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Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah Shutterstock/Action Sports Photography
Salt Lake City
"It broke me": Native American sues Mormon church over sex abuse claims
The man said he has spent most of his life trying to avoid facing the abuse, which happened in the 1970s.
A FOURTH AMERICAN Indian is suing the Mormon church, claiming that religious leaders didn’t do enough to protect him from the sexual abuse he endured during a church programme.
The now-defunct programme placed thousands of American Indian children with Mormon families, who provided foster-care and an education programme to the youths.
The man says in a complaint, filed this week in Navajo Nation court, that he reported the abuse by his foster father to workers in the Mormon programme but was told to remain at the home.
The man, who is identified as L.K. in the lawsuit, said he felt relief to discover that he wasn’t alone when he read an article in March about two Navajo siblings who filed the first lawsuit making similar allegations.
He said he has spent most his adult life trying to avoid facing the abuse, struggling with feelings of inferiority.
“It’s horrible. You relive it. You see the person who did this. You see their silhouette,” he said about abuse that occurred when he was a seventh-grader (the equivalent of a first year secondary school student) in the late 1970s in northern Utah.
It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself.
Lawyer Craig Vernon said the foster father who allegedly abused the man had died. Vernon, who is also representing another woman who has sued, hinted that more lawsuits could be coming.
He declined to say how many, but he said other possible victims have come forward and there are ongoing talks to determine if they want to file lawsuits.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t commenting on the specifics of the lawsuit. But church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement that the religion doesn’t tolerate any kind of abuse and works to prevent it.
He noted that none of the alleged perpetrators are church leaders, but people associated with host families.
Reported abuse
Hawkins said that the alleged abuse of the four victims occurred in the 1970s before the religion created a programme to identify, address and report abuse.
“As awareness of the scourge of child abuse has grown in society, the church has been at the forefront of efforts to combat it,” Hawkins said.
Thousands of American Indian children participated in the Indian Placement Programme from the late 1940s until it declined in the 1990s and ended around 2000, he said.
The church didn’t give an official reason for closing the voluntary program, Hawkins said. The programme’s closure may have been linked to better educational opportunities for American Indians and increased sensitivity to native cultures, Hawkins said.
Vernon said he’s seeking monetary compensation for his two clients and for the Mormon church to change its policies to ensure members and leaders always report suspected abuse to authorities.
He also wants a formal apology from the religion to Navajos for the programme.
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