Over the past decade, hundreds of young Native women and girls have disappeared into the vast expanse of Montana’s Big Sky Country. However, little has been done to address this. A deeply disturbing set of circumstances is revealed in the brand new documentary series Murder in Big Horn, premiering today on Showtime.
In these cases, “arrests are uncommon and convictions are almost non-existent.” Law enforcement officials have responded with silence or indifference to the questions of troubled native families. Razelle Benally, an Oglala Lakota/Diné filmmaker, and Matthew Galkin are the co-directors of the three-part series. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month.
In an interview with Deadline in Park City, Benally said, “As a Native girl growing into a Native American woman, this fear of being taken, missing or killed has always been my reality. I had always felt so deeply about this subject. In addition, I have always incorporated social justice into my work. As a result, directing this documentary series was just a natural progression to my career as a director and filmmaker.”
Above you can watch an excerpt from the series for the first time. The fragment shows that fragmented authority over Indigenous communities, which ranges from federal agencies to tribal leaders, is one of the critical issues hampering the investigation of missing or murdered women.
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He says the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have a say in crimes committed on tribal reservations lawyer Mary Kathryn Nail in the video. The first people to arrive at a crime scene are BIA law officers, after which the FBI is contacted.
However, if non-Indians commit crimes on tribal lands, the BIA cannot prosecute them as criminals. Therefore, when we live in our homes on our tribal lands, our government is powerless to defend us against any crime committed by a non-Indian.
Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald and Razelle Benally are the show’s producers. Vinnie Malhotra and Matthew Galkin serve as executive producers. Jeff Hutchens is the series’ director of photography and David Mehlman and Fanny Lee are the editors. Laura Ortman created the soundtrack.
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