Trahant on SDPB

Guggenheimer is struggling to redeem his adopted state and Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. He interviewed Shoshone-Bannock writer Mark Trahant and producer Tom Curran today on Dakota Midday about the Catholic Church cover-up of the clergy abuses of Native children in Alaska. The second segment brings one story of South Dakota's own complicity.

Trahant, who was at Crazy Horse where he was interviewed by phone, writes about priest predators in Buffalo Post and describes the Frontline documentary:

One aspect of that story is the pedophile partnership between Father George Endal and Joseph Lundowski that began in the early 1960s. Endal, acting without the church’s authorization, named Lundowski as a “brother” and placed him in charge of a dormitory. The story shold [sic] have ended there when a student caught Lundowski in a criminal sexual act. But police weren’t told and the crimes continued for many years. “The Silence” was produced by Tom Curran, who grew up Catholic and is from Alaska. He has been working on the story for nearly four years. The veteran documentary filmmaker had shot several Iditarod races and said he felt a deep connection with Native communities. “I saw this as an egregious example of [what] the church did … and it was a story that had to be told.”

Natives are natural journalists; but, the need for committed litigating criminal and environmental lawyers that speak Lakota, Crow, and O'odham is critical. A class action against the Vatican is an idea whose time has come.

Cold and squally today with numerous graupel showers.