Seven Tribes Casino croupier dies at Red Lake State Prison, sparking outrage
The family of a table croupier at Seven Tribes Casino in Thief River Falls, Minn., wants to know why she died of a suspected drug overdose while incarcerated at nearby Red Lake Detention Center.
Dwan White Owl, 42, is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation of North Dakota. She and her daughter, Danitra Warpaint, were arrested during a drug bust at Seven Tribes Casino on Friday, June 9.
The casino is owned and operated by Red Lake Nation. Because the alleged crime occurred on the Red Lake reservation, White Owl and War Paint were taken to the tribe's internment camp. According to her family, she was high on fentanyl.
The two women were placed in the same cell. Warpaint told Local News Online that from the beginning, she begged detention center staff to provide medical attention to her mother, who became ill after recovering from drug addiction.
Are deaths preventable?
It was not until midnight on Sunday night two days later that the white owl was finally taken to the Red Lake County Hospital. It was unclear why she was released and returned to jail two hours later.
Wopat and her mother stayed up all night and continued to seek help from jail staff.
Every time they come, I ask for help but they don't want to help," Warpaint told Native News Online. "They keep telling us to wait for the nurse to come in the morning, but when she comes in, she doesn't see her tomorrow. "
Late Sunday morning, the white owl stopped breathing. Staff attempted to resuscitate her and she was taken back to Red Lake Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Warpaint was taken to the hospital alone, where doctors later informed her of her mother's death. The family has not yet received an official cause of death.
White Owl’s sister, Shirley Belgaard, told the Grand Forks Herald that the hospital sentenced White Owl to a “death penalty” by returning her to prison for “natural detoxification.”
She also hopes her sister's death will help staff at Red Lake Detention Center and other correctional facilities better understand the dangers of drug addiction.
Justice Movement
"Our family is demanding justice for the inhumane treatment [White Owl] suffered while in the custody of the Red Lake Tribal Prison," Delgaard said in the GoFundMe campaign. "We intend to hire an attorney to hold Red Lake Prison accountable for its failure to provide reasonable care and for staff negligence in providing medical care to injured or sick inmates."
She described White Owl to the Herald as a woman who loved children and animals and whose smile could light up a room, but whose later life was marred by an opioid addiction.
Like many people with depression, they use humor, laughter and smiles to hide what is going on deep inside," Belgard told the Herald.
You can donate to the GoFundMe campaign HERE.
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Source: www.casino.org
