Vigil for Lenice Blackbird
Posted: Monday, July 27, 2020

On Saturday, July 25, 2020, nearly 30 people gathered on a steep hill overlooking the Missouri River in Sioux City, Iowa, to remember and seek justice for Lenice Blackbird, a 25-year-old Omaha tribal citizen whose body was found June 27 on her reservation after a brief battle with COVID-19.

An autopsy later determined she died from heat exhaustion caused by underlying health conditions, including diabetes and cirrhosis, but her family has criticized the Omaha Tribe for failing to heed their requests to check on Lenice and find her after she stopped calling her family four days before her body was found.

In the end, her family found her body near the tribally owned and managed cabins where she had been quarantining, supposedly under the care and supervision of tribal health workers.

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