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PARMELEE, S.D.听鈥 Weldon Poor Bear received a powerful gift on Father鈥檚 Day 35 years ago: the birth of identical twin sons.听
He fondly recalls raising them in the traditions of their native Lakota heritage, with sweat lodges, ceremonial pipes and sun dances. There were baseball games and cross-country meets 鈥 and his son Adam鈥檚 ambition to become a police officer.听
But memories are all that聽remain of Poor Bear鈥檚 biological children.听
Near midnight on March聽14, 2018, Poor Bear stood outside his house on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and watched, then listened, as Adam was shot and killed by a tribal police officer.听
Adam was unarmed, according聽to official records in the case.
It was a profoundly personal loss for Poor Bear, who had already lost Adam鈥檚 twin, Arthur, to suicide a decade before.听
But Adam鈥檚 killing is also聽part of an alarming and rarely discussed trend that has made Native Americans more likely than any other racial group to die in encounters with law enforcement.听
Despite witnessing聽some聽parts of Adam鈥檚 fatal encounter 鈥 including seeing him run from police and hearing the gunshot that ended his life 鈥 Poor Bear remains largely in the dark about why and how his son was killed that night.听
While accurate counts聽and solid information are difficult to come by, one thing is clear: Poor Bear is far from alone in mourning a Native American loved one killed by police 鈥 and searching in vain for answers.听
A Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team investigation examined deaths of Native Americans in encounters with law enforcement over the past 10 years, with a focus on the on- and off-reservation communities of South Dakota, where such fatal encounters are particularly common.听
Interviews with dozens of surviving family members, law enforcement officers, attorneys and others 鈥 as well as reporting trips to Native American communities both on and off tribal land and the examination of lawsuits, police records and other documents and data 鈥 give new insight about the forces that have been fueling these deaths.听
This investigation found:聽
Across the United States, Native Americans died at a significantly higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group in police encounters between 2017 and 2020.
A lack of funding for police in tribal communities contributed to fatal law enforcement incidents both on and off tribal lands.
Loved ones of those who died in police pursuits, police shootings and jails struggle to access even the most basic information about how these deaths occur.
A lack of accountability and oversight in the case of such deaths exacerbates distrust between Native Americans and law enforcement.
Such deaths often go unreported by media.听
Excluded from the spotlight
According to its most , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Native Americans died as a result of law enforcement interventions at a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 in 2020. That鈥檚 more than five times the rate for whites, who died at a rate of 0.3, and nearly triple the rate for Blacks, who died at a rate of 0.6.听
Tonia Black Elk, one of the lead organizers of , said such fatal police shootings are 鈥渟o prevalent now鈥 in the relatively small Indigenous community that 鈥渨e鈥檙e all related to somebody, or somebody has multiple people in their family鈥 who have died this way.
鈥淭he cops are doing this so much, in such a fast-paced way, that we鈥檙e all becoming related through this,鈥 Black Elk said.听
Law enforcement officials聽interviewed as part of this series argued that officers work hard to avoid such deadly outcomes.听
In an email response to questions, Robyn Broyles, a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesperson, wrote that police on tribal land work to 鈥渒eep Native people safe in their homes and communities.鈥澛
鈥淏IA and tribal law enforcement聽officers are not just employees working on reservations. They are most often tribal members themselves, with personal connections and a desire to make Indian Country a safer, healthier, more prosperous place,鈥 Broyles wrote. 鈥淎s such, these officers know the history of their neighbors and are intimately connected to the communities and law enforcement entities that surround reservations. This community relationship is a defining characteristic of what makes working in OJS unique and relevant to tribal communities.鈥澛
While the deaths聽of Black Americans at the hands of police have drawn significant media attention and public scrutiny, the fact that Natives are even more likely to die in such encounters has been largely overlooked 鈥 even by reformers, Black Elk said.听
鈥淲e get left out of all talks of police reforms,鈥 Black Elk said. 鈥淲e get left out of all talks of community control of the police. We get excluded from everything.鈥澛
A from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights suggested a lack of attention may be connected to a lack of reporting.听
鈥淭he best available data suggests that Native Americans are being killed in police encounters at a higher rate than other racial groups, but these killings may be undercounted by federal agencies and are underreported by the media,鈥 that report said. The report also found that 鈥渦ndercounting is compounded as tribes often lack media presence on their reservations and lack monetary resources to create and disseminate these public records.鈥澛
The CDC used 鈥渄eath certificates, coroner and medical examiner records and law enforcement reports鈥 to produce its data. Public databases that seek to compile such fatal encounters, on the other hand, rely on news reports to produce databases that track law enforcement killings by race, gender and other factors.听
A Lee Enterprises analysis of three of those online databases 鈥 , and The Washington Post鈥檚 tracker 鈥 identified 29 Native Americans killed in such encounters in 2020, while the CDC counted 40 deaths that year. The disparity between their counts appears to confirm the notion that some Native deaths in law enforcement encounters go unreported in media.听
Sunny Red Bear, an action with the NDN Collective, an activist group based in Rapid City, South Dakota, said the publicly available data is not merely inaccurate but also 鈥渕isconstrued.鈥澛
鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening is that the truth isn鈥檛 being told, that it鈥檚 not being talked about,鈥 Red Bear said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 being sugarcoated and covered up and swept under the rug.鈥澛
鈥楽迟谤颈办颈苍驳鈥櫬爎别补濒颈迟测
With 324 federally recognized , 574 tribes, and 87% of the 3.7 million people who identify only as American Indian or Alaska Native living tribal land, it is difficult to generalize about the causes of each of the hundreds of Indigenous people killed by police over the past two decades. Local and individual circumstances vary widely.听
In an effort to hone in on the causes and effects of high rates of fatal encounters between Native Americans and law enforcement, Lee鈥檚 investigation centered on South Dakota, where Native Americans represent about 8.5% of the state鈥檚 population but were victims of 75% of the fatal police shootings since 2000, according to data compiled by the .听
Future stories in this series will focus on fatal police encounters between Native Americans and local police in Rapid City, tribal police on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and Bureau of Indian Affairs police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.听
South Dakota is one state in a region of the northern Plains where a by the economist suggests Native people die in police encounters at an alarmingly high rate relative to whites, when adjusting the data to account for population disparities.听
Harvey鈥檚 paper focused in part on the , which extends from Montana to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There, Harvey found that Native American men had 14 times as many fatal encounters with police as white men over the period from 2000 to 2017. Using the same criteria, Native American women had 38 times as many fatal encounters with police when compared to white women.
The numbers are so high that Harvey initially had a hard time believing them.听
鈥淚 honestly ran the numbers at first, and I鈥檓 like, 鈥楾his can鈥檛 be right. This has to be wrong. My code is not good,鈥欌 Harvey said. 鈥淏ut then I went back and ran it again, and I鈥檓 like, 鈥楴o, the code is right. This is just 鈥 this is striking.鈥欌澛
Lack of resources
Municipal and state police departments have jurisdiction outside of reservations. But the federal government plays a major role on tribal land, where the BIA鈥檚 largely funds law enforcement.听
In some cases, personnel from OJS police tribal citizens directly, at a tribe鈥檚 request. But in most cases, tribes contract with the BIA to operate their own police departments. And when someone is shot on tribal lands, the FBI is tasked with investigating.听
That鈥檚 a job the FBI treats with 鈥渢he utmost seriousness,鈥 FBI Public Affairs Specialist Diana Freedman wrote in an email response to questions. Agents, she added, 鈥渟pare no effort in establishing the facts.鈥澛
In annual reports produced for Congress, the BIA acknowledged that public safety and criminal justice programs in Indian Country are woefully underfunded.
The bureau's most recent , which covered 2021, found total law enforcement needs for tribes amounted to $1.7 billion 鈥 but that only $256.4 million was spent.听
鈥淥verall, Indian country BIA public safety and justice is funded at just under 13% of total need,鈥 the report said. It also said that just 3,781 people were employed in these positions as of 2021 and that 鈥渁n additional 25,655 personnel are required to adequately serve Indian country.鈥澛
The result is police departments that are seriously understaffed, said Charles Addington, who served as the director of the BIA鈥檚 Office of Justice Services from 2017 until聽 2020 and is now chief marshal for the Quapaw Nation鈥檚 law enforcement department.听
Broyles acknowledged that 鈥渇unding and resource limitations do impact law enforcement programs in Indian Country as it affects a program鈥檚 ability to hire and retain critical police and correctional programs personnel needed to safely police and staff correctional facilities. It also creates challenges with updating aging police and correctional facilities.鈥澛
She noted that the BIA is working 鈥渙n several strategies to support recruitment and retention.鈥澛
Festering crime rates
Crime has festered on tribal land, and federal data shows violent crime rates have been more than 2.5 times as high on reservations as off.听
鈥淚 think everything鈥檚 related to crime rates,鈥 Addington said. The more crime, he added, the more you鈥檙e 鈥渋ncreasing the probability that you鈥檙e going to encounter someone that you may have to have deadly force or any kind of force with.鈥澛
When those encounters do happen, 鈥渢he fewer law enforcement officers you have working these reservations, the more dangerous it is for everybody,鈥 according to Walter Lamar, who is a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation and a former deputy director and acting director of law enforcement for the BIA.听
Having too few officers 鈥減uts the officers at much greater risk,鈥 Lamar said, and 鈥減uts the citizens of the reservation at much greater risk,鈥 because when police are outnumbered and overwhelmed 鈥渢here is a much greater chance there鈥檚 going to be some level of force used.鈥澛
Another factor that increases the odds of a deadly encounter, Addington said, is the prevalence of substance abuse on reservations and the fact that there are 鈥渧ery, very, very few鈥 opportunities for treatment near reservations.听
鈥淚f (a suspect is) under the influence of some type of narcotics and you encounter them,鈥 Addington said, 鈥渋t increases the probability that you鈥檙e going to have to take some type of force, or they鈥檙e going to do something that they normally wouldn鈥檛 do.鈥澛
And when understaffed and underfunded tribal or BIA police have difficulty keeping up with the calls and emergencies confronting them, Addington said, they don鈥檛 have time to properly train for such situations.听
鈥淲hile avoiding all fatal encounters is not a realistic expectation in the law enforcement field, the BIA Indian Police Academy does an excellent job providing quality classroom and role-playing exercises that teach officers safe and effective arrest techniques, use of force, and non-lethal tactics,鈥 wrote Broyles, of the BIA.
The dynamics that fuel Native Americans鈥 high rates of fatal encounters with police aren鈥檛 contained by the borders of reservations.听
Though it has not been intensely studied, from Harvey鈥檚 study suggests Natives die even more often off tribal lands than on them, including in border towns and big cities where Native Americans endure high crime rates and rely on predominantly non-Native police to provide safety.
Hurdles to truth, accountability
When Natives are killed in police encounters, bureaucratic hurdles mean the loved ones of those who die often are stymied in their efforts to pursue accountability 鈥 or even receive basic information.听
On reservations, this is due in part to a jurisdictional thicket that makes it difficult to know how to request records 鈥 or even who to request them from. In interviews for this story, the loved ones of those killed in law enforcement encounters all reported difficulty accessing information.听
While he鈥檚 adamant that he鈥檚 鈥渘ot a cop hater,鈥 Poor Bear believes that systemic problems like high crime rates, underfunding of law enforcement, poor training, low staffing levels and a lack of familiarity between officers and residents have not only fueled broader dysfunction on the Rosebud reservation but also directly contributed to his son鈥檚 death.听
And law enforcement鈥檚 lack of transparency, he said, has left him grieving and unable to move on.听
Asked about the FBI鈥檚 process for keeping families informed after a fatal encounter, Freedman wrote that the bureau 鈥渢ypically designates one point of contact within a victim鈥檚 family to provide updates on the case.鈥 She said the bureau鈥檚 victim specialist program 鈥渆nsures consistent support and assistance to victims and their families.鈥澛
None of the families interviewed for this series, however, mentioned being contacted by, or working with, an FBI victim specialist. And nearly all said they had never received documents such as autopsies and police reports, despite efforts to get documents that might address their questions or help them pursue accountability.
Poor Bear has tried to take what action he could. He said he has called 鈥渁ll kinds of numbers鈥 given to him by the FBI without ever getting assistance, answers or basic documents, such as an autopsy report. He even protested his lack of access to documentation before the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, the tribe鈥檚 , to try 鈥渢o get their attention.鈥 He put up a sign demanding justice for his son alongside similar signs for other victims of police violence on the reservation.听
Poor Bear believes those documents might help him find clarity and, perhaps, a lawyer who could help him pursue justice.听
鈥淪ometimes I ask myself, if there's nothing to hide, give me the paperwork,鈥 he said.听
Recently, however, the federal government did share some of those documents in response to a Lee Enterprises鈥 public records request.听
But after identifying 797 pages of documents and 33 minutes of video that were 鈥減otentially responsive鈥 to this request, the FBI estimated it would take 55 months to provide those materials. A Lee Enterprises reporter agreed to the agency's request to narrow the ask to 49 pages, a move expected to shorten processing time to four months.
Instead, in March, after eight months, the FBI provided 19 pages of documents with significant redactions, including blanking out the names of officers and witnesses. The U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office for South Dakota also provided a seven-page letter in response to the same records request.
The FBI responded similarly to public records requests for documents related to seven other fatal encounters with law enforcement on tribal lands in South Dakota.听
After Lee Enterprises filed those requests in the summer of 2023, the FBI鈥檚 Information Management Division estimated it would take between 4陆 years and 6陆 years to provide all documents related to each investigation.听
The FBI then offered to provide up to 50 pages from each one in about four months. Though Lee agreed to this expedited approach, the shorter timelines were not met in all but one case; the bureau released fewer than 25 pages in three cases; and no records related to three other investigations had been provided as of press time.听 聽
Salomon Zavala, a Los Angeles-based civil rights who has worked with families of Native people killed by the police, said the length of the FBI鈥檚 response time can preclude families from pursuing excessive force and wrongful death cases, which typically have a two-year statute of limitations. And he said the difficulty in obtaining documents seriously complicates efforts to root out bad cops and pursue broader reforms that might bring down the high rates of fatal encounters between Natives and law enforcement.听
Such accountability can鈥檛 be achieved, he said, without documentation.听
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have documents to evaluate and determine what exactly happened, then how do you hold someone accountable?鈥 Zavala said. 鈥淗ow do you know these agencies, these police officers, these detectives are compliant with the law?鈥
Unanswered questions聽
The records related to the killing of Adam Poor Bear offered his father a glimpse of what he has long sought: the official account of what happened near midnight on March 14, 2018.听
That account confirmed what Weldon Poor Bear believed: that his son was unarmed when he was shot.听
But the documents obtained by Lee Enterprises also left many of Poor Bear鈥檚 questions unanswered 鈥 and raised new ones.听
For example, the FBI鈥檚 summary of an interview with the officer who killed Adam alleges that Adam not only threatened but also 鈥渁ssaulted his father.鈥 But in an interview with Lee Enterprises, Poor Bear disputed that assertion.听
While he acknowledged his wife called 911 that night to report that Adam had hit the house with a hammer and was threatening to break car windows, Weldon Poor Bear said his son didn鈥檛 actually break any windows, never threatened him聽 and never assaulted him or anyone else.听
鈥淚t was just a disturbance call, someone calling on him, saying he was being obnoxious,鈥 Poor Bear said of his son.
But when the first tribal police officer arrived, Poor Bear said, he got out of his vehicle 鈥渁ll gung ho and hyped up鈥 and started 鈥渞unning right at鈥 Adam. That, Poor Bear believes, unnecessarily escalated the situation from the start.听
The officer told FBI agents, however, that when he approached Adam and 鈥測elled鈥 his name, Adam responded by saying an expletive and then, 鈥淵ou have to catch me first.鈥澛
A foot chase ensued as Adam led the officer through town and toward the powwow grounds on the edge of Parmelee. Poor Bear and his wife watched it all happen from their front yard, pleading with their son to give himself up. But Adam wouldn鈥檛 listen.
A second officer approached the scene soon after, FBI files say, but he told interviewers that he was prevented from joining the pursuit because his vehicle got 鈥渟tuck in the mud.鈥
That left the first officer alone to search for Adam, eventually finding him 鈥渓aid face down on the ground in the grass鈥 of the powwow grounds. The officer ordered Adam to stay still, the U.S. attorney鈥檚 letter says, but Adam disobeyed, 鈥渕oved towards the officer鈥 and asked the officer to 鈥渟hoot me.鈥澛
When he was within about 10 feet of the officer, Adam pulled his hands from his pockets and the officer 鈥渁ttempted to fire his weapon,鈥 FBI documents say. But no bullet was discharged, because the officer 鈥渇orgot to load a round into the chamber.鈥澛
The officer then loaded a bullet, FBI files say, and the officer again yelled at Adam 鈥渢o stop moving and get down on the ground.鈥澛
But the FBI FOIA office entirely redacted the officer鈥檚 description of why he pulled his trigger again, this time with his gun loaded.听
The U.S. attorney鈥檚 letter, however, fills in that blank with a description of what that office says happened: 鈥淎t one point Adam was 5 to 8 yards from Officer (Redacted), and Adam moved quickly and rushed towards Officer (Redacted) and pulled his hands out of his pockets in an aggressive manner. At that time, Officer (Redacted) fired one shot and struck Adam in the upper chest.鈥
The officer who shot Adam聽told investigators 鈥渉e never saw the hammer鈥 or any other weapon, the letter says. Neither did the officer whose vehicle had gotten stuck.听
Poor Bear said he was 鈥渨atching the whole thing鈥 from only about 200 yards away, close enough that he 鈥渃ould hear their voices,鈥 and that he didn鈥檛 hear anyone 鈥済iving direct orders to get down or get back or something鈥 to his son.听
But there鈥檚 no way to know what actually happened when the officer encountered Adam that night, as neither of the officers had their body cameras activated at the time of the shooting.
The officer who fired the shot was wearing a camera that 鈥渨ould not turn on,鈥 FBI documents state. And the officer who arrived next also had a body camera that was 鈥渘ot operational鈥 when Adam was being pursued and then shot.听
And yet, the U.S. attorney鈥檚 letter states, one of the officers was able to 鈥渁ctivate his body camera鈥 immediately after the shooting.听
Poor Bear said he was surprised any footage was recorded, even if it only captured the aftermath of the officer firing.听
鈥淚 wanted footage of the body cameras,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd they were like, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 have body cameras.鈥欌
These kinds of inconsistencies and gaps in the official account have left him baffled about why his unarmed son was shot dead despite having no weapon and harming no one.听
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I told the FBI: 鈥榃hy鈥檇 you guys do that? He didn鈥檛 hurt no one. He didn鈥檛 even do nothing,鈥欌 Poor Bear recalled. 鈥業 said, 鈥楾his was a disturbance call. What鈥檚 going on? What did he do?鈥欌
And while the documents obtained by Lee were the first Poor Bear has seen, he said the redactions, omissions and discrepancies mean he鈥檚 still 鈥渏ust living in limbo鈥 six years after Adam was fatally shot.听
The document he wanted most was his son鈥檚 autopsy, but it wasn鈥檛 included in the batch of files turned over in response to Lee Enterprises鈥 public records request. The U.S. attorney鈥檚 letter did, however, offer a description of the autopsy鈥檚 findings.听
鈥淭he trajectory (of the bullet) traced within Adam鈥檚 body seems to support the theory that Adam was angled forward, or leaning forward, or running forward, at the time the shot was fired by Officer (Redacted),鈥 the letter reads. 鈥淭HC and alcohol (.195%) was found in Adam鈥檚 blood.鈥澛
After viewing the letter and FBI documents, Poor Bear went to the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Law Enforcement building this month to demand yet again to see documents he鈥檚 sought for six years.
This time, he said, Steven DeNoyer Jr., of the Rosebud Sioux Law Enforcement Services Department, and another tribal officer allowed him to view tribal police reports as well as the autopsy. But Poor Bear said he was not allowed to have copies of those documents.听
DeNoyer did not respond to requests for comment, and Capt. Iver Crow Eagle declined to comment when reached by phone.听
While viewing the autopsy gave Poor Bear some more details about the physical cause of his son鈥檚 death, it left him wondering if his son was angled forward not because he was running at the officer but because he was complying with the order to get down on the ground.听
The U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office found that the officer who shot Adam 鈥渁cted in self-defense鈥 and should not be subject to criminal charges. But Poor Bear believes tribal police unnecessarily turned a minor family disagreement into a deadly encounter: 鈥淵ou should be able to resolve a small issue like that without no one getting killed.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 not against the police,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 just want better relations and better communications and better training."
