Ken Bear Chief: Sexual abuse victims of church should act now before law limits right to face abusers

Dear Sir or Madame:
My name is Ken Bear Chief and I am an Investigator/Victim Liaison working with Tamaki Law Offices located in Yakima, Washington. For the past two years I have been assisting Native Americans who, as children, were abused by clergy, from the 1940s through the present, at Jesuit and Catholic mission schools, churches, and parishes in Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
During this time I have interviewed well over 100 survivors of abuse. The devastation and havoc that was manifested in the lives of childhood victims of abuse is readily apparent in all Native American Reservation communities where these mission schools were primarily located from the 1880s to the mid-1970s, and where some continue to operate to this day.
As an enrolled tribal member living on a reservation, and I know firsthand that our Indian communities have the highest rates of depression, suicide, domestic violence, divorce, alcoholism/substance abuse, child abuse, incest, murder, and rape in America. I never knew, until I began investigating this case, that much of this is directly linked to the traumatic childhood abuses suffered by Native Americans who attended Jesuit, Catholic, or BIA residential schools that operated on reservations throughout the United States.
Decades of abuse of Native American children by clergy has created a vicious cycle of multi-generational abuse in our Native American communities. Sadly, even those who never attended a mission school or a BIA school have been victimized by family members and others who were raped, beaten, and emotionally abused at these schools. Studies show that the history of abuse at the residential schools is a historical fact which has been brushed under the rug by the church and the government, but continues in our tribal communities in one form or another to this day…

I encourage anyone who suffered childhood abuse at Catholic or Jesuit Mission Schools to come forward now. Tamaki Law Offices wants to speak with anyone who suffered childhood sexual abuse at a Holy Rosary, St. Francis, Marty Indian School, St. Joseph Indian school, or anywhere else that the sexual abuse may have occurred to contact us for an evaluation of your claim.
Due to the passage of S. Dakota House Bill 1104, which was signed by Governor Mike Rounds amending the Statute of Limitations, time is of the essence. This law will be in effect on or about July 1, 2010.
Now is your last opportunity to come forward. Until this law goes into effect, Tamaki Law Offices will continue to reach out to survivors of childhood sexual abuse in South Dakota’s Reservations. If you are a victim of childhood sexual abuse and you wish to consult with an attorney privately and confidentially, you may call toll free (800) 888-9564. You must act quickly in order to preserve you right to obtain justice, fight back, stand up for your rights, hold your abuser accountable, and help insure that this form of institutional injustice is never allowed to happen again.

Go here for the full ken bear chief article on sexual abuse.

Thanks for reading.

Jodi Rave