lost in the battle, the design includes a circular
mound of earth on which a platform supporting
bronze sculptures of Indian warriors will rest. De-
scribed by the designers as a “weeping wound,” a
gap in the mound will lead toward an existing me-
morial to the Seventh Cavalry, which was defeated
by Indian forces during the battle. (See also entry
for JUNE 25, 2003.)
February
Canadian Natives are outraged by an Indian
women’s murder trial.
In April 1995, Pamela George, a Native woman,
was found dead in a muddy roadside ditch outside
of Regina, Saskatchewan. Two 20-year-old white
male university students were charged with beating
the woman to death after friends said they bragged
about killing George because she was an Indian.
At the end of the subsequent trial, the judge
tells the jury to keep in mind that the killers were
drunk and that George sometimes worked as a
prostitute. Likely because of his instructions, the ac-
cused are found guilty of manslaughter rather than
murder. Native groups speak out against the judge’s
actions and the verdict, citing them as proof of the
racism rampant in the Canadian justice system.
February 7
Indian prisoner Norma Jean Croy is released.
After being incarcerated for 19 years, Shasta Indian
Norma Jean Croy is released from Chowchilla Wom-
en’s Prison in California. Croy and her brother Hooty
were convicted of first-degree murder in the death of
a police officer, whom she maintained was shot by
Hooty in self-defense during an altercation in July
- After Hooty Croy’s conviction was reversed by
the California Supreme Court in 1985, he was acquit-
ted of murder in a second trial in 1990. Norma Croy,
however, continued to serve a life sentence, although
there was no evidence to show that she ever fired a
weapon. Convinced that Croy was a victim of a racist
and sexist justice system, an international campaign
emerged in the 1980s to secure her freedom.
MarchThe Mohegan and Pequot return federal
housing grants.
Following the publication of an investigative report by
the Seattle Times, the Mohegan and the Pequot—two
Indian groups that operate successful casinos (see entry
for FEBRUARY 12, 1992)—return grant funds totalling
nearly $3 million to the Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), with the request that
the money be spent on poorer tribes. The Times ar-
ticle criticized HUD’s tribal housing program for
directing funds for low-cost housing to Indian groups
with sizable incomes from gambling operations.April 10Modoc author Michael Dorris
commits suicide.
The Native American literary community is
stunned by the suicide of Michael Dorris in a motel
room in Concord, New Hampshire. Dorris was the
founder of the Native American Studies Program at
Dartmouth College and the author of The Broken
Cord, in which he described his struggles raising an
adopted Indian son suffering from fetal alcohol syn-
drome (see entry for 1989). He was perhaps best
known as the literary collaborator and husband of
Louise Erdrich, the best-selling Ojibway (Anishi-
nabe) novelist and short-story writer (see entry for
1984). At the time of his death, Dorris was being
investigated on charges that he sexually abused one
of his daughters.April 10Lac du Flambeau Chippewa sign a fishing
agreement with Wisconsin.
Resolving the tense relationship between the Lac du
Flambeau Chippewa and non-Indian fishermen, the
tribe agrees to allow each fisherman to catch three
walleye trout a day in the waters it controls. In ex-
change, Wisconsin grants the tribe the right to sell
fishing and snowmobile licenses on their reserva-
tion. These licenses are good throughout the state of