1
00:00:06,520 --> 00:00:08,000
[wind whooshing]

2
00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:11,040
[suspenseful music playing]

3
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,640
[man] They tried to make it look
like I murdered some guy in cold blood.

4
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:21,360
And that's not what happened.
I'm a victim of a hate crime.

5
00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:42,760
[man] It tore me apart
when I found out he died.

6
00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,560
Him being another American Indian
brother, you know what I mean?

7
00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,400
I mean, that's like killing
my biological brother. That's how I felt.

8
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,200
[music swells]

9
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:09,280
[music fades]

10
00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:11,280
[theme music plays]

11
00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:13,960
[man 1]
we could all be dangerous people.

12
00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:16,440
[man 2]

13
00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:19,880
[man 3]
saying I'm innocent.

14
00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:22,240
[man 4]
some guy in cold blood.

15
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:26,040
[theme song fades]

16
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:33,960
[intriguing guitar music playing]

17
00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,120
[Makueeyapee] I was born in Montana.

18
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:56,920
1980. November 13th, 1980.

19
00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,600
They brought me back in a cardboard box
to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation

20
00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,120
because we didn't have the money to afford

21
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:07,160
a car seat or anything. Know what I mean?

22
00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,760
Everybody thinks
America is a place that is rich.

23
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,560
But what they don't understand
is that American Indian reservations,

24
00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:18,480
we're… we're third world countries.

25
00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:22,920
[music continues]

26
00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,200
My grandfather was Chief Running Crane,

27
00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,240
who was the last chief
of the Blackfeet Indian Nation.

28
00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:36,680
My dad was full-blooded Indian.

29
00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,560
That was part of
the heritage that I grew up in.

30
00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:45,000
But on my mom's side, they're all white.

31
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,000
My childhood
was a rollercoaster ride. Yeah.

32
00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:54,520
[unsettling music playing]

33
00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:12,880
[Makueeyapee] My mother had seven kids,
and we're all from different fathers.

34
00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,240
She'd move from place to place, all over.

35
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,000
I've been in Montana, I've been in Idaho,

36
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,200
Washington, California, Oregon,
all throughout the Northwest.

37
00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,080
The happiest time in my life
was when I was about eight years old,

38
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,400
and we lived in Idaho with my stepdad.

39
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:40,400
He lived on a ranch.

40
00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,320
I'd go out doing fence with him
and everything like that.

41
00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:44,920
We'd chase off coyotes.

42
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,040
But he started beating my mom, and, uh,

43
00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:55,120
that's why my mom eventually left.

44
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:01,280
So, I hopped off
the rollercoaster ride with my mother

45
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:03,120
and moved in with my uncles.

46
00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:11,440
[suspenseful music playing]

47
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:14,160
[Makueeyapee] It was wild.

48
00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:19,000
The east side of Tacoma
was the worst sector in Washington State.

49
00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:20,800
It had the highest murder rate.

50
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:22,840
It was filled with gang violence.

51
00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:27,640
I was part of
that criminal lifestyle, I suppose.

52
00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:31,000
My uncles worked full-time,

53
00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,200
and they didn't mind me
running around doing what I was doing.

54
00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,880
I'd wake up and start
moving around from house to house,

55
00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:43,080
and yeah, it was
nothing but criminal activity all over.

56
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,080
[suspenseful music continues]

57
00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,720
[Makueeyapee] I got my 18 money,
bought a car, everything like that.

58
00:04:57,600 --> 00:04:59,680
And I started spending money.

59
00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,920
Drinking, getting high, whatever,
you know, just partying around.

60
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,720
And, uh, I ran out of money.

61
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,520
And, uh… You know,
I didn't know what else to do.

62
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:13,880
So, I robbed a hotel.

63
00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,120
And, uh, it's kind of funny.

64
00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:19,600
I didn't get nothing
out of that robbery at all.

65
00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:21,160
It was an old woman.

66
00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:23,640
And I decided that,
"I'm not gonna rob this lady."

67
00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,160
But I had already went in there and
had the gun out and everything like that,

68
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:29,920
and pointed it at her,
and I'm looking at her, and I'm, like,

69
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,200
"I'm not gonna do this."

70
00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:41,200
[intriguing music playing]

71
00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,160
[Makueeyapee] I ended up
getting robbery in the first,

72
00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,320
assault, assault, assault in the second,

73
00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,880
eluding the police,
and a deadly weapon enhancement

74
00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:53,160
because the three assaults
in the second degree was for

75
00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:55,920
supposedly driving the vehicles
off the road.

76
00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:08,040
[dramatic sting]

77
00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,760
[Makueeyapee] My dad said, "When you go to
prison, take it as a college experience."

78
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:15,920
And that's exactly what I did.
I studied my butt off.

79
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,720
I… I didn't have
no schooling either at that time

80
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,320
because I basic…
I dropped out in about seventh grade.

81
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,880
But I grabbed book after book after book.

82
00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:26,800
And that's how my writing got so good.

83
00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,440
[soft guitar music playing]

84
00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:44,040
[Makueeyapee] When I got to the joint,
I was the youngest one on the yard.

85
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,640
The brothers seen it, and they
started training me and everything,

86
00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:49,800
about our traditional way of life.

87
00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:53,640
It was called the Indians of All Tribes.

88
00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:56,840
It was all about Native pride.

89
00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,200
One of the first things they did

90
00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:02,040
was give me the drum to hold
as a drum carrier.

91
00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:07,320
Because it's the heartbeat of the people.

92
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:12,320
And I found myself.

93
00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:16,760
[music fades]

94
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:20,480
[hopeful music playing]

95
00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:38,640
[Makueeyapee] From that point,

96
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,600
I started doing very well
in my whole life.

97
00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,040
[music continues]

98
00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:45,800
Within two months of being out,

99
00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,240
I met my baby's mama,
and, uh, we just hit it off.

100
00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:55,000
A month after that,
she's pregnant with my son.

101
00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:01,160
And then I end up having my daughter
within ten months of when my son was born.

102
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:04,880
I loved it.

103
00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:07,280
My kids were my pride and joy.

104
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:10,880
I was going to college full-time,

105
00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,000
and I started doing good.
I was a 4.0 GPA student.

106
00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,720
I was on the dean's list
at the Blackfeet Community College.

107
00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:22,040
I wanted to get my PhD in Native American
studies, in Native American law.

108
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:25,720
Specifically treaty rights and stuff,
and casino rights.

109
00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:37,920
My way of life
is the Blackfeet Indian way of life.

110
00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:42,600
But I also believe in
the unity of our people.

111
00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:45,520
I know different songs
from different tribes.

112
00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:47,280
I'll sing everybody's songs.

113
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,600
Whereas some people, it's all about
their tribe versus my tribe,

114
00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:53,640
or this tribe versus that tribe.

115
00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:57,680
It should be about the unity
of our people, not the disunity.

116
00:08:57,760 --> 00:08:59,680
And tribalism,

117
00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,520
that was kind of one of the things
that happened with this homicide.

118
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:08,240
[intriguing music playing]

119
00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:16,760
[Makueeyapee]
My friend Adrian After Buffalo,

120
00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:19,600
him and his wife were having issues,

121
00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,720
and he wanted to get back with his wife.

122
00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:25,960
She was over in… in Polson, Montana.

123
00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:31,480
He started looking for a ride.
I said, "I can take you over to Polson,

124
00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:33,840
and you can find your wife and your kids."

125
00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,520
So we headed over there.

126
00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:41,800
[music continues]

127
00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:58,600
[Makueeyapee] We rented a hotel and stuff.

128
00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:02,760
I bought a 30-pack of Budweisers.

129
00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,640
I told him, I said,
"You can drive, and I'll just sit back."

130
00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:09,920
That's what we did.

131
00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:14,880
We started cruising around,
going from one spot to the next.

132
00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:17,560
We checked some of the bars.

133
00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:21,320
Right before closing,

134
00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:24,080
we ended up
getting invited to a house party.

135
00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:28,040
[suspenseful music playing]

136
00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:36,480
We get over to the house party,
and I said,

137
00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:40,560
"Well, back up there, and we'll
pop the trunk, and we'll listen to music."

138
00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:47,120
I was feeling good.

139
00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:53,400
But, uh, the party was more inside
than it was outside.

140
00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,600
So I decided,
"Well, maybe I'll… I'll go inside."

141
00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:06,720
When I went in, I tried to make a joke
to try to fucking break the ice.

142
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:09,200
I said, "Hey, man,
where are all the Blackfeet at?"

143
00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:10,800
And I looked like this,

144
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,480
because this obviously
is the Flathead Indian Reservation.

145
00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:15,640
It's not the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

146
00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:22,160
I wanted it to be a funny little joke just
to kind of introduce myself to this group.

147
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,120
Some guy… Some kid standing next to me…

148
00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:32,280
looks over at me, and he says… he says,
"Shit, motherfuckers get fucking…

149
00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:36,560
get their asses fucking jumped
for talking shit like that around here."

150
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:43,360
These guys had some kind of issue
with Blackfeet, Salish, Kootenai

151
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:49,040
rivalry that dates back to the 1800s.

152
00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:52,160
But, uh, I didn't know any of that.

153
00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,600
I didn't know that Salish and Kootenai,
there was things going on there.

154
00:11:56,680 --> 00:11:59,240
And automatically I'm, like,
[blows] "Whoa."

155
00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:03,240
I'm in a house
standing next to a group of people

156
00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:07,080
and… that I don't know,
and you're talking about jumping me?

157
00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:08,760
I didn't even say nothing

158
00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:11,880
that I would consider,

159
00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:14,480
uh, any kind of derogatory statement.

160
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:19,280
And one thing that I learned in prison
is don't show fear.

161
00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:23,160
Don't show fear,
because the moment that you show fear,

162
00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:24,800
these guys are gonna jump you.

163
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,360
I had a knife because that's the
number one thing we protect ourselves with

164
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:29,440
on the reservations.

165
00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:35,280
And I… I pull out my knife, and I said,
"Look, man, if anybody tries to jump me,

166
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:36,840
I will defend myself."

167
00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:39,160
[tense music playing]

168
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,880
Another guy turned around, and he says,

169
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,360
"You know, uh, we all got knives in here."

170
00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:47,960
Pulled out his knife.

171
00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:50,760
His knife was like that.
That was just the blade.

172
00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:54,560
And I'm looking at them, and I'm, like…

173
00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,760
"All right. We all got knives. [chuckles]
You just calm down."

174
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:03,440
And I turned back around,
and I walked out.

175
00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:07,880
And I took a deep breath 'cause
I was outside. I was like… [exhales]

176
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:09,240
"All right, you're outside."

177
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:11,480
"You're cool."

178
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,200
This guy, John Pierre, Jr.,
comes out of the shadows,

179
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,120
comes walking right up to me
like he's going to fight me.

180
00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:25,400
[dramatic sting]

181
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:27,160
He said, "Hey, you know what?"

182
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,320
He said, "You know, Blackfeet
and Salish Kootenai are archenemies."

183
00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,040
I said, "Look, man, I ain't even
about that. I'm about Native pride."

184
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,640
"I ain't about all that."

185
00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:38,880
He just kind of looked at me.

186
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,760
And I started walking towards my car.

187
00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:46,240
And then all these people
come walking out…

188
00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:47,920
[music swells]

189
00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:51,120
…coming surrounding me.

190
00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,320
John Pierre, Jr. came at me.

191
00:13:57,920 --> 00:13:59,560
That's when I struck out

192
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:02,400
and stabbed this guy.

193
00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:06,400
[engine starts]

194
00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:10,240
[tense music continues]

195
00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:17,760
[Makueeyapee]
It was self-defense from a hate crime.

196
00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:21,840
I stabbed this guy one single time.
That was it.

197
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,840
[uneasy music playing]

198
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,360
I knew that those guys had knives.

199
00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:31,080
I felt that they were gonna come jump me.

200
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:34,640
Why were these guys targeting me?

201
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,520
Because I was Blackfeet.

202
00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:37,880
That's a hate crime.

203
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,120
That's what it comes down to.

204
00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:43,480
[music fades]

205
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:47,920
[intriguing music playing]

206
00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:06,560
[man] I was working patrol.

207
00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,080
Another officer and myself
were, uh, dispatched

208
00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:16,920
to a loud party disturbance.

209
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:19,840
Just go ask them to quiet it down.

210
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:26,040
We got two to three blocks away
from that address,

211
00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:30,160
and, uh, we got told
that there had been a stabbing.

212
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,240
[music continues]

213
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:38,280
This is the place.

214
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:44,400
And there was young men and young women
running from the scene down the driveway,

215
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:46,240
running around our vehicles.

216
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:52,720
As I got closer,

217
00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,160
I could see
a group of people around a male

218
00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,400
that was sitting on the ground here.

219
00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:01,400
That was John Pierre.

220
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,400
I've known him for a long time.
I've known the family a long time.

221
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:10,680
And when I… [sighs]
…uh, went up and talked to John,

222
00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:13,600
he… he did not respond back to me.

223
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:15,120
[sighs]

224
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,640
I… I would say that he was
already in a state of shock.

225
00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:24,200
The small amount of blood
that, uh, that was coming out of his shirt

226
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:29,720
made me believe that he had
a substantial bleed internally.

227
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:35,320
I… I talked to him until we finally…
He… He went unconscious.

228
00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:39,040
And we laid him back, checked for pulse,

229
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:40,880
and then we started CPR.

230
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:43,680
[soft music playing]

231
00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:57,160
[music swells]

232
00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:12,240
[Donald Bell] You know, we deal with
a lot of bad things, and

233
00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:14,960
it always, uh, is hard when

234
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:19,120
somebody from the community,
uh, dies senseless like this. So…

235
00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,200
[soft music continues]

236
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:25,280
[exhales]

237
00:17:25,360 --> 00:17:26,560
[dramatic sting]

238
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,000
[unsettling music playing]

239
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:38,520
[dramatic sting]

240
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,080
We have the motel surrounded.

241
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:52,560
[suspenseful music playing]

242
00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:59,680
We knock on the door, and the person
that comes to the door is Mr. Whitford.

243
00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:04,520
The room is quite in disarray.

244
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:07,600
Garbage on the floor.
Blankets on the floor.

245
00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:11,560
He initially denies
even being at the party.

246
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,040
Then he admitted that he had been there,

247
00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,960
but denied any, uh, part
of an altercation.

248
00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:27,520
When we have somebody that we're
talking to and they change their story,

249
00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,040
what are you trying to cover up?

250
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:31,840
Why would you do that?
An average person has nothing to hide.

251
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,120
But that's just how some people operate
when they try to get out of trouble.

252
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:46,720
[dramatic sting]

253
00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:54,520
[Makueeyapee, on recording] The cops came
to my room, and I tried to bullshit them.

254
00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:59,120
I'll be the first one to admit I was
scared as hell to… to even say anything.

255
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,240
That's part of my raising.

256
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:04,920
Don't talk to the cops. Don't say nothing.

257
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,720
You know? We have
a very deep distrust for the cops.

258
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,720
My… My uncle David was shot and killed
by the Tacoma Police Department.

259
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,280
We don't… We don't trust
the cops for nothing.

260
00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:19,360
[uneasy music playing]

261
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:21,840
[breathes deeply]

262
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,920
Just because somebody in some other place

263
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,760
had been treated poorly
by law enforcement,

264
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,760
um, doesn't justify not trusting us
that we're going to do our job here.

265
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,120
So, I think that was his motivation,

266
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,000
is to lie to try to get out of, uh,

267
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,720
the consequences
for his actions that night.

268
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,600
To me, he's not
showing any remorse for it.

269
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,520
Um, he's not happy that he was caught,

270
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:56,320
and he did not want to be
held accountable, uh, for what he'd done.

271
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,400
[dramatic sting]

272
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,160
[soft guitar music playing]

273
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,880
[woman] The state,
their version of the events

274
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,520
was to paint Whitford as the only
aggressor of the… of the evening.

275
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,720
But the concept just really didn't add up.

276
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:36,720
Whether it was justified or not,

277
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:40,160
in any argument or fight, there has to be

278
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,560
two people to engage.

279
00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:45,120
There had to have been some interaction.

280
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:51,000
So, I personally found Mak's
version of the events to be credible.

281
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,560
[guitar music continues]

282
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,600
My name is Jennifer Streano.
I was Mr. Whitford's trial attorney.

283
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,720
You are parole eligible
at a quarter of your time.

284
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:15,840
He received a 60-year sentence,

285
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:19,080
which means he should be
parole eligible in 15 years.

286
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,840
And the judge put
a 25-year parole restriction,

287
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,320
which would equate to him
receiving a sentence of 100 years.

288
00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:29,360
It is a brutal outcome.

289
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:37,600
Everything that he worked his adult life
to try to regain is now gone.

290
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:39,560
[dramatic music playing]

291
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:43,400
You know, all of that because of
a two-to-three-second decision.

292
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:45,240
You know, that's heartbreaking.

293
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:52,960
[music continues]

294
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,280
[kettle whistling softly]

295
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,160
[whistling stops]

296
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:06,280
Legally, Mak committed a homicide.

297
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,120
There's no question about that.

298
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,880
I'm sure he regrets that decision.

299
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:16,520
A life was lost,
and that's the ultimate tragedy.

300
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,160
But it is legally allowed
to commit a homicide

301
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:25,840
if you're afraid for your own life.

302
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,640
And so that's really where
the question comes down to.

303
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:36,600
Did Mak make that split-second decision
because he was afraid for his own life,

304
00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:40,880
or because he was angry or defensive,

305
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,200
or just, um, overreacted?

306
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,200
It's completely understandable
that Mak would react

307
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,320
impulsively in those circumstances.

308
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:03,400
He had… had a pretty rough upbringing.

309
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:09,280
And his trauma definitely
played into how he responded that night.

310
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,400
[music fades]

311
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:17,560
[birdsong]

312
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,520
[pensive guitar music playing]

313
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,480
[woman] Sometimes violence is so shocking

314
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:36,520
that I think it just kind of
overshadows all the good things.

315
00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:44,000
After Mak got out of prison in Washington,

316
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,960
he honestly was on this path
where he was amazing.

317
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,320
[music continues]

318
00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:56,760
He was doing everything he could
to make his life stable

319
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:01,920
and really push towards
advocacy for the Natives.

320
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,800
And that was really important to him.
That was a huge thing.

321
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,880
It is a tragedy to me
that it didn't work out.

322
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,200
But I think that Mak reacted

323
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,520
in the only way
he knew how at that moment.

324
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,640
My name is Amie,
and I am Makueeyapee's sister.

325
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:36,320
Mak's dad was a Blackfeet National,
and my dad is Cherokee.

326
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,520
But we share a mother.

327
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:47,000
She came from a really bad background,
a really hard background.

328
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,240
She had kids very young, at 12 years old.

329
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:56,240
She was 16 when she had me.

330
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,440
[Amie] At that time, the government
could come in and take children,

331
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,160
and it was perfectly legal.

332
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,640
Our adoption mentally broke our mother

333
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,880
in ways that she was
never able to get back from.

334
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:30,040
It left something,
just a hole there that she couldn't fill.

335
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,080
Nothing was ever stable or normal.

336
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:40,000
She inevitably made really horrible
choices when it came to men.

337
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,000
A lot of alcohol, drugs,

338
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:47,400
a lot of physical and verbal abuse.

339
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,480
[wind chime tinkles]

340
00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:52,480
Mak grew up with that.

341
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,760
[soft music playing]

342
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:04,760
[music fades]

343
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,080
[Makueeyapee, on recording]
incident with violence, I was three.

344
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,920
These two children
that lived across the street from us,

345
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,160
we always used to play
in the mud puddles and stuff.

346
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:24,480
[voice breaking] It's… It's hard.

347
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:26,840
It's hard to talk about.

348
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:32,000
[Makueeyapee clears throat]

349
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,560
That ended up coming to a close,
uh, with our next-door neighbor,

350
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:39,440
who I guess had been having an affair
with my mother,

351
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:40,880
and I didn't know it. Um…

352
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:43,760
We went over there.
She took me and my sister,

353
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:45,680
and there was an argument in the house.

354
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:52,320
He ended up shooting his, uh, wife
five times in the chest

355
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,720
with a .357 Magnum. And…

356
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:56,480
[inhales deeply]

357
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,600
This lady died in my mom's arms.

358
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,080
I don't remember where that guy went,
but when the cops caught up with him,

359
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:08,080
he'd ended up shooting his kids
once in the stomach, killing both of them,

360
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,480
and himself in the head.

361
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,200
Shot himself in the head.

362
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,280
[sighs] And, uh…

363
00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:18,800
all I could do was grab my sister
and cover her up and hold her. And…

364
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,160
I could tell you
other violence and stuff that happened.

365
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,240
But that was how my life started.

366
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:29,960
[voice breaking] Just…
That's a real powerful memory.

367
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,760
[soft music playing]

368
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:43,160
I feel for the child that Mak was,
because going through that was,

369
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,040
I'm sure, absolutely hideous.

370
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:53,880
He's, from his youngest age,
dealt with the reality

371
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,720
that these men can kill you.

372
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:01,600
You know, that was a life lesson
that I don't think he ever lost.

373
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,840
I think that it definitely speaks

374
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,600
why he would react so violently

375
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,640
to being in a situation
where he felt that he was in trouble.

376
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:17,760
Somebody tries to hurt you,

377
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:22,520
and you go straight back to childhood
and protecting yourself.

378
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,320
[music swells]

379
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,520
The Pierre family have
every right to be angry at Mak.

380
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,480
John Pierre never should've died.

381
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,880
But I don't think Mak meant to kill him.

382
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,840
I think he just wanted to get away
before he got hurt.

383
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:48,120
[music fades]

384
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,120
[unsettling music playing]

385
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,320
[man] Way in there like that.

386
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,440
-How are we? Yep. Throw him in there.
-There he is!

387
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,600
Good job. Then bury him.
You ready? Go. Go.

388
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,480
-Very classy, buddy. Yeah.
-[child babbles]

389
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,480
[unsettling music playing]

390
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,720
[Magnus Harlow] I got up to that party
about three o'clock in the morning.

391
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,160
Everybody's partying outside.

392
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,440
Everybody's laughing.

393
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,520
As I'm going into the house,
I ran into Whitford.

394
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:47,160
[unsettling music continues]

395
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,800
Whitford was a little bit tense.

396
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,760
The Blackfoot Reservation
and this reservation

397
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,960
are… two completely different… uh…

398
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:08,520
pieces of earth, man.

399
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,920
Is there still that mistrust
between our two tribes?

400
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:17,840
Yeah.

401
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,520
We started talking, and he says,
"Hey, do you know all these people here?"

402
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,240
And I said, yeah.
I said, "Yep. I know 'em all."

403
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,640
Like, out of nowhere, he just stops
in the middle of our conversation,

404
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,640
and he decides to, you know,
share with me, you know, that,

405
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:42,520
"I'm feeling threatened."

406
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,200
It was, like… [fingers snap]

407
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:49,680
… some switch.

408
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,000
He says, well… He…

409
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,920
He takes a knife out of his pocket,
a paring knife,

410
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,360
and it's got white tape or duct tape
around the… around the handle.

411
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,720
And he says,
"This is for anybody who wants to, uh,

412
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:08,400
you know, try to talk shit
or start some shit."

413
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,840
And I was, like, "Put that away!"

414
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,760
I was, like, "All these people here
are my family and friends."

415
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:17,800
I was, like, "Everybody's cool here."

416
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,000
God knows what could be
going through his head, you know.

417
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:25,080
The guy looks like he's seen some shit.

418
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,440
[unsettling music playing]

419
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,880
[Magnus Harlow]
We start having a conversation.

420
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:48,560
And, uh, Whitford
or Adrian said,

421
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:54,040
I remember it just, like,
hitting John in the face like a punch.

422
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,040
Piikani

423
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:04,320
And John says, uh,

424
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:06,880
"So, you're Blackfeet?"

425
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,320
And he says, "Yeah."
And John says, "I'm Kootenai."

426
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:16,120
And, uh, Kootenai and Blackfeet have been
sworn enemies for hundreds of years.

427
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:22,800
I think what John was doing was kind of
trying to establish that dominance.

428
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,120
"This is my reservation,
you know, and if, uh…

429
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,760
if you got problems or whatever,
we can handle it."

430
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,360
And fights happen, you know.
People get beat up sometimes.

431
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:39,360
So, my first thought of it… of it is,
"Don't let it go any farther than this."

432
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,520
I remember trying to defuse the situation.

433
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,640
"No, that was hundreds of years ago, man.
Times… Times have changed."

434
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,720
[unsettling music continues]

435
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,880
I'm in there for maybe
a minute and a half,

436
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:00,920
two minutes.

437
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:06,080
My friend runs in the house and says,
"They stabbed John."

438
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,160
"They stabbed John!
Get out here right now!"

439
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,600
So, I take off running outside.

440
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,600
John was laying down on the ground.

441
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:19,680
He wasn't responding to… anything.

442
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:22,520
He's still breathing. And, uh…

443
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:25,280
[inhales]

444
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:26,200
[clears throat]

445
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,600
[sighs] There was nothing
we could do about it.

446
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:34,160
[exhales]

447
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:39,440
[soft music playing]

448
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,640
John believed in throwing hands.

449
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:49,440
Maybe a little fight, you know, that's
probably what he wanted or whatever.

450
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,480
But he did not deserve to die.

451
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,240
John was a family man.

452
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,800
Took care of his two sons.

453
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:06,680
They were the center of his universe.

454
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:11,880
He should still be here. And he should
be with his family and his loved ones.

455
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:14,200
And he can't.

456
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:19,960
I think Whitford was paranoid.

457
00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:26,680
I met him for 15 minutes,
and he took away a lot of people's friend,

458
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,200
brother, father, and uncle.

459
00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:33,400
So, I couldn't care less about Whitford.

460
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:40,760
[music fades]

461
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:45,680
[unsettling music playing]

462
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,280
[man] I believe that Mr. Whitford
believes in his own mind

463
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,200
that he does nothing wrong,

464
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,640
and everybody else
is out to get him or hurt him.

465
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,520
And he's had that hardwired
into him since he was young.

466
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,440
My name is John Todd.
I'm one of the jail commanders

467
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,080
for the Lake County Sheriff's Office
in Polson, Montana.

468
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,720
I was one of the senior guys in the jail
at the time Mr. Whitford was here.

469
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,080
Mr. Whitford could be violent,

470
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:47,520
and often was.

471
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,040
If he didn't get his way,
then he immediately went to the violence.

472
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:54,640
We never knew
from one minute to the other,

473
00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:57,840
are we gonna be fighting with this guy,
rolling around on the floor,

474
00:35:57,920 --> 00:35:59,520
or is he gonna cooperate with us?

475
00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:06,120
He was, I'd have to say, kind of a bully.

476
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,080
He would poke at the smaller, weaker guys

477
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,960
and just poke and poke and poke
until they exploded.

478
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,200
And then he would hurt them,
or attempt to hurt them.

479
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,280
And then it was never his fault.

480
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,080
He was, "They did it.
They started it. It was their fault."

481
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,640
Even though he was the one doing
the poking and the… and the prodding.

482
00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:27,720
[suspenseful music playing]

483
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,240
He'd always say, "Well, I'm Blackfeet."

484
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:35,240
"And this is the Salish and Kootenai
reservation that we're on."

485
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:42,680
And he was instantly
on the, uh, defensive with whoever it was.

486
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:50,680
He just chose to believe that he was
being oppressed and… and picked on,

487
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,240
and so his… his reaction was to fight.

488
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:57,720
That was just Mr. Whitford.

489
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,600
[suspenseful music continues]

490
00:37:20,720 --> 00:37:22,720
[music fades]

491
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:25,920
[soft music playing]

492
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:39,040
[man] Whitford's position was
that he was the victim of a hate crime.

493
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:44,600
But there wasn't anything much
to support his version of the events.

494
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,000
All of the other witnesses,
all of the other evidence and so forth

495
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:55,080
seemed to be contrary
to what his self-defense claim was.

496
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:00,920
[music fades]

497
00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:05,560
[pensive music playing]

498
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:09,400
The Blackfeet and the Salish
were historically at war.

499
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:11,800
But that was 170 years ago.

500
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:16,800
While there may still be sometimes
some, uh, competition or tension,

501
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:19,920
in the meantime,
they've intermarried and interacted.

502
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,600
And a lot of Blackfeet come over here

503
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,440
and attend the college here
or get jobs here.

504
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:31,160
So, Whitford's position
that he was surrounded by Salish,

505
00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:34,120
and therefore it was a hate crime
and he had to defend himself,

506
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,880
wasn't a very persuasive argument.

507
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,760
There was no reason for any of this.

508
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,440
I sentenced Whitford to 60 years in prison

509
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:53,240
with a minimum of 25 years before he would
be considered or eligible for parole.

510
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,360
I thought that that was a fair sentence.

511
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:03,240
The consequences to John Pierre
were pretty darn serious too.

512
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,480
[music fades]

513
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:24,840
[Makueeyapee, on recording]
never even got a sentence.

514
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:28,080
I should have been… I should have
walked out of that courtroom.

515
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:29,800
You know, this was self-defense.

516
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,440
They didn't like the fact that I had
mentioned anything about being Blackfeet.

517
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,240
It's a hate crime
because of my nationality.

518
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,720
Their nationality as a Kootenai nation

519
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:46,280
and my nationality as a Blackfeet tribal.

520
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:48,720
That's what it comes down to.

521
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:52,360
[pensive music playing]

522
00:39:55,640 --> 00:40:00,280
Well, it's troubling
to hear him, uh, speak like that,

523
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,280
because in his mind, he did nothing wrong.

524
00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:07,920
Most people, even honest people,

525
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:12,680
recreate an event in their mind,
often subconsciously,

526
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:17,000
so that it's consistent
with their psychological needs.

527
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,320
I suspect that some of that was in play.

528
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,160
Mr. Whitford
and the fellow he was riding with,

529
00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:30,000
they'd had something like 30 beers
before they ever got to this party.

530
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:35,760
Whether he could remember accurately his
emotions or motives or why he did things,

531
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,080
I find that… questionable.

532
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,600
From what I understand about
Mr. Whitford's behavior

533
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:50,760
in prison since then, he hasn't changed.

534
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,800
For his sake,
I hope he will at some point.

535
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:58,240
Because otherwise he'll probably
spend the rest of his life in jail.

536
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,920
If I were to ask him one thing,
it would be,

537
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,400
"After all this,
have you learned nothing?"

538
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,640
"Have you learned
no lesson from this tragedy?"

539
00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:15,840
He killed another human being,
and that doesn't seem to bother him.

540
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,360
He's only feeling sorry for himself.

541
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:20,880
[pensive music continues]

542
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:25,000
[clears throat]

543
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:40,880
[music fades]

544
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:42,960
[end theme music playing]

545
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,000
[music fades]