[00:00:33.05]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[00:00:59.02]
[singing in Navajo language]

[00:01:53.08]
[speaking in Navajo language]

[00:02:17.00]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:02:32.01]
- [Lorna Tucker] 10 years
ago I read a report that said

[00:02:34.01]
thousands of Native American women

[00:02:35.09]
had been sterilized without their consent.

[00:02:39.01]
I couldn't believe that this
wasn't more widely known.

[00:02:42.09]
So I bought a camera
and set out on a journey

[00:02:45.02]
to find out firsthand
how this had happened.

[00:02:49.00]
But there seemed to be a
silence surrounding the issue.

[00:02:53.00]
Finally I heard about a Navajo
woman called Jean Whitehorse.

[00:02:57.00]
So I traveled out to New Mexico

[00:02:58.07]
hoping she'd share her story with me.

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- I am cleaning these seeds off the tea

[00:03:06.00]
and then after-- see,
this is what it looks like

[00:03:10.06]
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.

[00:03:34.07]
[gentle instrumental music]

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- [Lorna] I knew I was asking a lot

[00:03:43.02]
as her story was such a traumatic one.

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But a conversation
started that was to span

[00:03:48.05]
over many more years.

[00:03:51.02]
[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.

[00:04:06.06]
People talk about wealth.

[00:04:09.00]
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

[00:04:30.06]
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

[00:04:54.06]
because I just thought,
well, it just happened to me.

[00:04:58.03]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[00:05:05.07]
- [Lorna] I heard there was
going to be a public hearing

[00:05:07.04]
in Wisconsin that would be taking evidence

[00:05:09.04]
of abuses within Native communities.

[00:05:12.02]
I really wanted Jean to
go and share her story

[00:05:15.02]
and eventually she agreed.

[00:05:22.04]
- [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,

[00:05:33.01]
"Mom, go ahead and go.

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You never been that way.

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Find out who's out there

[00:05:38.06]
that had the same experience as you."

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And then I told her, "Well I'm not going

[00:05:44.07]
until you go with me." [laughs]

[00:05:49.09]
"OK I'll go."

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[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[00:06:13.03]
When I go someplace new my first question

[00:06:16.07]
was, what tribe lives here?

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Where are they, are they still here?

[00:06:26.03]
[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.

[00:07:23.08]
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.

[00:08:47.04]
Up till this day our people

[00:08:49.05]
are still under, you know, oppression.

[00:08:52.04]
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

[00:09:11.02]
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.

[00:09:32.08]
[speaking in Navajo language]

[00:09:34.08]
[audience applauding]

[00:09:38.02]
[somber instrumental music]

[00:09:55.04]
- [Lorna] Jean has been
researching the history

[00:09:57.02]
of the Navajo tribe for many years.

[00:10:00.05]
And sees the sterilizations
as part of a long

[00:10:03.00]
and sustained attempt to
control the native population.

[00:10:08.06]
Even down to their names.

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- My grandma, she used to tell me,

[00:10:15.02]
"I want my Navajo name back.

[00:10:18.02]
I don't know where this Mary," she said,

[00:10:21.00]
"I'm not Mary, that's an English
name that was given to me."

[00:10:25.07]
And I used to ask her, "Well,
what was your Navajo name?"

[00:10:31.07]
And then she'd tell me, "Baʼáłchíní"

[00:10:36.08]
Nobody can pronounce that.

[00:10:38.06]
Nobody can spell that.

[00:10:43.07]
Then I thought, "baʼáłchíní" in Navajo

[00:10:46.08]
means "many children."

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That's what it means.

[00:10:52.03]
So then I thought, after
what they did to me,

[00:10:56.09]
I say I would never live up
to my name, Many Children.

[00:11:01.00]
Get off the road!
[horn beeps]

[00:11:06.01]
[laughing] I know that girl.

[00:11:11.02]
And a lot of our grandmas, they don't--

[00:11:16.07]
When you have names that have "R,"

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there's no Navajo word that has an "R,"

[00:11:23.04]
so they can't pronounce it.

[00:11:25.08]
So there's Mary, there's
Larry, there's Robert.

[00:11:30.06]
My brother, oldest
brother's name was Robert

[00:11:33.04]
so my grandma couldn't say
Robert, she used to say Wobert.

[00:11:38.08]
And she couldn't say Mary
so she used to say Mehli.

[00:11:42.03]
See? There's no "R" in
our Navajo language.

[00:11:45.08]
It's just like me.

[00:11:47.04]
My name wasn't picked by my mom,

[00:11:49.05]
it was picked by the
nurse that delivered me.

[00:11:52.03]
Jean.

[00:11:54.00]
So I ask her, "What did
you want to name me?"

[00:11:57.08]
And then she goes, "I
wanted to name you Rose."

[00:12:00.07]
I go, ahh.

[00:12:02.02]
I may have thorns, but
I'm not Rose! [laughs]

[00:12:07.02]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[00:12:14.02]
When I started working in the library

[00:12:17.00]
I had access to all kind of information.

[00:12:19.07]
Folder after folder, and
I looked at every page.

[00:12:23.02]
Every page.

[00:12:24.07]
Everything they have about the Navajos.

[00:12:28.03]
Because I needed the answer.

[00:12:31.03]
We're learning everybody
else's history but our own.

[00:12:37.06]
This is not taught in school.

[00:12:41.00]
A lot of our history, you know,

[00:12:42.05]
is passed down to the
family, oral history.

[00:12:47.03]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[00:12:54.01]
One time I asked this grandpa,

[00:12:56.09]
"Were you part of the Long
Walk when that happened?

[00:13:00.07]
Is that why you're way out there?"

[00:13:05.08]
The story of the Navajo
Long Walk came at the time

[00:13:09.04]
in the United States history

[00:13:11.04]
when the military were called to remove

[00:13:14.06]
the Navajo people from the homeland.

[00:13:17.01]
They were marched from sun up to sun down.

[00:13:20.08]
Soldiers were instructed,

[00:13:23.04]
"Shoot anybody that slows down the march."

[00:13:27.07]
Pregnant women that were
marching on the trail,

[00:13:30.06]
they were just taken behind the rock

[00:13:32.04]
and they were just shot.

[00:13:35.00]
Elderly, children that
got sick along the way,

[00:13:38.04]
they just got shot.

[00:13:41.00]
When they first arrived at Fort Sumner

[00:13:44.01]
they were told to build
homes for the military.

[00:13:48.06]
In the meantime they lived out there.

[00:13:51.02]
All they had was a hole in the ground,

[00:13:54.02]
a couple of sticks with muds and brushes

[00:13:57.03]
and animal hide so they
survive for four winters

[00:14:01.02]
and four summers.

[00:14:02.09]
When you hear grandmas
talking about this--

[00:14:06.05]
my grandma talked about it
when she was still living--

[00:14:11.04]
they call Fort Sumner,
in Navajo, "Hwéeldi,"

[00:14:17.09]
and a lot of people say what that means

[00:14:22.05]
is a place of despair, because
you suffered for years.

[00:14:29.05]
June 1, 1868--

[00:14:34.01]
finally they agreed to
let the people go back.

[00:14:38.05]
That's why they called that Navajo Treaty.

[00:14:41.05]
Every year they celebrate that.

[00:14:44.05]
So after the Treaty was
signed the Navajo came back.

[00:14:48.07]
In our treaty we agreed

[00:14:52.08]
to sent our children to school

[00:14:55.04]
to learn the white man's way.

[00:15:00.06]
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

[00:15:12.01]
of my grandma, my father, Elisa, and...

[00:15:16.06]
You know, I just keep it here

[00:15:18.00]
'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

[00:15:27.05]
when I wash my face I look in the mirror.

[00:15:29.09]
I see her there every day."

[00:15:31.07]
[laughing]

[00:15:33.03]
So I say she's with me every day

[00:15:35.01]
because her face is,
you know, what I have.

[00:15:42.00]
My grandmother used to
be a Medicine Woman.

[00:15:45.05]
People say that in a large
family they always pick one

[00:15:51.02]
to carry on the tradition,

[00:15:53.07]
'cause she was teaching me at age four.

[00:15:56.05]
She used to ask me to go with her,

[00:15:59.06]
and then when we go to the hogan
she would sit in the middle

[00:16:03.08]
because it's where the Medicine Man

[00:16:05.06]
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

[00:16:15.06]
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--

[00:16:29.03]
feathers, piece of wood, a stone, a shell.

[00:16:37.02]
I remember when I got tired

[00:16:39.04]
and sleepy I used to lay
behind her and just sleep,

[00:16:42.06]
but I could hear the singing, the songs.

[00:16:48.06]
But all that went away

[00:16:49.09]
when I was put in the boarding school.

[00:17:02.01]
I remember first day, I used
to have a long hair then,

[00:17:06.06]
you know, a bun?

[00:17:10.02]
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]

[00:17:41.06]
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.

[00:17:54.08]
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.

[00:18:33.01]
They weren't bought.

[00:18:35.03]
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.

[00:18:48.04]
Grooves.

[00:18:50.00]
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,

[00:19:20.03]
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]