The North Dakota Native Murders situation: "Keeping on, keeping on"

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note by Hunterbear:

[This is being widely disseminated.  Please forward to anyone interested.]

There have been no recent murders of Native persons in the Grand Forks,
North Dakota region -- and that may stem, in substantial part at least, from
the all-around Hell that many of us have been raising for almost two years.

Those of you who have been helping us publicize and protest -- and who
have been sending good thoughts -- have our deepest thanks.

At just about the very same time in September, 2001, three Native men --
Turtle Mountain Chippewa [Ojibway] -- were murdered in and immediately
around Grand Forks.  Jerome Decoteau, 50, was bludgeoned to death in his
Grand Forks home.  Robert Belgarde [40] and his son, Damian [19], were shot
to death -- and their bodies found in a rural setting just south of town.
So far there have been no arrests -- although rumours of impending arrests
float in from time to time.  We have had growing success in organizing
concerned people -- Indian and non-Indian -- around this issue which has
obvious racial connotations.  Grand Forks and environs have been a mess
since the massive Red River flood in April, 1997 -- and have been undergoing
a state of social deterioration and dissolution.  We've been able to
effectively publicize this tragic situation nationally.

In mid-July, 2002, 19 year old Russell Turcotte, a Turtle Mountain Native,
disappeared while hitch-hiking through Grand Forks at night on
Highway 2 -- heading to his home at Wolf Point, Montana.
Local police response was laconic and inept.  In early
November, his nude body was found by a rancher in the Devils Lake, N.D.
area -- about 95 miles west of Grand Forks just off Highway 2, the road
to Montana. No arrests have been made in this
hideous situation -- and the Turcotte family three months ago offered a
$50,000 reward across North Dakota for information leading to the
apprehension of the killer.

I see the Turcotte tragedy as being in an essentially different context than
the previous three murders.  The following is posted on our Lair of
Hunterbear website on the now full page reserved for the North Dakota Native
killings.  This contains a great deal of background info on the Turcotte
tragedy:

http://www.hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20COMMISSION%20PAGE%204.htm

Another page contains much background on the Decoteau and Belgarde murders:

http://www.hunterbear.org/NA%20Commission2.htm


And another page deals with the sorry and dangerous racial situation here at
Pocatello, Idaho:

http://www.hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20COMMISSION%20PAGE%205.htm

>From Hunter Gray [on our large website]:

There is no question in my mind  -- nor has there been for many, many
months -- but that the killer of Russell Turcotte has no North Dakota
connection other than the fact that he was simply passing westward through
the state on that hideous night in mid-July, 2002.  I continue to feel that
Russ' killer is an Anglo, maybe in his late 30s or early 40s, a so-termed
"professional" person with a quite good,  reassuring kind of car and
out-of-state license plates.

It's obvious that he is a criminal psychopath.  I would look for him in the
Seattle metro area -- and it's possible that reward ads placed in one or
both of the Seattle dailies might produce helpful information.  [I've
communicated these thoughts and related matters to the Turcotte family.]
A great deal of time and energy has been spent at Grand Forks and in
North Dakota on this tragic matter and it seems obvious -- given the much
publicized large reward with no tangible results -- that there is really
nothing there.

The September 2001 murders -- still unsolved -- of Jerome Decoteau and
Robert and Damian Belgarde are quite another matter.  It's obvious that
their killer or killers are in the general Grand Forks, North Dakota region.
The various levels of law enforcement are clearly remiss -- extraordinarily
so --  in not having made arrests long ago in these killings.

ANYONE WHO FEELS HE OR SHE HAS ANY INFORMATION RELATING TO RUSSELL
TURCOTTE'S MURDER SHOULD CONTACT:

North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation
Attn:  Jerry Kemmet
PO Box 1054
Bismarck, ND 58502
(701) 328-5500
bciinfo@xxxxxxxxxxx

We keep at it -- always have right from the beginning. And we always will.

Hunter Gray  [Hunterbear]  Regional Organizer, DSA Anti-Racism Commission;
Chair, Native American Commission, SPUSA
www.hunterbear.org [social justice website]
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the
high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings.  Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunterbear]