Stephanie Woodard: Yankton Sioux victims want justice

Monday, October 31, 2011  

"South Dakota has an opportunity to get tough on sexual predators. State representative Steve Hickey (R.-District 9, Minnehaha County) has just submitted a bill to the legislature that would rescind a 2010 law that tightened the statute of limitations for claims of childhood sexual abuse. Called HB1104, the law made it harder to sue if the victim was over 40 when he or she decided to do so.

“All we victims want is justice,” said Izzy Zephier, an elder of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, who has brought a childhood-sexual-abuse suit against St. Paul’s Indian Mission, in Marty, South Dakota; the Diocese of Sioux Falls; and the orders that supplied the school with nuns and priests and other staff. “When you pass a law to protect the predator, you make it worse for the victim. Even when you protect victims, that doesn’t take away the lifelong damage that was done. But we want our day in court.”

Because HB1104 passed after about 100 American Indians filed abuse lawsuits, many have said those cases were targeted. “Passing that law said it’s okay to abuse Native American children in South Dakota,” charged Zephier."

Get the Story:
Stephanie Woodard: South Dakota Legislature Gets New Sex-Abuse Bill (Indian Country Today 10/30)