Common Ground

Trying to bridge the gap

Montana Indians are incarcerated at far greater rates
than non-Indians; prison officials want to know why

By Zach Franz and Marie Novakova 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

In 1962, Lester Killsontop was born on the impoverished Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in southeast Montana, but he didn’t stay there long. His parents were alcoholics, Lester says, and they used alcohol to put him to sleep from the time he was five years old.  When he was 13, Lester and his siblings were sent to separate out-of-state homes for foster care by the government. Killsontop went to Washington State, but came home in the summers. He never lived with a foster care provider for more than nine months, and was 14 when he quit going to school.

Lester Killsontop eventually moved back to Montana. In 1988, Lester and his brother, Vern Killsontop, were sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of a white man. Lester says his public defender was incompetent and the all-white jury biased. Prisoners are notorious for finding others to blame, but in this case the State Supreme Court lent some credibility to the claim. The court overturned the death sentences for both brothers after finding that mitigating evidence had not been presented at their trials. Both brothers are now serving consecutive life terms in the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

Interview: Wayne Brown

'They should do a prison only for Indians'

By Marie Novakova and Zach Franz 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Wayne Brown, a 62-year-old inmate at Montana State Prison, goes by the nickname “Hobo” because of his once-itinerant lifestyle. Now serving his fourth prison term, Brown won’t be released until he is in his 80s. Other Indian inmates chose Brown to serve for six years as the pipe carrier — an important and respected role in traditional Indian culture.

Could you tell us something about yourself, where you grew up and your short life story?

I grew up around Great Falls, place that they called Hill 57, a place, where they mostly kept, you know, mostly Indian people. They just put them all together and they gave them a piece of land, then later on they took it away from them.

I think that people treat Indian people differently than white people out there; even the guards around here treat them in a different way. Me and other three people, we sued the prison for digging in our medicine bags. See, that’s been seven or eight years ago now. And it still goes on every now and then.

Interview: Lester Killsontop

“When I was growing up I used to hear from non-Indians telling us that we are lazy and we are no good.”

By Marie Novakova and Zach Franz 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Lester Killsontop and his brother Vern are serving two consecutive life sentences, plus 40 years, in Montana State Prison for the kidnap and murder of a white man from Miles City, Montana. The brothers were originally sentenced to death, but that sentence was later overturned. Lester spoke with our reporters about his life.

Could you tell us something about how you grew up?

I grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. I lived with my family first, but we didn’t have a very good relationship; my parents were alcoholics. I had a rough time going to school, because first I didn’t understand English, my first language was Cheyenne. My parents had only part-time temporary jobs. I went to live with some foster parents in Washington, I was like 13. Our mother couldn’t really take care of us because she was drinking and she was dying of cancer.

I have seven brothers and sisters; we each went to a different family. In summer we would go back on res. In the foster family they were strict on me. They were strict on me but they weren’t strict on their kids. They were Mormons. Then I stayed with another foster family for about three months, and then I went back to Montana.

Interview: James Bailey

“They call me a Gray Belly, because we wear gray uniforms.”

A prison guard talks about his experiences behind prison walls

By Zach Franz and Marie Novakova 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

There are many Indians in Montana State Prison. James Bailey is one of the few who is there by choice.  After seven years as a prison guard, Bailey gives his perspective on Indians in the state’s correctional system.

Does it seem to you that everyone is treated pretty equally or you think there is some kind of racism?

The inmates get along pretty well. We used to have racial issues here sometimes.

Do you have some image of how many people here are Native Americans?

17 percent, maybe.

Why do you think this is so?

I don’t know, I can’t tell you. We have always had a high rate of Natives here.

Justice Delayed

Since 2004, 87 Romany women in the Czech Republic have filed complaints alleging coerced sterilization. They are still waiting for an answer.

Elena Gorolova holds her friend Helena Balagova’s granddaughter. Gorolova was sterilized after the birth of her second child, in 1990. Photo by Zach Franz.

By Zach Franz and Marie Novakova
Prague 2007: Common Ground

It is difficult to overstate the importance of children in Romany culture. Large families are the norm even among the poorest Romany, and the arrival of a baby is feted by the whole community. "No children, no happiness" is a common Romany expression.

So when Helena Balogova, a Romany woman from Ostrava in the Czech Republic, learned shortly after giving birth to her fourth child that doctors had sterilized her shortly after the delivery, and that she would never again be able to have children, she was devastated. 

"I felt ashamed and humiliated, and I still do to this day," Balogova, now 46, said through a translator during a recent interview at her home in Ostrava.

Few Roma stories in Czech media

Media and legislative efforts to resolve Roma issues have been a mixed bag

By Zach Franz and Marie Novakova
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Czech law number 98/2002 Sb., which concerns grant programs, sets up the conditions and the way of supporting the activities of minorities, and gives the Ministry of Culture financial support for media projects published or broadcast in the languages of minorities in the Czech Republic.

What's next?

Are we at the end or the beginning of our minorities project?

By Marie Novakova 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

I tried not to think anything about Native Americans before I came to United States. I was trying not to have any preconceptions, or prejudice. I was hoping that I could make my own opinion, my own image of Native Americans, based on what I will see and hear during our project – in the country, where Native Americans live daily life. So far for me, the only “Indians” I had seen were the skillful musicians playing beautiful music on crowded streets in Prague, with tourists buying their CDs, or the mysterious notions from books and articles I have read to prepare for the Media and Minorities project.