Baby killer receives slap on wrist sentence

I have been talking to Native and non-Native people in and around north central Oklahoma this past few days. Not as a counselor (my work title at SAMHSA) or Native activist but as a grandfather and great grandfather and people have a hard time believing the facts, they are so bizarre.

Even after more then 100 years of living as second class citizens in Oklahoma, we are shocked and angered at the message being sent by the minimum fine with no prison time for the murder of a baby at the hands of a state appointed caregiver. All caring people, whatever their race or religion, are affronted by this most recent betrayal of the peoples trust. 

Consider this headline from Oklahoma’s largest newspaper last Thursday:

“DHS Commissioners voted Tuesday to pay a share of the 1.1 million dollar settlement that is going to a young man who was sexually molested at a foster home.” Daily Oklahoman, 10/27/2011

This was only a meager measure of justice for the young victim of such a heinous crime but compare it to the $5,000 slap on the wrist handed down to Amy Holder, the convicted foster caregiver, for the horrible beating death* of 2 year Naomi White Crow and it exposes a basic inequity in the manner of handling the life and death affairs of our native children.

*A medical examiner's report showed there were scrapes and bruises on Naomi's face, chest, back, legs, right buttock and head, as well as old and new scabs. An Indiana pathologist ruled the child died of blunt-force injury to the head, abdomen and extremities.

This is horrifying! What pain and torture at the hands of Amy Holder did this baby have to endure during those four endless months of “CAREGIVING”?

Today Native people are asking, “What must we do to protect our helpless children?” Now we must also ask, “Oklahoma, what will you do, what must you do to protect all helpless children? Not just Native babies but all those that are entrusted to your care and protection. What will you do, Oklahoma? How many times will we hear, “We’re working on it” while another baby is tortured to death?

The foremost Indian law scholar, Felix Cohen, a non-Native, once said something like this, ‘If we fight for civil liberties for our side, we show that we believe in our side, but if we fight for the Indian cause of civil liberty, we are fighting for something that the great religious leaders have called the integrity of our own souls, something not limited by accident of race or creed or birth. We are fighting for what Jefferson called the basic rights of man.’ So, Oklahoma, you call yourself “Native America” supposedly to show pride in our Native Nations yet you defile those very same citizens by throwing our most helpless ones in harms way.

This enormous miscarriage of justice must not be allowed without redress, without correction, without a fight….Without meaningful change.

There will be a formal sentencing in Guthrie, Okla. Monday at 3:30. I plan to be there. The family of Naomi White Crow needs you to be there, too. Together, regardless of your tribal nation or as any just-minded citizen, we will inform those in authority the total unacceptability of this farce called “equal justice in the court system.” Together, we will serve notice that no longer is it “business as usual” when murder of a child is treated by giving a perfunctory fine.

Our Native people have survived this past 500 years because we are wired to fight for our people. That is who we are. See you in Guthrie.



Dwain Camp, Ponca Elder


Read more: http://newsok.com/logan-county-jury-reaches-a-verdict-in-amy-holders-child-abuse-trial/article/3610188#ixzz1c13DpovV