All language subtitles for Holy.Man.The.USA.Vs.Douglas.White.2011.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].en

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(native music)

(drumming and chanting)

- [Voiceover] In 1991 a
man name Douglas White

was sentenced to
292 months in jail

for a crime some say
he didn't commit.

- It's time for the federal
government to stand up

and say all right,
we made a mistake.

(native music)

(singing foreign language)

(native music)

- So we got to a house and
in the house were a bunch

of people, and they invited
me like I belonged there.

I mean there was none of this
you're white, we're Indian

keep away and just I
was part of the family.

They said we're
going to be doing

a special ceremony for
this friend of Doug White.

(drumming and chanting)

We all sat in a circle, and
then the singer-drummer came on.

And it was like magic,
he had this huge drum.

(laughing)

And he would
(imitating drumming) and then he
would sing.

And this was enchanting.

It was just totally enchanting.

And then Doug appeared, and
then what happened was amazing.

He said there's going to be some

strange
things happening in
the room.

(drumming and chanting)

- The word (speaking foreign
language) means they bind.

So people will come and
they'll wrap the medicine men

in a blanket and then very
tightly bind him with cords

so that he is not able to move

and the only way that
he is going to be able

to be released is by the
power of the spirits.

(chanting)

- When he goes into
that sacredness, he
gives his life up.

Once they get wrapped up,
their into that alter,

they're into another
dimension that

we'll never
be able to
understand.

(drumming) (chanting)

- We sing a certain
song and there

was a light coming
from the ceiling.

And it hit the alter.

A little trickle like a
lightening coming down.

There was a sound that
came out from nowhere.

Amazing, I've never seen
such Holy Man can do that.

Lightening just come
through and hit the wall,

like a flashlight explosions.

That's how powerful
this man is, you know.

- Lights start
popping like this.

(clicking tongue)
(snapping fingers)

Like fireflies, green
glowing lights just popping.

Then suddenly he said
the spirits are here.

(dramatic music)
(rattle shaking)

(native music)

- [Voiceover] Douglas White
is the oldest Medicine Man

from Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota.

(native music)

Pine Ridge is home
to the Lakota people,

also known as the
great Sioux Nation.

(chanting and drumming)
(native music)

(relaxing music)

- The Lakota religion
comes to make us

have that
broad perspective
to realize

hey we are all from
grandmother earth.

And that she provides all
the things that we need

and all the animals
and all the birds

really are our relatives
and we are meant to be here

living in a peaceful
and a harmonious way.

(relaxing music)

- To us everything
natural is part of us

and we're part of those
things that are natural.

(relaxing music)

We communicated with
everything around us.

With the grass or
the insect, the deer,

with the buffalo, and
with the thunder clouds.

Everything around
us is real and it's

sacred and it's spiritual.

(relaxing music)

(relaxing music) (wind howling)

- Everything that
is sacred is round.

The Sun is round,
the clouds are round,

the rain drops are round.

The earth is round,
the trees are round,

you and I are round.

Everything that is
sacred and holy is round.

The circle of life.

(drumming) (chanting)

- Every people has a hoop.

These medicine men are
in the center of that.

They know the teachings,
they know the old ways

to call the spirit
world so that the spirit

world can look at the people.

They are the people who do that.

- They're interpreters
and they interpret

from the spirit world
to this physical world.

(drumming) (chanting)

- They role of the
Medicine Man is to pray

and to be in contact
with the spirits.

A Medicine Man is a very
humble man because they realize

that they don't have
any power of their own.

They are totally dependent upon

the blessings of the spirits.

So you'll find them to be
very quiet, very humble,

and very prayerful men,
they must be in order

to maintain those
personal contact

with the spirits of this world.

(relaxing music)

- [Voiceover] Douglas was
born in 1921 and baptized

in the Roman Catholic
church, where he served

as an alter boy
during his youth.

In 1941, he received
the spiritual calling

that would lead him to
become a Medicine Man.

In 1967, Douglas married
Evelyn Poor Thunder

and became step father to her
children and grandchildren.

As a well respected
and loved Holy Man,

Douglas helped thousands
of people of all races

throughout the United
States and Canada.

(dramatic music)

In 1991, Douglas was accused
of molesting his two grandsons.

The allegations
were reported by his

daughter-in-law,
Geraldine Little Boy.

(camera shuttering)

- My ex-mother in law,
she came over to see me

and she told me that her
husband Douglas White,

he went and molested
my two sons.

Lloyd and

Roy Jr.

- And this incident occurred,
it visibly shook up Doug

because of the accusations and
it troubled him very deeply.

Those are his (speaking
foreign language),

those were his
grandchildren
and to accuse

him of these things was
something beyond him.

When Mr. White and I
did my initial interview

and got into what motivated
the alleged victims

to proceed with this,
I went out and did

my own investigations
in the community

and found out that Evelyn
had him incarcerated

a number of times and

all of them were just she
accused him of being drunk.

They never gave him a toxilizer
or anything in those days.

They just went and picked
him up and brought him in.

(dramatic music)

- I put him in jail.

I got mad, when I get
mad I go like that.

Mm-hmm, he knows and Doug knows,

I whip him lot of times
when he's drinking.

(dramatic music)

- M why first suspicion
then, was that he was

stringed and she wanted to
put a tighter leash on him.

I think what happened then
was it got out of control.

- So I went to the social
services and reported it

and this guy came
over to see me.

- When a major crime is
committed on a reservation,

the BIA police come out,
they're the first responders.

They pass what ever
they find up to the FBI,

which takes a look
at it or ignores it,

depending upon what
they want to do.

They decide whether
there's enough there

to pass on
the federal
prosecutor.

- [Voiceover] According
to the FBI, in August 1991

the US Attorney's office
declined to prosecute this case.

- Usually they go to
federal court first.

If the US Attorney declines,
it comes back to tribal court.

We took the complaint
at face value.

We arrested
Mr. White
and arraigned

him and he said not guilty.

(dramatic music)

- There were no
physical findings that

would have suggested
sexual abuse.

You would have thought
there'd be at least

some scarring or
something visible.

Concrete, and there wasn't.

- We opened a hearing, they
brought in his grandchildren.

To say his grandchildren
were ecstatic to see him

would be underplaying it.

After they denied this
type of stuff happened,

then they didn't
want to talk anymore.

To them that was it, they had

nothing to
say about their
grandpa.

- I had no witnesses.

All I had was the
boys statement.

So we called him,
we swore him in

and he denied that
the abuse happened.

(dramatic music)

- It was something that
was done out of haste

and jealousy as it were that
got out of hand from her.

I don't think she appreciated
the gravity of the situation

as to hey, somebody's out
there waiting to pick this

ball up and run with it.

- [Voiceover] Several
years earlier,

Geraldine lost custody
of her son Lloyd Helper

to Douglas and his wife Evelyn.

- She was keeping my son Lloyd.

I tried to get him back, I
went for hearings with her.

And they still wouldn't
give him back to me.

- She wasn't taking
care of the kids.

It was always Evelyn
and Doug that had em.

- My mom used to
drink a lot, heavily.

We had no food,
you know, no water.

No heat, no
electricity,
no lights.

- Geraldine she was always
getting their ADC money

and not spend it on the kids.

She would be on a
drunk in White Clay.

- I had no doubts

that

I was just a body with
a spirit without a mind.

(dramatic music)

And that time nobody
could find me.

I was

lost.

- I know it was probably hard
growing up in that atmosphere.

The drinking, whatever went
on in their house you know.

(chanting)

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover]
Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation

is located in the poorest
county in the United States.

(dramatic music)

- We're the poorest county
in America by design.

And the entire colonial
setup of the reservation

concentration camp system

is designed for failure.

That's what colonialism
is all about.

To ensure failure,
to ensure poverty.

To ensure disease, to
ensure hopelessness.

- Well there's like
85% unemployment.

We have a very high
alcoholism rate.

There's a severe
housing shortage.

You know sometimes we have five

and six families
living in one house.

There are people that
live without running water

you know and
they don't have
electricity

because there isn't the
income to pay the bills.

So hard choices are made,
in order to survive here.

I think the average
median income

is like $3500 for the year
for 85% of our people.

(dramatic music)

- Suicide rate is upon
it's highest of any

nationality in
the United States.

The teen
suicide happening today
is really

astounding because there's
nothing here for our youth.

There's really nothing here.

(dramatic music)

As we're speaking today,
someone is thinking of suicide.

Someone attempted suicide or
there was a suicide out there.

That has a real effect on Pine
Ridge amongst my people here.

The Lakota people.

(chanting)

- Our people were known
as spiritual people.

But it wasn't until the last
hundred years that our people

had to put up
with prison and
war, genocide.

(dramatic music)

Once our people were free,

(dramatic music)

they followed the buffalo,
they lived in harmony

with the earth and
they're very connected

as (speaking foreign language),
it means we are all related.

(dramatic music)

- For centuries you
know we lived free

and we lived as one people
with mother earth and nature.

Until the Europeans
came and they started

the government of
the United States.

They tried to come
through our land

and the Black Hills and take
our gold and our minerals.

When they couldn't defeat us,
they come up with treaties.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] In 1868, the
United States government

signed the Fort Laramie
treaty affirming that

the western half of what
is now called South Dakota

belonged to the Lakota people.

In 18977, the United
States government

broke this treaty and
illegally confiscated

the Black Hills after
gold was found there.

The Black Hills
are the spiritual

center for the Lakota people.

At the same time, over
40 million buffalo

for food, clothing, and shelter
stable of the Lakota people

were brought to near extinction
for their hides and tongues.

By the turn of the
century, less than

a few hundred buffalo remained.

(solemn music)

Cut off from their
ancestral homeland,

the Lakota people were
forced onto reservations

where they became
economically dependent

on the United States government.

(solemn music)

Indian children were
forced to attend

government boarding schools.

Their hair was cut off
and they were forbidden

to speak their native
language or practice

their traditional culture.

(solemn music)

Indian religion was outlawed
and condemned as devil worship.

Up until the Freedom of
Indian Religion Act in 1978,

it was illegal for
American Indians

to practice their
traditional religion.

- We know
what happened in
history.

If I sat here and
think about it,

I'm going to get angry and
I'm going to kill somebody.

If I think of all the injustices
that are done, you know.

But we don't think that way.

Because of that simple
statement, all my relatives.

If anything we
want to have peace.

We want to get along
with everybody.

- [Voiceover] Despite
present day conditions,

the Lakota people maintain
a strong and proud

connection to their culture,
their religion, and their land.

- Although they put
us on reservations,

we've maintained
a lifestyle here
regardless,

through our spirituality
and through our culture.

That's what kept us
going and it's going

to continue to keep us going.

(chanting) (drumming)

- There is one thing
about the reservation.

There is one thing
about our way of life

that still holds
for a lot of us.

Douglas White, if you
know him, you know about

this humble beauty
that we still possess.

We're fast losing, but
we still possess that.

- Uncle Douglas,
he knew the songs

and the rituals and so
we went from him for help

spiritually,
mentally,
emotionally.

And he also done (speaking
foreign language)

which is a
serious ceremony where
you actually

can cure cancer or rid
all drastic diseases.

- Well to his altar,
cancer patients were cured.

HIV persons were cured
and that's hard to believe

but these kind of miracles take

place by
being present at
the alter.

That's the kind of person he is.

He has that power to
turn water into medicine.

- When I first found
out I had Bells Palsy,

I woke up one morning
and felt really bad.

I really don't know
how Douglas found out

I had this, he took
me to the ceremony.

He prayed for me and the very
next morning it was gone.

It was gone.

(solemn music)

- One year after being found
not guilty in tribal court,

Douglas was indicted
for the very same crime

by the federal government.

(solemn music)

- If the US Attorney was not
satisfied with what transpired

in the tribal court, he could

open the case in federal court.

- Often times our office
can be in a better position

to prosecute some times
these serious cases,

and maybe somebody
made a determination

that we could be helpful.

- To my mind, that
is a large step

to second guess tribal court.

We adjudicated a case, we
resolved it, it was over.

(solemn music)

- Of course they say well
there's no double jeopardy.

That does not exist, but how
many times you're going to try

a person, til finally you
get what you want you know.

- [Voiceover] Neither the
FBI, nor the US Attorney's

office will explain why Douglas
White's case was reopened.

A full year after they
declined to prosecute it.

- The federal government they
have their own prosecution

goals, they
have their own
priorities.

I mean let me tell you,
the federal judiciary

in all of it's attachments
make no bones about it,

is in the back of Indian people.

(dramatic music)

- Things go through
the court system here,

they find them not guilty
the charges dismissed

but the feds will come

and the outsiders will
come in, take it on and.

- Before a case is
indicted and long

before there is a trial,
there's a great deal of work

that goes
into investigating
the case

and the allegations and
in trying to determine

how to proceed with
an investigation,

I suppose it's not generally
known how much we do that.

I don't know that I'm
prepared to talk about

how we do that, but we do.

- If you're an Indian person
that commits any crime

on Pine Ridge reservation,
you immediately get

a 100 mile change of venue
to a fed court in Rapid City.

Which would be a very far
and alien system to people

from the reservation to
be prosecuted by people

who really understand
very little about what

goes in within your community.

(upbeat music)

- [Voiceover] Douglas
was tried by an all

white jury 100
miles from home in

a foreign language
with no translator.

(dramatic music)

(ball bouncing)

(dramatic music)

The government alleged
that on July 19, 1991

Douglas returned to his
Pine Ridge home, went down

to the basement
and molested
his two grandsons

while babysitter Penny
Keoke was upstairs.

(solemn music)

- What I did is
I stayed and took

care of Evelyn's
grandchildren
while they were

at Bear Butte and during
that period of time,

the kids were getting
pretty difficult to handle.

And so it was within a few
days, Douglas came back.

He was at the house a very,
very brief amount of time.

Very, very short.

I would say 10 or 15 minutes
probably at the very most.

He was in a hurry, he needed
to go back to Bear Butte.

- There's certainly
a compounding of

improbabilities in this case.

In that first of all
that a 72 year old man

is able to restrain
two struggling, yelling

children
while everybody's
standing

straight up and perform
an act of abuse.

In addition to the improbability
that he is going to select

this moment in time,
where's he going to get

the most resistance, to
perform an illegal act

in a manner that is most
likely to get him caught.

It just didn't compute.

- Well I was thinking, you
know I was the person there

why aren't people
checking with me.

I mean you can't just
make something up

and say hey this is
what was happening.

I was the person that was
at the house, you know

this isn't a great
big mansion, this

is a small little house
when Douglas came.

That makes two adults
and two children.

If something would
have been going on,

I would have felt it, I
would have known that.

Nothing did go on.

(solemn music)

- Mr. White is not in
jail because our office

said that he's guilty,
he must go to jail.

The reason he's in jail
of course, is because

12 people determined
beyond a reasonable

doubt the evidence
indicated he'd

done what
the indictment
alleged.

- Yeah I had doubt.

I think more than
anything it's probably

the consistency of the kids.

Today I still got doubt.

I don't know if I
did right or not.

- There is something
about how Douglas

was able to hold two
children and commit this act.

Some of that
seems unrealistic
and I realized

there were discrepancies
at one point.

The children said
it happened outside

another point they said
it happened inside.

That's pretty big
discrepancy in a way.

- Reduced to it's
essence, this case

is about the credibility
of the two alleged victims,

which is Roy and Lloyd.

Now, certainly in trials,
certainly in child

abuse trials, you are going
to give children allowance.

They're going to be
nervous, they're not

going to want to
talk about this.

This is understood,
this is normal.

What happens in this
case that is so troubling

is that there's not
one detail in the case

and in these children's
testimonies that's

corroborated, even
between themselves.

- Even when they're
talking about events,

you can have em
say it three times,

and they'll say it
three different ways.

And I couldn't follow it.

- Some of the things
were contradictory but,

and the way they explained
the way it happened,

that the Grandpa held them
both at the same time.

I mean that isn't, that
probably didn't happen.

- They're both standing
up and that he,

you know they didn't say they
were on a bed or anything

the kids are short
and he's taller,

it's not gonna work. (laughing)

So that's one thing
that was a doubt,

that made me thing that
it probably didn't happen.

- I mean it's so hard to
make a decision on just

what we were shown, I mean
there basically was no evidence.

(dramatic music)

- What struck me in reading
the transcript in this case

was the very concise and
favorable formulation

of reasonable doubt that was
given to the jury and their

instructions, which was
simply, the type of doubt

that would cause you to
hesitate in your actions.

When you judge this
case by that standard,

there was reasonable doubt all
over the place in this case.

- Aww you
know where's
his lawyer?

Did they even save
that he was impotent?

- [Voiceover] Medical
tests that would

have exonerated Douglas
were never performed.

Douglas could not
afford a lawyer,

so he was assigned a court
appointed public defender.

- A federal court system is
pretty scary, and most people,

the court appointed doesn't
spend time with them,

telling them even what
they're dealing with.

You know it's a get this
over with because it's

court appointed, I'm
not earning any money.

- You have people who couldn't

other wise afford a lawyer
at all getting very good

lawyers appointed
to help them out.

Now often times those
lawyers serve that at a rate

that is very modest compared
to their regular hourly rate.

- So you're stuck with
someone who's only

giving you 40%
instead of a 100%.

- And the Indian, having no
other opportunity to find

a lawyer, has to either go
with what his lawyer says

or try to represent him
or her self in court.

What kind of choice is that?

- When Douglas was going
to court, he don't hardly

understand English
language and the court

appointed a lawyer to explain
some of the things to him

about the justice system
and what kind of laws.

He had no idea, he
don't understand it.

Because English is our
second language, you know.

Lakota is out first language
and that's what we speak.

- I haven't seen any
indication I guess

in my review of the trial
or the appellate opinion

that lends support
to the idea that

the absence of an interpreter
was problematic in this case.

(solemn music)

- To me frankly that
would be laughable.

I did have a lot of
discussions with Doug

and I never felt there
was a communication gap.

- I don't know who
came up with that one

but that's now worth. (laughing)

(dramatic music)

- As I understand the
constitution and the

right and the Bill of Rights,
and the sixth amendment

to have a jury trial from a
cross section of your community,

that doesn't necessarily
carry with it,

the ability to have
or the right to have

a particular racial component,
religious component,

gender component,
or anything else.

- You know you just as
well through your hands up

when you walk in to see,
and that's not demeaning

in any sense but especially
up here in South Dakota

prejudice and discrimination
is alive and well and exist.

So for me to go up
against an all white jury,

I just throw up my hands
and say hay let's cut

a deal some place, I'm not
gonna get justice here.

And that's the truth,
it is the truth.

- The writing was on the
wall before Douglas White

entered the court room,
before I testified,

I was the only other
person in that house.

(solemn music)

Yep.

So when you see an Indian
person go into an all white

court room like that, you
know what the answer is.

You don't even have
to have a jury.

You already know
what the answer is.

(solemn music)

Yep.

(solemn music)

- You know in all honesty,
I don't see where race

would have played a
role in this case.

I have confidence that
whatever tensions might exist

between whites and Indians in
South Dakota, that a federal

jury is not going to send
a man like Doug White away

over some petty racial
issue they might have.

I don't think that race was
the trump card in this case.

- I really can't remember
what he looked like at all.

I always wonder how do these
people become medicine men.

What do they have to do,
do they just one day say

I'm going to be a medicine man
and what's their motivation.

After hearing this
case you really wonder.

Is there any governing body
that takes care of these people?

I don't think so, I don't know.

I'm not that up on
the Indian culture

so I don't really know.

- I think a lot of things
are maybe given to them

and they don't, maybe
they don't take care

of them as well as
if they had earned it

or worked for it or something.

You know you drive
through there and you see

house after house that
the windows are open

and the curtains are
flying out in the breeze.

And you know there's
not a lot of pride.

- I wonder if maybe some people

become medicine man
because of they're close

contact with children
and other people

because of, it has a
protection for their

you know devices or whatever.

I just wonder.

- We have friends who
come from out of state

and they stop in at these
tourist information places.

They scare the hell out of them

from coming to the reservation.

Say you have to leave
there before sunset

(laughing) you know,
things like that you know.

- So you see, the
unholy racism against

the American Indian comes
from the fact that whenever

anyone looks at us, in the
Americas they feel guilty.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] The jury was
never told that the same

case had been tried and
dismissed in Tribal Court.

- Well I think that was kept
from us, and I think some

of us would have been
more sympathetic to

the dismissal of the
case had we known that.

The defense of course wanted
that to be brought in.

But they couldn't
bring it in because

it was forbidden by
the judge at the time.

- I mean to me
the judge and
the attorneys,

they knew a lot
more than we did.

I think they knew how
the outcome should be.

I mean I don't know.

(dramatic music)

- My testimony as it
were was very harnessed.

Why wasn't I given
the opportunity

to tell them exactly what
happened and what transpired.

At that point I lost faith in
a system that I believed in.

(dramatic music)

- The evidence that
he needed in came in

and he suffered no adverse
rulings from the court.

There was no funny business
by the prosecution,

no arguments that
shouldn't have been made

or no evidence snuck in.

From the point of view of
a very clean fair trial,

Doug got his day in court.

(solemn music)

(chanting)

- There was times I'd
have to get up at 4:00

in the morning and
do chores, and get in

there and just barely get in
time to sit down in the jury

and then try and stay
awake (laughing) so.

- I'm sure that
everybody was just,

you know we don't wanna
hear about this anymore,

we don't want to
think about this.

Let's just make a decision
and get out of here.

(solemn music)

(chanting)

(gavel pounding)

(solemn music) (chanting)

- [Voiceover] On January
21, 1993, 72 year old

Douglas White was
convicted on both counts

of sexual abuse of a minor.

He was sentenced to 25
years in federal prison.

With no hope of parole.

(solemn music)

(solemn music) (chanting)

- Don't think that what
happened to Douglas White

is not going to happen to you.

You see what happens
to the Indian

eventually happens
to the American.

And they don't even know it.

The colonization practiced
and perfected on us,

has been exported to the world,

including the American people.

You're all about the
Patriotic Act now,

welcome to the club.

Welcome to
the reservation
by the way.

All of you, welcome
to the reservation.

(singing foreign language)

- [Voiceover] In 1973 the
American Indian movement

occupied the village of
Wounded Knee to protest living

conditions on the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation.

Pine Ridge is the
same reservation

where a shoot out
between the American

Indian Movement
and two FBI agents,

led to the arrest and
conviction of AIM leader

Leonard Peltier.

- At that time we must
understand that the FBI

had a
political agenda that was
really

after any little
thing that members

of the Oglala Sioux tribe did.

- Something had to be done.

We were about to
be written off as

road kill cultures
of manifest destiny.

America was gonna move
down the road of progress

and didn't care
about Indian people.

If we got in the way,
you were just run over.

And many were.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] In the 1970s,
the civil rights group

The American
Indian Movement led
a nationwide

movement for American
Indians to reclaim

their
traditional heritage, their
religion,

and their treaty
based land rights.

(drumming) (chanting)

- I remember in the 70s, we were

all colonized on
this reservation.

It was just a small
pocket of people

who kept the
language
ceremonies,

the rituals alive
and Uncle Douglas

was one of those people.

He stood up and he
had ceremonies in front
of his colonized

peers and spoke
of Nationhood
and Statesmanship

and we were always
so proud of him.

- Back in the 70s
and most of the time

that AIM came and
the elders like

Douglas White and
Fools Crow and they

said we need to stand up
and honor our tradition.

(speaking foreign language)

(drumming and chanting)

- The American Indian
Movement northern groups

were savvy enough
to look toward these

powerful charismatic medicine
men to be part of their

movement and to give
people more than

just a political cause
but a spiritual cause.

And this was terrifying
to the federal government.

- I mean they had just
seen Martin Luther King

Unite a nation to
call for change.

They were afraid
of the same thing

happening in Indian Country
via these medicine men.

(solemn music)

- Through it all, the
government, the FBI created

a group called COINTELPRO,
Counter Intelligence Program,

COINTELPRO, they created
that to neutralize

the black movement,
the Black Panthers

and to neutralize the
Brown Berets, the Chicanos.

And they used the same
tactics to go after AIM.

- The government in
it's own documents

talks about using the
criminal justice system

to tie people up,
to drain resources,

to do all kinds of
things that they hoped

would destroy
the American
Indian Movement.

- [Voiceover]
The American
Indian Movement

occupied a small portion
of the Black Hills.

They called
it Yellow
Thunder Camp.

For two years Douglas White led

the Sun Dance ceremony
at Yellow Thunder.

- He was an elder
when I knew him

and he ran the Sun Dance
at Yellow Thunder Camp

in our sacred holy
land, the Black Hills.

Black Hills of what is
now called South Dakota.

(chanting)

- A group of people
called themselves

the Dakota American
Indian Movement

took over a
very infinitesimal
fraction

of the Black Hills
in a very remote area

in an effort to have
a place of worship

without interference
or hindrance.

(chanting) (drumming)

- Those federal
lands in the Black

Hills can be returned to us.

In our system and
according to the treaty

written by your government
state that it is ours.

- I'm curious to know
what kind of a society

then would you establish
in that nation?

- Well an individual would
have rights and the 25,000

years experience that
we've had in a perfect

form of government spiritually
based, would be reinstituted.

(solemn music)

- Camp Yellow Thunder
was part of an

attempt to reclaim the land.

(relaxing music)

(relaxing music)
(water trickling)

The little coaches have
always claimed that

they never signed away their
rights to the Black Hills

and they are in fact right.

Our US Supreme Court
has held that they have

a right to the Black
Hills, however instead

of saying that they were
swindled of this land,

it was robbed from them
illegally therefore

we should give them back
control of the land.

The Indians had to
take a price of what

the land was worth back then
with interest factored in.

But not all the stuff that's
been extracted from it.

(upbeat music)

So I believe currently it's
almost a billion dollars

that's sitting in
an escrow account.

For every Lakota that would
come to about one used car

and they have refused
it steadfastly.

They know
the value of
that land,

both spiritually
and economically.

And have refused, this is the
poorest of our nation's poor

have said no, we don't
want that billion dollars.

We want the land.

(singing foreign language)

- Crazy Horse, we
hear what you say.

One earth, one mother.

One does not sell the
earth the people walk upon.

We are the land, how
do we sell our mother?

How do we sell the stars?

How do we sell the air?

Crazy Horse, we
hear what you say.

- Within any people's
sense of probably since

at least Columbus
arrived, it's always been

about land and resources
and the indigenous

population has always
been in the way.

If you're going to eliminate
people's spiritual connection

to the land, one of the
ways that you can do that

is by eliminating their
spiritual leaders.

- [Voiceover] In 1975,
the federal government

sentenced Lakota medicine
man Leonard Crow Dog

the spiritual leader of the
American Indian Movement

to 21 years in federal prison.

He was charged with
interfering with the work

of a federal postal inspector.

(speaking foreign language)

- A lot of people don't
understand the functions

of the federal government,
the cohort functions.

But in order for them to
maintain control over tribes,

they have to keep us
in a state of turmoil.

And in other for
them to do that,

they're going to have to pick
prominent spiritual leaders,

political activists,
and to remove them

or cripple
them somewhat so
that we lose

the sense of leadership
and direction.

And with that
accomplishment, then

we're not going to stand up
and demand to be independent.

(singing foreign language)

- [Voiceover] On September
5, 1877, Lakota spiritual

leader Crazy Horse was murdered
at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

(solemn music)

He was brought there
under false pretenses

and was about to
be arrested and
sent to prison.

(solemn music)

(singing foreign language)

On December 15, 1890,
Lakota spiritual leader

Sitting Bull was assassinated
by the newly formed

Indian Police at Fort
Yates, North Dakota.

(dramatic music)

Two weeks later, on
December 29, 1890

the US Seventh Calvary
massacred over 300

unarmed Lakota men,
women, and children.

(dramatic music)

The victims were buried in a
mass grave at Wounded Knee.

(solemn music)

Among the dead were
Lakota spiritual leaders

Chief Big Foot and
Medicine Man Yellow Bird.

(solemn music)

- All of our great leaders
in the past from Crazy Horse

to Sitting Bull have been
systematically annihilated

and eliminated from our
culture, like Mr. White.

(singing foreign language)

- [Voiceover] Despite
his incarceration,

Douglas White continues to serve

his fellow inmates in prison.

(relaxing music)

- Once Grandpa White
came into the population,

the guards and the
administrators saw how

men, especially the young men,

who were filled with anger
and hatred and resentment

how they changed and
would listen to him.

- He helped everybody in there.

I mean there's black
guys, there Spanish guys,

the white guys, people from
different tribes he helped.

Even the guards, some
guards he even helped too.

- [Voiceover] Always
had a smile on his face.

I mean he
just talked to
everybody.

I mean from all walks of life.

- He helped other people,
he helped all the minority

people that are in there
plus other people too.

That's all colors,
he would help out

everybody and anybody.

It's just that,
that's the way he is.

That's his job as a medicine
man and as an ordinary man.

- I think if it
wasn't for the old man

and all the wisdom
that he gave me,

the commitment that
I made to his alter,

I think I would be lost.

(solemn music)

- Grandfather White is
one of the last living

true medicine men
in the world today.

And when he's gone,
this may be lost.

(relaxing music)

(speaking foreign
language)
(relaxing music)

- I think it's always been
done that they take the

leaders away, I mean
look at the whole thing

with Crazy Horse and they
turned our own people

on our own people
and that's historic.

And it's very artful to
turn Indian people against

Indian people but
it happens and our

biggest disappointments
are from there you know.

- I do remember a lot of
pressure from the lawyers,

the judges, people wanting to
get involved, angry people.

Just little boys having
to face such a very

big huge thing that
has to involve courts,

people with suits, you don't
know what gonna happen.

And it's scary, you
just want to tell them

to get lost and you wanna run.

(solemn music)

- After the trial and
everything, I asked

one of the boys and
he said, well our mom

told us we're gonna
get a lot of money.

- They were told by their
mom that he was gonna

receive a horse
and a lot of toys.

Which wasn't true you know.

- You know I just remember
my mom saying something

about you're gonna
get some money

or you're gonna get a check.

- They were children,

they were coached
and the government

used these kids of
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

to convict an innocent man.

(solemn music)

- Lloyd, he had real problems
after that and I knew he

really regretted he had
to tell lies about him.

Just one time he told
me that his grandfather

never did those things, he just,

he was told to say those things.

(solemn music)

- Nothing happened,
that's what Lloydy said.

- I just want to
ask Lloyd and Roy Jr

about what happened that
time if they remembered

and Roy Jr. said he didn't
want to talk about it.

And Lloyd, Lloyd
said it wasn't true.

- There's a lot of
physical pressure,

there was a lot of negativity,
there was a lot of lies.

There was a lot of
talks, so I got all

confused and distracted
and I didn't know

what was going on
so I just followed

along what they told me to do.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] In 2007,
Douglas White was

diagnosed with a
terminal illness.

Immediately following
his diagnoses,

Mr. White petitioned the
Federal Bureau of Prisons

for a compassionate release.

His request was denied.

- If you're a medicine man,

your spirits cannot
help you personally.

It's for the people but it's
not for your personal benefit.

(solemn music)

It's a hard calling, very hard.

(solemn music)

- Uncle
Douglas doesn't own
nothing,

he gives everything away,
he'll die with nothing

because that was his destiny.

He's a holy man.

- He's
needed because of
healing.

The people need healing
and you take that medicine

man out, then the people go
on in a kind of crippled way.

Their spirituality is crippled.

- Oh we need him.

We need him before
it's too late.

We gotta have him back.

And I hope the person
that put him there,

I hope he or she is happy.

I'm sure he's praying
for that person too.

- Right now, you
ask Douglas White

and he has pity for those
who incarcerate him.

- You can incarcerate
the body but you

cannot incarcerate the mind and
the heart of the individual.

(dramatic music)

- They said that everybody
turns out to be liked.

They're going to turn
around let him out

and they're gonna get
all the people who were

involved and do the
same thing to them.

That's why I think a lot of
people kept quiet about things.

- I was so young at the time,

I thought Douglas was going
to prison for a long time.

(solemn music)

- Man we were just little kids.

Little dumb stupid Indian
kids, little dirty Indian kids.

Being tossed around,
your own family

has something to say,
and other people.

You're like in the limelight,
the center of attention.

You're just basically a
dumb little Indian kid.

You don't know what's going on.

You don't
know who's going
to jail.

You don't even know
what's going on.

- I wasn't there at the time

they told him to
lie about Douglas

but I knew it was
coming from my mother.

My mom told him to say all that.

So he did it.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] As a result
of Roy Jr's confession,

attorney Terry Pechota agreed to

take on Douglas' case pro bono.

This was the first
time Douglas had

had a lawyer in 14 years.

(dramatic music)

- I initially got
involved in the case

at the request of Simon Ice.

He showed me the
material that he had

and I changed my
original opinion

about the likelihood of
prevailing on this case.

- Filmmakers from California

are trying to take the
case of an imprisoned

Pine Ridge Medicine Man.

- In 1991, a man
name Douglas White

was sentenced to
292 months in jail

for a crime some say
he didn't commit.

- The filmmakers were
in Rapid City today

and they say the
evidence now shows

that White did not
commit the crime.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] Roy
and Lloyd Helper,

both underwent extensive
psychological testing

to determine the truthfulness
of their statements.

(dramatic music)

- We have a session that
read about two hours

and 20 or 30 minutes.

And when the data was
finally all analyzed,

I found that Mr. Helper was
undeniably telling the truth

when he answered
those questions.

And that this incident
never occurred.

- [Voiceover] After learning
about this new evidence

several members of the
original federal jury

recanted their guilty verdicts.

- If I were given another
chance at this as a juror,

I would just vote not guilty.

I just would have to.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] Douglas
then petitioned

the Eight Circuit Court of
Appeals to reopen his case.

The court approved the petition
and ruled in his favor.

- You're optimistic?

- I am optimistic, I'm
very optimistic that

justice in this
case will prevail.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] The
case was then sent

to federal magistrate
Veronica Duffy.

Judge Duffy also ruled
in Douglas' favor

and recommended an
immediate hearing.

(dramatic music)

In response of these
favorable rulings,

the US Attorney's
objected to White's

request for a new trial,
claiming that Douglas

knew about Roy Jr's
confession five years

before it actually occurred.

- The government does not
want a hearing in this case.

They do not want to get
to the merits of this.

- [Voiceover] Despite
being provided

with evidence that the
prosecutions claims were false,

Judge Battey, the same
judge who sentenced

Douglas to 25 years in
prison, ruled against Douglas.

Denying him a new trial.

- Judge Battey is real racist.

- No matter what you say,
talk to you blue in the face

his mind is already made up.

He's really a hardcore
anti-Indian judge.

- When they went
before Judge Battey

with all the evidence
and the success

in Eighth Circuit
court and Judge Duffy,

they ran into a brick
wall, mainly because

nobody, nobody wants to
admit they were wrong.

- [Voiceover] Immediately
following Judge Battey's

denial, the case
was sent back to

the Eighth Circuit Court
of appeals and a petition

was filed for Douglas'
immediate release.

(drumming) (chanting)

- [Voiceover] This is First
Voices Indigenous Radio.

I'm your host
Tiokasin
Ghost Horse.

On November 2nd, there was a
demonstration in Pine Ridge.

They
marched through the
streets.

(drumming) (chanting)

How long is that
process gonna go on.

It is just hoping
this whole madness

goes away someday really soon,

so that the legal system
doesn't have to bother with it.

- It's time for the federal
government to stand up

and say alright,
we made a mistake.

- We think that in this case,
the truth finding function

was undertaken a long time ago.

And we're
not particularly
of a mind

to retry this case.

- [Voiceover] This is
a sham, this is a sham

on the United States government.

This is something we don't
hear because it's out there.

It's out way in the
remote part of the country

and we don't want to hear about

what this country is
doing to Native people.

- You know you would
think that the courts

would take it upon
themselves to say listen,

if the man is actually innocent,
we're gonna hear the case.

That's what we're here for,
that's what we get paid for.

(solemn music)

- I guess all I have to say is

that Doug was right,
he's innocent.

And I hope that he finds it
in his heart to be forgiving

and not to be hating
us, mad at us.

(solemn music)

- Here's the case
of Douglas White,

who is accused of something that

they just railroaded him with

and that kind of thing
happens all the time.

- We wonder how do those
judges sleep at night.

How does that jury
sleep at night.

But we pray, the Lakota
people we pray for them

because
they're thinking is not
right.

- Mr. White's case is only
the tip of the iceberg.

There's many, many more
that needs to be uncovered

and for the Eric Holders
and the President Obamas

and all the other people
in the high places,

to really take a good
look and really understand

the oppression that we are in.

- And so we pray for
them, that one day

that somehow, some way
that they will be touched

and their minds will be opened.

And then we'll share his
story and that will open

the eyes of the US Attorneys,
the Federal Judges,

the Federal Judicial
System, and what's going on

in Indian country.

(solemn music)

(speaking foreign language)

(solemn music)

(speaking foreign language)

(solemn music)

(singing foreign language)

(solemn music)

(singing foreign language)

(relaxing music)