No More Silence

Save Our Sisters Alaska campaign gives voice to unspeakable statistics

By Debra McKinney

Amos Lane needs answers. He needs to know the full story behind what happened to his mother on July 9, 1985. He was the oldest of five children, growing up in the whaling village of Point Hope on the coast of the Chukchi Sea. On that night, three men tortured, raped, and murdered Harriet Lane.

Thirty-five years later no one has been arrested for her brutal murder. Point Hope is a small, remote community, with a population of around 300 in those days, about half of what it is today. Many were related and, for the most part, everyone knew each other. Neighbors had to have heard his mother’s screams; some had to have known who did this. Why has there been no justice?

“I keep being asked the same question: Are you okay? I’m not okay, but I’ll be okay. I would like to see my mother rest in peace.”

Amos and his youngest sister, Eunice, tell their gut-wrenching stories of childhoods lost, spirals into self-destruction, and the quest for healing in the film Justice for Harriet. He speaks of his anguish from his carving studio in Anchorage, and she from her home in Point Hope, a place of ancient ancestors, strong traditions, and sun-bleached whale bones.

The 22-minute documentary is the first in a series on missing, murdered, and sexually abused Alaska Native women, part of a multimedia campaign initiative, Save Our Sisters Alaska, produced by Affinityfilms, Inc. The campaign aims to raise awareness, improve reporting, and inspire the search for solutions to Alaska’s devastating violent crime statistics for women and the justice system that often fails them. Alaska has the highest per capita rate

“I’m not okay, but I’ll be okay. I would like to see my mother rest in peace.”

— Amos Lane, above with his sister, Eunice, has been searching for answers in the murder of his mother since 1985. Their story is told in the film Justice for Harriet.

of violence against women, and these rates represent only cases reported to law enforcement. Indigenous women are at least four times more likely than others to be victims. The state also has the highest rates of rape, more than twice that of the next two highest states, Michigan and Nevada. The campaign’s film series, Silent No More, as well as its podcast component, Resolve, tell the stories behind these statistics.

MEDIA WITH MEANING

Justice for Harriet, a contender for several film festivals, is in its final editing stages, and more films are coming as funding allows. A trailer for the series can be viewed on the Save Our Sisters Alaska website, saveoursistersalaska.org, with haunting vocals and sound design by Pamyua.

Showcasing Inuit culture through music and dance, Pamyua’s world tour was cancelled by COVID-19, so the timing was right, as was the cause.

“It was a special opportunity to do something very sincere,” said group member Phillip Blanchett. “The film is a really good way of opening up the dialogue…

“I come from a rural community and have witnessed firsthand the depth of trauma and almost countless stories of trauma and abuse that are a part of the fabric in the lives of so many people,” he said. “So much of this abuse is hard to talk about. All the more reason we need to be able to talk about these things in a safe environment, where the focus is on growth and healing. We need to find a way to deal with the past.”

Affinityfilms—“media with meaning”—is an Anchorage-based nonprofit media production company that has produced documentaries on a wide range of social issues, including health, mental illness, homelessness, and environmental justice.

“We at Affinityfilms have a long history of using storytelling for healing and support,” said Mary Katzke, founder, filmmaker, photographer, writer, and producer. “It’s our hope that we’re going to be able to make some differences here in the horrible numbers we have.”

The Save Our Sisters Alaska creative team includes Katzke, producer; Deborah Schildt, filmmaker and director; Alice Qannik Glenn, podcaster; Rhonda McBride, journalist and “supreme networker,” as Katzke says; Tami Truett Jerue of the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center in Fairbanks; Keeley Olson, Executive Director of Standing Together Against Rape (STAR), and Tara Bourdukofsky, advisor on how to best

interview those who’ve suffered trauma in a culturally sensitive way.

In addition to films, the campaign is producing a series of podcasts with survivors of rape, childhood sexual abuse, trafficking, and other forms of violence against Alaska Native women, children, and men. Four Resolve podcasts have been released so far, with more episodes in the works.

As host, Alice Qannik Glenn already has a large following of her regular podcast, Coffee & Quaq, which celebrates and explores contemporary and traditional Alaska Native ways of life. The Resolve content, she said, is new territory. Difficult conversations sometimes come up in Coffee & Quaq, she said, but this is going straight into a difficult conversation.

“In Alaska, we suffer a lot of negative statistics, so we talk about that a lot. But numbers don’t always connect with people. They don’t connect with me. I minored in math, but still I’m not a numbers person. I think the stories really bring a name or face to the statistics. We’re not always comfortable doing that, but we have to if we’re ever going to be connected in some way on a deeper level. We have to humanize these statistics.”

Glenn is often praised as an exceptional listener. She grew up in Utqiaġvik with gifted storytellers in her family and community so she’s had a lot of practice. It’s all about respect. For her Resolve podcasts, she runs questions by those she’ll be interviewing so they can prepare and not be taken off guard.

“It’s part of the reciprocity thing,” she said. “I feel like they are sharing a really vulnerable story about themselves, and we have to give back in every way we can. We want to make sure they’re comfortable with everything they share.”

“Alice is a really gentle, careful interviewer,” said Katzke. “She backs off if anything starts to feel like it might be too much. But most people, once you give them the platform, they surprise even themselves with how well they can tell their stories and why it matters so much. And that, frankly, is what makes people interested. It’s what makes people feel compassion and empathy and want to support what they’re doing.”

In Resolve’s third episode, Glenn speaks with Britney Baier of Nikiski, a survivor of childhood sexual trauma and, as a young adult, sex trafficking.

“It was the first time I’d done a podcast so I was a little bit nervous,” Baier said in a subsequent phone interview. “Alice is amazing.

“Most people, once you give them the platform, they surprise even themselves with how well they can tell their stories and why it matters so much.”

I felt safe talking to her. I was excited about it because I want to get my story out there. I want to give others hope.”

In the podcast she tells Glenn of growing up in a home besieged by alcoholism and domestic violence, of being sexually abused by a cousin at six for a couple of years, then by a step-aunt at 12.

“I never told a soul,” she said. “I kept that in. I was kind of this walking ball of shame.”

As she tells Glenn, then came alcohol, drugs, sex, stealing, and dealing, anything to numb the pain. Her downhill slide accelerated at the hands of a big-time dealer and sex trafficker in California, to whom she ended up owing big money. He forced her to go to California to work off her debt.

“He was going to kill me and my family. He’d already killed my dog. We came home and he was dead and there was a note.”

Addicted, selling her body, and far from home, she was buried so deep in despair she didn’t care if she lived or died until a random man in a pickup truck rescued her from the street.

That wasn’t the end of it, she tells Glenn. But back in Nikiski, she eventually did start getting her life together through sobriety, faith, and sharing her story. Now a married mom of five, she loves her new path, which includes a career in marketing for the local radio station.

“I first told my story to my sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous, just that one-on-one between me, her, and God,” she said. “Once I did that, there was just a huge weight off my shoulders. I no longer had any deep, dark secrets and I started the process of healing.”

She’s shared her story many times since, to individuals, to groups.

“A little bit more of my story is revealed almost every time I speak. The process is just beautiful.”

LISTENING WITH HEART

Sealaska Corporation is among the organizations that have stepped up to help fund the campaign.

“After just a very brief conversation with Mary Katzke, it was apparent there was a lot of value,” said Matt Carle, Sealaska’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications. “For us down here in Southeast, the initiative was close to home.”

Watching a rough cut of Justice for Harriet cinched it.

“It was just such a powerful piece,” he said. “To us, it spoke to the human impact

“A little bit more of my story is revealed almost every time I speak. The process is just beautiful.”

— Britney Baier, left, with Alice Qannik Glenn, host of the podcast series Resolve. The podcasts are part of the Save our Sisters Alaska campaign.

and why (the campaign) is so important. It really forces communities and families to confront what’s happening under their nose.

“It’s such an important initiative, and we’re really proud to be able to support it in a small way. I’m just really impressed with Mary. We look forward to more great work from her and from the campaign.”

If more funding can be found, plans for the campaign include pamphlets, street murals, posters in airports, panel discussions through Alaska Public Media, as well as an additional nine films and eight podcasts.

Katzke and Deborah Schildt, director of Justice for Harriet, have worked together for more than 20 years.

“We’ve been involved with lots of causes, and this is one that hits to the center of our hearts,” Schildt said. “We see it as a human rights issue.

“As women first and Alaskans second, we feel compelled to do something about it. How can we make a difference with the skill sets that we have? How can we help get a message of change out there? People have been assaulted physically, emotionally, mentally in our state, how do you begin to help right that wrong?

“I think it starts by listening, listening really, really carefully… listening hard with your heart. Listening and thinking about how we can find a synergy, a way to collaborate, a way to work with our fellow sisters and our fellow Alaskans to bring about change.” ■

Debra McKinney is a frequent contributor to FORUM magazine. She is the author of Beyond the Bear.