An indigenous woman accused of faking her death and that of her son before illegally crossing the border into the United States has indicated her intention to go to trial. Through counsel, Dawn Walker told Saskatoon provincial court that she intends to have a judge-alone trial. Walker and her seven-year-old child were reported missing in July after her pickup truck was found near a river at a park south of Saskatoon Canada. Some people feared Walker and her son had drowned in the South Saskatchewan River. It prompted a missing persons investigation and extensive community searches. Two weeks later, the mother and son were found by U.S. authorities in Oregon City, Ore. She was transferred back to Saskatchewan after waiving a formal extradition process. Court documents filed in the United States said the woman “thoughtfully planned and engaged in an elaborate ruse in which she faked her death and that of her son.”
Near the southern border of the Pine Ridge Reservation, a curved translucent roof peeks out a few feet above the dusty plains. It’s a blustery afternoon, but below ground at the bottom of a short flight of stairs, the inside of this 80ft-long sleek structure is bursting with life – pallets of vivid microgreens, potato plants growing from hay bales and planters full of thick heads of Swiss chard and pak choi. This is an underground greenhouse or walipini, and the harvesters are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. It is one of at least eight underground greenhouses that, over the past decade, have been built or are being constructed on the reservation. The day-to-day work is done by a team of about 20 community members, hired as day laborers and known as the “green team”. The community distributes baskets of harvested produce to some of the more than 300 community members that have opted in. They are also building a second underground structure and plan on constructing more of various sizes across the community.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI Newscenter.
