Four Navajos Sue the Mormon Church over Sex Abuse

By Rachel Cain
Think Progress
June 10, 2016

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/06/10/3787182/navajo-sue-mormon-over-sex-abuse/

A member of the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit this week against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) for inadequately protecting him from sexual and physical abuse he allegedly experienced during his participation in a Mormon foster program for Native American children. He is the fourth Navajo in recent months to sue the Mormon church for its neglectful oversight during the program—and more victims may still come forward.

The Indian Student Placement Program began in the 1940s and allowed Native American families to send their baptized children voluntarily to live with white Mormon families during the academic year, where they had access to better education. By the time the program ended in 2000, approximately 40,000 Native Americans from 60 different tribes, though predominantly Navajos, had participated in the program.

The program began at a time when the Mormon church believed it carried a responsibility to bring Native Americans to their faith. Many Mormons believed that Native Americans were the descendants of Lamanites, one of the lost tribes of Israel.

L.K., the latest victim to file a lawsuit, was in seventh grade when he says his now-deceased foster father sexually abused and whipped him. He confided in officials with the Indian Student Placement Program. They told him to stay with the family for the rest of the school year. The abuse continued.

The plaintiffs are referred to by their initials in the case file because they were minors when the alleged abuse occurred.

L.K. decided to take legal action now, 38 years later, after he came across an article in March about two Navajo siblings suing the church over the sexual abuse they experienced during the foster care program. The siblings, R.J. and M.M., were 10 and 11, respectively, when they first joined the Indian Placement Program.

R.J. alleges he was molested by members of his foster family and that his foster mother forcibly washed his mouth with soap if he spoke in the Navajo language. After he reported the abuse to LDS Social Services caseworker, they moved him to a new foster family—where he was molested again.

M.M. alleges a friend of her foster family raped her and her foster father molested her. A lawsuit filed in early June by a woman identified as B.N. alleges she was raped and molested several times between 1965 and 1972.

“I just said you know what, I’ve shut my mouth for long enough and it was just time,” she told a Utah radio station. “Being able to speak up and have people trust their leaders, that they’re able to come forth with atrocious situations without fear and without being blackballed in any way.”

The lawsuits assert that the Indian Student Placement Program was an effort to assimilate Native American children into Mormon culture and religion. The plaintiffs request that the Mormon church adapt a new policy that requires members to report sexual abuse to the police and that the church write letters of apology to the plaintiffs and to the entire Navajo Nation. R.J. and M.M. also request unspecified damages and the creation of a task force to help recover Navajo culture, and L.K. and B.N. seek monetary compensation.

Attorneys Craig Vernon and Billy Keeler, who represent the four plaintiffs, are consulting with other possible victims to determine whether they also want to file lawsuits.

The Mormon church, however, opposes these charges. The church filed a restraining order to prevent the charges made against them from being tried in the Navajo Nation District Court, arguing that because the alleged abuse did not take place on the reservation the court has no jurisdiction over the cases. The church prefers that the trial take place at a federal court in Salt Lake City—where the statute of limitations has already expired. They filed the restraining order prior to the fourth lawsuit.

Mormon church spokesperson Eric Hawkins emphasized that the alleged abusers were only members of the church, not its leaders, and that since the abuse took place the church has developed a cohesive program for reporting sexual abuse.

“As awareness of the scourge of child abuse has grown in society, the church has been at the forefront of efforts to combat it,” Hawkins said.

“It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself.”

Criticisms of the controversial Indian Student Placement Program led the U.S. government to issue a commission in 1977 to investigate it. The resulting report was largely favorable to the program, stating that Native American families voluntarily participated and that the program helped the Native American families learn to deal more effectively with white Americans. The report also claimed the Native American children were able to retain a firm grasp on their Native heritage while living with the Mormon family.

Members of a Facebook group for former students in the Indian Student Placement Program have expressed gratitude for their opportunity to escape poverty on their reservations to participate in the program, but repulsion for those who perpetrated abuse.

“Unfortunately the downside to this wonderful program are weak and sick souls who tried to administer the concept,” one post read.

And now, decades after these “weak and sick souls” allegedly abused foster children, the victims have the opportunity for justice.

“It’s horrible. You relive it. You see the person who did this. You see their silhouette,” L.K. said. “It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself.”

Rachel Cain is an intern at ThinkProgress.