I was flipping through the American Indian Quarterly and came across an
article on child molestors in the Navajo/Hopi Nations. It was rather
disgusting and shocking, and for some reason I thought I'd share it with the
net. So here is a small excerpt
- baylor
The authors have identified second-generation victims on the Navajo
Indian Reservation. In one instance, a father, himself molested by his non-
Indian elementary school teacher, now has two sons who were molested by
the same teacher a decade later. In the same vein, a thirty-two-year-old male
Indian maintenance worker employed at a BIA boarding school was arrested
for molesting five male students in their early teens. Less than two years
later, one of the victims was discovered sexually molesting a younger male
student in a BlA dormitory. The older student was placed into a counseling
program, but, due to insufficient funding and a heavy caseload, the social
worker was not able to adequately address the needs of the older student.
The older student eventually became despondent, attempted suicide and was
subsequently transferred to a larger city to receive extensive treatment at an
in-patient facility.
One phenomenon that has been observed is that many Indian
pedophiles were molested as children by non-Indian school teachers. The
authors have also observed the arrest of a female child molester. The woman
was a twenty-six-year-old non-lndian employee at a BIA boarding school
located on the Navajo reservation. The woman was arrested, convicted, and
sentenced to thirty months in a federal prison for sexually molesting a female
student who lived in the BIA dormitory. The investigation revealed that
several other female students living in the same dormitory were also targeted
by the female offender; each victim was at a different stage in the seduction
process. These observations have not been followed up bv any scientific
studies to determine if any general implications exist.
Over a three-year period, investigations on the Navajo and Hopi
Indian reservations have resulted in the arrest of five teachers for child
molestation or related offenses. Of the five teachers arrested, two were non-
Indian teachers teaching at BIA schools, two were non-Indian teachers
teaching at state-operated schools on the reservation, and one was an Indian
teacher teaching at a BIA school. The five teachers lived within a fifty-mile
radius and had little if any contaet with one another. The teachers were able
to avoid detection for long periods of time, in one instance for eighteen years.
The method of victimization used by each teacher is typified by the following
case.
In 1979, a thirty-four-year-old, non-lndian male was employed by the
BIA as an elementary school teacher on the Hopi Indian Reservation. The
teacher's acceptance into the Indian community was signified by his
participation in a religious "hair washing" ceremony. The school
administration, students, and community at large felt the teacher made
outstanding contributions to the educational system on the reservation. After
eight years of dedicated service, the teacher was arrested for child
molestation. During that period of time, the teacher kept an accurate record
of his sexual activities with 142 male students. This case is considered one of
the most widespread instances of child molestation in U.S. history.
Approximately one out of every twenty school-aged Hopi Indian males was
molested by this teacher. The last student named on the list, the most recent
victim, was in the second grade, and the first name on the list, the oldest
victim, is now in his early twenties. A majority of the students on the list
came from poor, dystunctional families. The teacher singled out these
students and provided them with food, a place to stay, and, most importantly,
affection. The students had their choice of dozens of video movies to see and
games to play. The teacher took selected students to larger cities off the
reservation and bought them clothes, shoes, and other items that the
students' families could not afford to purchase. Gradually, over a period ot
two years, thc teacher seduced the students by first touching them in
seemingly innocent ways. The teacher progressed to touching their genitals
and eventually to anal intercourse. During the course of the investigation, it
was revealed that two police reports had been filed previously and several
complaints were directed to the principal's office alleging that the teacher
was molesting students The teacher was so well thought of that in each
instance the teacher was exonerated of any wrongdoing. In February 1987,
the teacher was arrested bv the FBI and is currently serving a life sentence
in a North Carolina federal prison. Pursuant to an interview and
correspondence between the teacher and the authors, the teacher readily
admitted to sexually molesting the students but indicated his belief that the
good he did for the Hopi community far outweighed his transgressions.