]
- [Lorna] Sally's research showed
[00:42:22.07]
that the first official
reports in the 1970s
[00:42:25.09]
had been triggered by the work
[00:42:27.02]
of a Los Angeles
physician, Dr. Connie Uri.
[00:42:30.05]
She'd been told about the
enforced sterilizations
[00:42:33.01]
by some of her Native American patients.
[00:42:35.05]
- She started having nurses approach her
[00:42:37.08]
and saying, you know, "Can
I speak to you in private?"
[00:42:40.07]
And they were saying, "Something's
going on at our hospital
[00:42:44.07]
and we're very concerned about it."
[00:42:46.04]
And she thought at first, well, you know,
[00:42:48.09]
"The Indian Health Service facilities'
[00:42:50.09]
health care isn't very good anyway.
[00:42:52.05]
I hear these stories all the time."
[00:42:54.06]
But they said, "No, this is serious.
[00:42:57.00]
Women are being sterilized
without their consent."
[00:43:00.09]
She decided that it was serious enough
[00:43:03.02]
to approach Senator Abourezk.
[00:43:06.04]
So as more and more statistics
were coming forward,
[00:43:12.05]
Senator Aboureszk initiated
a GAO investigation,
[00:43:17.05]
which stands for General
Accounting Office.
[00:43:21.04]
And what that GAO is, it's like a watchdog
[00:43:25.04]
for federal spending.
[00:43:28.06]
And what the investigation found
[00:43:31.06]
was that over 3,400 women
had been sterilized.
[00:43:36.02]
And it was-- they focused on four
[00:43:38.05]
Indian Health Service facilities.
[00:43:40.06]
There are 12 of them.
[00:43:42.04]
And so the first concern was, you look
[00:43:45.00]
at 3,400 in only four hospitals,
[00:43:48.07]
wat about the other eight hospitals?
[00:43:52.03]
How many more?
[00:43:55.05]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:43:58.05]
- [Lorna] I found it
really hard to get women
[00:43:59.09]
to talk about their sterilizations
[00:44:02.04]
because many of them were ashamed of it.
[00:44:05.02]
Then I remembered meeting
Jean's friend Yvonne
[00:44:07.02]
on my earlier trip to Wisconsin.
[00:44:11.01]
- Suddenly the doctors said
that I had endometriosis.
[00:44:16.01]
And I didn't know what that meant,
[00:44:17.04]
but next thing I know
I had a hysterectomy--
[00:44:21.08]
total hysterectomy.
[00:44:26.02]
I wanted to have another one, yeah.
[00:44:28.05]
It would have been nice
to have another one.
[00:44:36.08]
I felt like a shell.
[00:44:40.07]
I felt...
[00:44:42.05]
How does a person feel
[00:44:43.07]
when something's very
precious taken from them?
[00:44:47.08]
That's a violation of your human rights.
[00:44:51.09]
Reproductive rights.
[00:44:55.01]
What an intrusion, what a--
[00:44:57.09]
What a horrible thing to do,
[00:45:02.00]
to rob a woman, you know,
of her childbearing gift.
[00:45:09.01]
I was talking to my mother's sister,
[00:45:12.07]
I think it was a couple of years ago.
[00:45:15.08]
She said her daughters had the same thing
[00:45:18.03]
by the same doctor.
[00:45:20.07]
They had hysterectomies.
[00:45:23.00]
And what can you do about it now?
[00:45:24.08]
The doctor died, so...
[00:45:31.02]
It was hard.
[00:45:34.01]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:45:47.01]
- [Lorna] What I wanted
to know is how doctors
[00:45:49.02]
could justify these practices.
[00:45:51.08]
Dr. Rosenfeld thinks it's an attitude
[00:45:53.06]
endemic in his profession.
[00:45:56.05]
- Yes, this was all--
[00:45:58.00]
See, in 94% the obstetrician's got...
[00:46:01.04]
There was an article that
showed that 94% of obstetricians
[00:46:07.09]
favored compulsory sterilization
[00:46:12.08]
for women who had three or
more illegitimate children.
[00:46:18.05]
I was amazed that, you know--
[00:46:20.07]
'Cause, I mean, all parts when
you're learning in medicine
[00:46:23.08]
there's, you know, never anything perfect
[00:46:27.08]
'cause you're taking care of somebody
[00:46:29.05]
and you don't have perfect skills.
[00:46:31.08]
But this was way out of bounds.
[00:46:34.01]
This isn't going to affect
world population, you know.
[00:46:38.08]
This isn't going to affect,
[00:46:42.07]
you know, economics.
[00:46:44.03]
It's just-- what you're talking about
[00:46:46.09]
is just hurting tens
of thousands of women,
[00:46:50.07]
many who might desire
never to have another child
[00:46:53.07]
and many who at most, usually,
[00:46:55.09]
would have decided to have one more child.
[00:46:58.09]
And a lot of times it may
indeed keep families together,
[00:47:03.05]
particularly in different
cultures where the husband feels,
[00:47:07.02]
"Well, you know, I'd like to have
[00:47:08.04]
a little bit bigger family."
[00:47:09.07]
"I always wanted to have a third child,"
[00:47:11.08]
or something like that.
[00:47:13.03]
It never helped any families.
[00:47:15.04]
But it hurt very, very many families.
[00:47:18.01]
Broke up the whole family.
[00:47:20.01]
And it prevented, many times, these women
[00:47:22.04]
from getting married again
[00:47:23.07]
because their new
husband wasn't demanding,
[00:47:29.00]
but he would be normal.
[00:47:31.02]
"I'd like to have one child in my life."
[00:47:35.08]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[00:47:41.03]
- [Charon] What would this community
[00:47:42.05]
be like without a shelter?
[00:47:45.07]
It would be insane.
[00:47:48.03]
You know, it would be even
more chaotic than it is.
[00:47:51.07]
We're on our way.
[00:47:53.05]
What would the community be
like without a food pantry?
[00:47:59.00]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[00:48:03.07]
- [Lorna] Charon Asetoyer
from the Comanche Tribe
[00:48:05.09]
is one of the women working today
[00:48:07.06]
to expose these abuses from the '70s.
[00:48:11.04]
She fights for reproductive
rights and runs a refuge center
[00:48:14.05]
for Native women in South Dakota.
[00:48:17.08]
- [Charon] It's a women-run organization,
[00:48:19.09]
it's work that I've chosen to do.
[00:48:22.04]
And it's not like a 9 to 5 job.
[00:48:25.07]
It is a way of life.
[00:48:27.08]
And I couldn't sit back
and not do anything.
[00:48:31.05]
I would totally be miserable.
[00:48:40.08]
Well, this is the main entrance
[00:48:42.05]
of the Women's Resource Center.
[00:48:46.03]
This is our kitchen and
we do a lot of things,
[00:48:49.06]
it's kind of the heartbeat
of the organization.
[00:48:53.03]
We cook meals in here for the children,
[00:48:55.07]
we have a language immersion program.
[00:48:58.04]
And everybody gets in here and we cook
[00:49:01.05]
and we serve them a hot
breakfast and a hot lunch.
[00:49:05.01]
A kid can walk in from the
street if they're hungry,
[00:49:08.01]
there's always something
in the refrigerator,
[00:49:09.09]
we'll give them a sandwich
[00:49:11.06]
or glass of milk and cookies or whatever.
[00:49:15.04]
But-- and they know it's a safe place.
[00:49:19.04]
This in here is our classroom
[00:49:23.08]
where our language immersion
program takes place.
[00:49:27.02]
And here-- the kids sit in here
[00:49:30.03]
and we've got the little chairs.
[00:49:33.03]
The Native languages are dying.
[00:49:37.02]
However they're still very much alive
[00:49:39.01]
within communities like this.
[00:49:40.06]
But my language is
Numinu, which is Comanche.
[00:49:44.08]
Here is the Ihanktonwan,
[00:49:47.05]
which is spoken by the Yankton Sioux.
[00:49:50.03]
It just wasn't allowed in school, so--
[00:49:53.07]
In fact, it was met by
corporal punishment many times.
[00:49:57.05]
And so what we've done here
[00:49:59.01]
is to bring in some fluent speakers
[00:50:02.08]
and to pass on the Dakhota language
[00:50:05.04]
to the next generation.
[00:50:08.03]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:50:12.00]
In Dakhota, the word for children is
[00:50:14.06]
"Wakanheza,"
[00:50:16.00]
which means "they too are sacred."
[00:50:18.07]
So that tells you how
we look at our children
[00:50:21.08]
and perceive them, you know,
[00:50:23.04]
and understand them to be sacred beings.
[00:50:29.05]
Some of the long-term effects
of the sterilization campaign
[00:50:34.00]
are really devastating.
[00:50:35.08]
A lot of women felt guilt,
[00:50:39.00]
a feeling of being useless, of
not being worthy, of being--
[00:50:47.04]
She's let her community down,
[00:50:48.08]
she's let her family down.
[00:50:51.05]
She doesn't have children,
[00:50:52.08]
or she has one when she wanted more.
[00:50:56.01]
That really has a very
huge residual effect.
[00:51:00.08]
It's like when you
throw a rock into a pond
[00:51:04.09]
and you see the wave just ripple out.
[00:51:10.05]
Because a woman is very important.
[00:51:16.00]
We're sacred, life comes through us.
[00:51:20.06]
We're the head of our families.
[00:51:22.03]
And so when that's stripped from a woman
[00:51:25.05]
it has a huge effect on her.
[00:51:28.06]
And we saw increase in alcoholism.
[00:51:32.06]
So between the sterilization
[00:51:37.09]
and the relocation,
[00:51:40.03]
it had devastating impact.
[00:51:44.04]
I mean, a whole generation was removed.
[00:51:50.07]
[somber instrumental music]
[00:51:59.09]
- I've been through all this
[00:52:02.01]
and, you know, there was a time
[00:52:05.01]
where all that comes back to you.
[00:52:08.03]
And nobody understands.
[00:52:11.04]
And there's no way to-- nobody to turn to.
[00:52:16.06]
So I started drinking.
[00:52:19.08]
For almost 10 years I did that.
[00:52:23.02]
- [Lorna] Is that Yvonne Swan?
[00:52:25.02]
- [Jean] That's-- yeah! Her
hair used to be long like that.
[00:52:29.02]
- [Lorna] Did you know that
she had been sterilized too?
[00:52:31.07]
- No, she didn't tell me that.
[00:52:34.04]
Because I just thought,
well, it just happened to me.
[00:52:37.09]
So you know, I just, I
couldn't do anything about it.
[00:52:42.09]
- And we never really talked about it.
[00:52:45.08]
So I went about life pretty much alone
[00:52:48.05]
although I was outwardly
friendly and everything,
[00:52:52.01]
and had a lot of friends
[00:52:53.02]
and was in big crowds a lot of the time.
[00:52:55.01]
But I was still alone.
[00:52:57.07]
And I always used to wish
that I had a twin, something,
[00:53:00.05]
someone that I could-- that
would really understand me.
[00:53:03.03]
That I could, you know, talk with.
[00:53:07.05]
So it was very hard to
come out of that shell.
[00:53:12.09]
[plaintive instrumental music]
[00:53:21.08]
- This was happening to
our sisters and our cousins
[00:53:25.06]
and our nieces and our aunties.
[00:53:28.03]
And it was like, wait a
minute, what's going on here?
[00:53:30.02]
We've got to stop this.
[00:53:32.09]
This forced the government into
developing some regulations
[00:53:37.02]
and some policies to govern
[00:53:40.03]
how sterilization would take place.
[00:53:43.06]
They could no longer get a
woman to sign a consent form
[00:53:47.04]
after she'd been put under a sedative
[00:53:50.01]
or, you know, when she
was kind of, half in
[00:53:52.06]
and half out of
consciousness before surgery.
[00:53:57.00]
That there had to be a
waiting period of 30 days
[00:54:01.03]
from the time she signed the consent form
[00:54:04.00]
to the time that the
surgery actually happened.
[00:54:07.07]
And that really changed a lot of things
[00:54:11.03]
and was a step forward.
[00:54:15.02]
However, there is still
coercion that continued.
[00:54:19.08]
Women were told, and still are, you know,
[00:54:22.02]
"If you have another child,
you know, you could die."
[00:54:26.08]
There is-- there are ways to coerce women.
[00:54:30.09]
- [Lorna] What would
you say you feel really
[00:54:32.08]
needs to be done right now?
[00:54:34.00]
This abuse of sterilization,
what could they do?
[00:54:37.00]
What kind of laws could they bring in?
[00:54:39.00]
- Oh, well, it's real simple
[00:54:40.07]
and it's not even changing the laws.
[00:54:43.02]
The laws are on the books
[00:54:45.02]
and they've been on the books since 1974.
[00:54:48.09]
But they are not at all checking to see
[00:54:54.06]
if hospitals using federal monies,
[00:54:56.09]
using state monies for
these sterilizations,
[00:55:00.09]
that they're being done with
any type of informed consent.
[00:55:05.02]
It would take nothing
to have one secretary
[00:55:10.07]
to call up these larger hospitals--
[00:55:13.07]
'cause it's mostly these abuses are found
[00:55:17.06]
not in private hospitals but
in large teaching hospitals
[00:55:21.01]
with large indigent patients--
[00:55:23.08]
and just say, "We'd like a monthly report
[00:55:25.09]
just signed by you, how many
sterilizations", you know,
[00:55:29.03]
if there were any women less than 21,
[00:55:32.01]
how many-- did all these women
have 30 day waiting periods?
[00:55:35.06]
Were any of these women,
you know, asked in labor?
[00:55:39.04]
And I would think if
the head of the hospital
[00:55:42.06]
or the head of OB/GYN
signed a legal document
[00:55:46.02]
saying, "I certify that
this is what happened
[00:55:50.09]
in my hospital this
month," he would be certain
[00:55:54.06]
that he followed every letter of the law.
[00:55:58.02]
The only penalty was that
[00:56:00.05]
they wouldn't be getting
paid for the sterilization.
[00:56:07.01]
[gentle instrumental music]
[00:56:17.08]
- Finally, when I started
working at Saint Bonaventure
[00:56:21.08]
I made some new friends.
[00:56:24.07]
And they told me about the Sun Dance.
[00:56:28.04]
I didn't know what it was.
[00:56:30.07]
So they said, "Let's go, go with us."
[00:56:33.04]
If you're a Sun Dancer, you do
a Giveaway every four years.
[00:56:38.04]
Just like-- and then you
make another commitment
[00:56:42.07]
for four more years.
[00:56:44.04]
Except I've been there 12
years and haven't done it,
[00:56:46.06]
so I thought, I better do
it before somebody tells me,
[00:56:49.09]
"When are you going to do yours?"
[00:56:52.02]
So like I said, these
were just plain baskets
[00:56:55.04]
and then here comes my daughter,
[00:56:57.07]
makes it like a party thing.
[00:57:00.01]
I go, "Oh my gosh." [laughs].
[00:57:04.07]
So I say, "I guess that's OK."
[00:57:06.08]
So-- but actually the
tradition is this one, see?
[00:57:11.09]
Tobacco.
[00:57:14.04]
Cloth.
[00:57:16.08]
So I'm giving these to
the Sun Dance Chief.
[00:57:28.02]
One more cup [laughs].
[00:57:31.00]
- [Lorna] Just in case
we don't have enough.
[00:57:33.00]
- [Jean] OK, ready to go!
[00:57:38.09]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[00:57:45.07]
I used to live with this
guy that was very abusive--
[00:57:49.06]
physically, mentally, emotionally.
[00:57:53.09]
He used to abuse me a
lot, 'cause he drank.
[00:57:57.00]
And then I started drinking
with him, which made it worse.
[00:58:01.08]
And then I started neglecting
the only child I had, Rolanda.
[00:58:07.03]
So she used to stay with her
grandparents most of the time
[00:58:11.07]
'cause of, you know, how I was.
[00:58:14.09]
That's when our other friend, Tom, said,
[00:58:18.00]
"We'll take you to the
Sun Dance just to watch.
[00:58:20.04]
See what you think."
[00:58:23.01]
So I went two years just,
you know, doing that.
[00:58:27.02]
And then that's when he said,
[00:58:29.01]
"You're ready. If you want
to dance, I'll sponsor you."
[00:58:34.01]
So that's when I started,
you know, sun dancing.
[00:58:37.03]
- [Lorna] Did you stop
drinking straight away?
[00:58:39.03]
- Yeah, I did that and I
became a better mother.
[00:58:44.01]
Rolanda and I had to get back, you know,
[00:58:46.09]
have that mother-daughter relationship.
[00:58:50.01]
I had to work at it,
because she didn't trust me
[00:58:53.01]
because of how I treated her.
[00:58:56.03]
So it took many years for us to, you know,
[00:59:00.08]
build that trust back.
[00:59:04.01]
So that's how that helped me.
[00:59:06.09]
That's how that helped me.
[00:59:08.01]
That's why I go there.
[00:59:14.03]
Navajo tradition, they
try to help the people,
[00:59:17.04]
the patient, the family.
[00:59:20.04]
What I usually say is,
I'm dancing for grandmas
[00:59:23.09]
that aren't able to do this.
[00:59:26.06]
I'm dancing for the young children
[00:59:28.05]
because, you know, they're at risk.
[00:59:31.01]
It's just a matter of a
spiritual, you know, healing,
[00:59:34.09]
spiritual strength.
[00:59:41.00]
[rhythmic percussion]
[00:59:43.07]
[singing in Navajo language]
[00:59:46.00]
[Jean] Four days before the
dance they have purification.
[00:59:51.07]
They call the dancers to the sweat lodges
[00:59:55.06]
early in the morning, before
the sun even comes up.
[00:59:59.07]
So in the meantime, you start cutting back
[01:00:02.04]
on your food intake.
[01:00:05.01]
But you make sure you have plenty of water
[01:00:07.05]
because for the next four
days you'll be dancing.
[01:00:10.06]
We have no water, no food.
[01:00:15.05]
[singing in Navajo language]
[01:00:21.03]
[Jean] They call all the
dancers in before the sunrise.
[01:00:25.07]
You go into the arbor,
[01:00:28.08]
then you dance and you face the sun.
[01:00:31.06]
You all face the, you know,
where the sun comes up-- east.
[01:00:36.03]
So you're dancing until that sun comes up.
[01:00:40.03]
If you pierce, they usually
have the men pierce,
[01:00:44.08]
you know, they call
them the Eagle Dancers.
[01:00:48.01]
They're attached to
the tree for four days.
[01:00:50.07]
They don't break that, their
skin until the last day.
[01:00:55.04]
But to actually be in
the circle is different.
[01:00:59.06]
You feel that power moving.
[01:01:01.09]
You feel that spiritual power moving.
[01:01:05.03]
This religion that I go to,
the ceremony that I go to,
[01:01:09.00]
I share it.
[01:01:10.06]
It was brought to us, a healing camp.
[01:01:14.02]
People come here with problems.
[01:01:18.09]
People come here when they're ill
[01:01:21.03]
and they want to get, you know, better.
[01:01:24.05]
You're praying for others.
[01:01:26.03]
You don't go into the
arbor to pray for yourself.
[01:01:31.02]
You pray for others.
[01:01:33.05]
And our dance is open to everybody.
[01:01:38.06]
- [Radio Host] This is listener
supported community radio
[01:01:41.00]
for the Ihanktonwan Nation and beyond,
[01:01:43.04]
FM 89.5 KDKO, Lake Andes...
[01:01:48.02]
- [Lorna] Charon invited
me to the radio station
[01:01:50.01]
that she'd just set up.
[01:01:53.00]
She's spreading the
word about Native rights
[01:01:54.09]
to a wider community.
[01:01:56.09]
- This is Charon Asetoyer and this is KDKO
[01:02:01.06]
89.5 FM, Lake Andes, South Dakota.
[01:02:05.09]
Good afternoon everyone, I
hope y'all are staying cool.
[01:02:09.00]
There's no need to go outside
into the sunshine right now
[01:02:12.06]
unless you feel like frying
eggs on the concrete.
[01:02:16.00]
Just remember it is TGIF.
[01:02:20.06]
Power is knowledge,
[01:02:22.03]
and whether it's information
about reproductive justice,
[01:02:27.06]
information about environmental justice,
[01:02:30.06]
the more a woman knows
about family planning,
[01:02:34.06]
about abortion, about contraceptive,
[01:02:37.08]
the more informed she is.
[01:02:39.04]
And now we have the radio station.
[01:02:42.06]
So we can share information
and hit the masses,
[01:02:46.05]
which is really awesome.
[01:02:48.03]
KDKO Lake Andes bringing you
the best of all Native tunes,
[01:02:52.00]
contemporary music and classic rock.
[01:02:55.03]
- [Lorna] The previous
winter, Charon's radio station
[01:02:57.08]
reported on the opposition
to the Dakota pipeline--
[01:03:00.09]
a protest which brought
together Native American tribes
[01:03:03.06]
from all around the country.
[01:03:07.07]
- [Charon] We got involved early on.
[01:03:10.06]
We decided that we'd go up and cover it.
[01:03:14.01]
And we watched the camp go
from a very sparsely populated
[01:03:19.08]
encampment to this thriving city.
[01:03:23.07]
We were the day the Crow came into camp
[01:03:28.01]
and made an alliance
[01:03:33.03]
with the Standing Rock Sioux.
[01:03:35.06]
And the Crow and the
Sioux hadn't gotten along
[01:03:40.00]
since Battle of the Little Bighorn.
[01:03:42.02]
And it was just amazing to witness that
[01:03:46.05]
and see all of the tribes
throughout the United States
[01:03:50.08]
form these alliances.
[01:03:54.04]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[01:04:00.00]
- [Lorna] The protest didn't
stop the pipeline going ahead
[01:04:03.00]
but Charon wasn't about to give up.
[01:04:06.00]
- [Charon] If you really
stop and think about it,
[01:04:08.09]
targeting us and reducing
the number of deliveries
[01:04:13.04]
that we have, the number of children,
[01:04:15.03]
means there's less resistance.
[01:04:18.01]
So from a indigenous woman's
perspective, you can see
[01:04:21.08]
that we clearly understand
that we are targeted.
[01:04:27.09]
It goes back to the strength
and the power of women.
[01:04:34.02]
We're mentoring another
generation of emerging activists
[01:04:38.08]
so we can pass this on
[01:04:41.03]
and we know we'll be in good hands,
[01:04:43.02]
transition into the next generation.
[01:04:46.06]
- [Grandmother] OK, I need
that tongs immediately.
[01:04:49.00]
- [Woman] Right here.
[01:04:50.07]
- Oh, here give them to me.
[01:04:52.07]
OK, so you watch the
middle of the fry bread
[01:04:55.08]
and when they start turning
gold is when you turn them over.
[01:04:58.07]
Some daring person can
try the first fry bread
[01:05:01.09]
when they're done. [laughs]
[01:05:05.00]
Yeah.
[01:05:07.09]
My grandchildren help me make fry bread
[01:05:10.00]
so they come out in stars and hearts.
[01:05:14.00]
♪ The rising face the morning sun ♪
[01:05:18.00]
♪ for it is coming anyway ♪
[01:05:21.01]
♪ Don't let the past defeat you ♪
[01:05:24.03]
♪ For there will be another day ♪
[01:05:27.03]
♪ Stand up for the people ♪
[01:05:30.04]
♪ For those who can't
stand for themselves... ♪
[01:05:33.09]
- It's very exciting work
to see young women get it,
[01:05:37.09]
understand it and get mad, you know,
[01:05:43.02]
and want to do something about it.
[01:05:46.00]
Oh, I just live for that, you know.
[01:05:48.08]
♪ To carry on, carry on, carry on ♪
[01:05:57.01]
[somber instrumental music]
[01:06:10.09]
- Progress is muddy
[01:06:12.06]
and doesn't really move the
way you'd like it to move.
[01:06:17.07]
- [Lorna] Charon had got
me thinking about the
[01:06:19.01]
unintended consequences of Dr.
Ravenholt's war on poverty.
[01:06:25.07]
- Well, yeah, I don't have
to worry that I did something
[01:06:29.08]
because I, indeed, during
my years we obligated
[01:06:34.04]
about one and a half billion dollars
[01:06:36.04]
and we never had anything, even these--
[01:06:41.01]
any thought of any
misapplication or behavior.
[01:06:46.00]
Indeed, we were always firmly of a mind
[01:06:50.01]
that what we were offering
was improved freedom--
[01:06:56.04]
decision-making freedom for a woman.
[01:06:58.07]
Does she want to be
pregnant, or doesn't she?
[01:07:00.06]
Can she afford to have more
children, or can't she?
[01:07:05.05]
Sometimes in these areas
[01:07:10.04]
I actually got a real thrill
[01:07:12.01]
out of seeing...
[01:07:16.07]
...what could be accomplished.
[01:07:23.05]
- What I finally arrived
at after following it
[01:07:27.07]
for three decades--
'70s up until the '90s--
[01:07:31.05]
was the certain different
Native American women's groups,
[01:07:35.08]
they actually did get
international attention.
[01:07:40.04]
They took it to the Geneva United Nation
[01:07:44.03]
on Indigenous People.
[01:07:46.04]
They actually classified
what had been done
[01:07:48.09]
to the American women as genocide.
[01:07:50.09]
It fit the description of genocide
[01:07:56.03]
under, like, two or
three significant things
[01:07:59.05]
where a population is reduced.
[01:08:02.06]
And in one of the articles it talks about
[01:08:07.01]
a small Native American tribe
[01:08:09.03]
that because of all the full-blooded women
[01:08:11.02]
that were sterilized, that
one particular small tribe,
[01:08:14.05]
it's gone.
[01:08:15.05]
Its history is gone and it can't reproduce
[01:08:18.06]
and that was a tremendous loss.
[01:08:25.00]
- [Lorna] Jean asked me to
join her on a trip to Alcatraz
[01:08:27.08]
where she first saw Native Americans
[01:08:29.05]
standing up for their
rights back in the 1960s.
[01:08:32.07]
- [Captain] ...safe and enjoyable visit.
[01:08:35.01]
Once again, thank you for
sailing Alcatraz Cruises.
[01:08:38.00]
- [Jean] For this group,
are they still around?
[01:08:40.08]
Yeah.
[01:08:41.08]
[all laughing]
[01:08:43.05]
Did you get it?
[01:08:44.04]
- [Tour Guide] Downhill's not so bad.
[01:08:45.04]
This occupation thing that no one
[01:08:46.09]
was really talking about too much.
[01:08:48.06]
You can see the graffiti
up there above me,
[01:08:50.06]
there was a brochure.
[01:08:51.06]
But we didn't really know
the story 20, 25 years ago.
[01:08:56.02]
- [Lorna] So how old were you
[01:08:57.00]
the first time you came here?
[01:08:58.05]
- 19.
[01:09:01.02]
I turned 63 last week, I'm 63 now.
[01:09:07.08]
The first time I came back
to this island I had to pay.
[01:09:11.09]
A guy that was doing the, you know,
[01:09:13.07]
the Information, he said, "Any questions?"
[01:09:16.08]
I asked-- you know, I had
my hands up way in the back.
[01:09:20.06]
I said, "That says Indian Land
up there, this is my land.
[01:09:23.08]
Why do I pay?"
[01:09:26.05]
So they gave me my money
back, any time I come here.
[01:09:29.08]
[all laughing]
[01:09:32.01]
- [Man] That's what it takes.
[01:09:33.00]
- Any time I come here for
life, I don't have to pay.
[01:09:37.03]
And I'm 63 now, I have one
daughter, one granddaughter
[01:09:41.09]
and a great-granddaughter,
so we're gradually growing.
[01:09:45.04]
Every day I try just to go forwards,
[01:09:48.09]
think about my children,
[01:09:50.09]
think about all these young people.
[01:09:54.09]
I ask them, "You're our future leaders.
[01:09:58.07]
Do you know what that means?
[01:10:02.03]
Do you have an idea of what
they expect you to do?"
[01:10:06.07]
Thank you.
[01:10:08.01]
- Thank you.
[01:10:10.01]
- [Jean] "Five years from
now, 10 years from now,
[01:10:13.03]
where are you going to be?
[01:10:14.03]
If you're going to be my leader,
where are you taking me?"
[01:10:19.00]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[01:10:23.02]
[speaking in Navajo language]
[01:10:36.05]
- [Lorna] It has taken
decades for there to be
[01:10:38.04]
an acknowledgement of the abuse
[01:10:40.00]
and injustices suffered
by Native American women.
[01:10:44.04]
So many have taken their
stories to their graves.
[01:10:49.05]
We'll never know the full
extent of the suffering
[01:10:52.01]
and the number of women affected.
[01:10:56.09]
But today we can all fight
for the full truth to be told
[01:11:01.05]
so that one day there will be justice.
[01:11:09.04]
[gentle instrumental music]
[01:11:38.04]
- This is Charon Asetoyer,
asking you to stand up
[01:11:41.09]
and break the silence.
[01:11:43.07]
The United States government
has never apologized
[01:11:46.07]
for the thousands of Native American women
[01:11:49.08]
they sterilized without their consent.
[01:11:52.02]
We need your help to get
the United States government
[01:11:55.00]
to apologize for their
crimes they committed.
[01:11:58.04]
I want you to pick up your phone
[01:12:00.00]
and call the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs
[01:12:04.02]
and demand a formal apology.
[01:12:10.03]
[gentle instrumental music]
[01:12:27.07]
[gentle instrumental music]
[01:12:30.04]