Neil Stonechild (August 24, 1973 – November 25, 1990) was a

Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, A ...

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

teenager who died of hypothermia because the

Saskatoon Police Service Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) is the municipal police service in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It holds both municipal and provincial jurisdiction. Police Chief Troy Cooper is the head of the service. The deputy chiefs are Deputy Chief Randy ...

left him outside of the city to walk back when he was intoxicated. There were accusations that the police service had taken him to the northwest section of the city and abandoned him in a field on a night when temperatures were below −28 °C (−18 °F). The practice is known as a starlight tour, and a number of such cases in the Saskatoon area have been referred to collectively as the

Saskatoon freezing deaths The Saskatoon freezing deaths were a series of suspicious deaths of Indigenous Canadians in and immediately outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the 1990s and early 2000s, which were confirmed to have been caused by members of the Saskatoon P ...

Background

Stonechild was an accomplished wrestler, having won a

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...

provincial title in Saskatchewan.

Death

Stonechild's friend Jason Roy was with Stonechild the night of his death. When first interviewed by the police in 1990, 5 days after Stonechild's disappearance, Roy provided a handwritten, signed statement stating that he and Stonechild had drunk most of a 40-ounce bottle (1.4 litre) of vodka between them. Roy also stated that he and Stonechild had parted company at "about 1130 pm", and that he had "blacked out" and had no recollection of what happened after he and Stonechild separated that night. In 2000, however, Roy stated that the last time he saw Stonechild alive, Stonechild was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser "gushing blood" from a cut on his face, and that the last words Stonechild said to him were "Jay, help me. They're going to kill me." Jason Roy's family was ultimately put into an RCMP witness protection program. Roy also stated that he had given the police officers a false name – Tracy Lee Horse – when they questioned him. Shortly after talking to Jason Roy, Constables Brad Senger and Larry Hartwig encountered Neil Stonechild's cousin, Bruce Genaille, and questioned him on suspicion that he was Stonechild. In 2003, Genaille told the inquiry that there had been nobody in the back of the cruiser at the time. At 11:56 p.m. on November 24, 1990, Constable Brad Senger performed a query on the

Canadian Police Information Centre The Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC; french: Centre d'information de la police canadienne, ''CIPC'') is the central police database where Canada's law enforcement agencies can access information on a number of matters. It is Canada's only ...

(CPIC) computer system for the names "Tracy Horse" and "Tracy Lee Horse", the false name provided by Jason Roy. Three minutes later, at 11:59 p.m., Constable Senger performed a CPIC query for the name "Neil Stonechild". Five minutes later, at 12:04 a.m., November 25, 1990, Constable Hartwig conducted a CPIC query of the name "Bruce Genaille". Genaille testified at the Wright inquiry that there had been nobody in the back of the cruiser when Hartwig and Senger questioned him."Overview of the Facts."
''Commission of Inquiry into the Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild: Final Document.'' Retrieved 16 March 2010. Stonechild's body was found, with one shoe missing, on November 29 by two construction workers. In the initial investigation of his death, the Saskatoon police determined that there was no foul play. Ten years later, however, his companion on November 24/25, Jason Roy, said Stonechild had been in police custody. Roy said he had seen his friend in the back of a police cruiser. In 2000 the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

investigated Stonechild's death and the deaths of other First Nations individuals thought to have been in police custody.

Inquiry

In 2003, the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

provincial government held a Commission of Inquiry (the Wright Inquiry) into Stonechild's death. The report concluded that Stonechild had been picked up by the police shortly before he died on the outskirts of the city. The inquest reported that the officers did not record the interaction in their log books. It concluded that marks on Stonechild's wrists and on his nose could have been caused by handcuffs. The report also concluded that relations between the police and

are problematic. However, the inquiry found that at the time of the death the police investigation was not adequate to conclude what the circumstances were surrounding Neil Stonechild's death. The inquiry concluded on May 19, 2004. Following the inquest, police officers Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger were fired. It was appealed but the firings were upheld.

In media

* Canadian musician Kris Demeanor's song 'One Shoe', (recorded by

Geoff Berner Geoff Berner (born 1971) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and musician from Vancouver. Musical career Berner originally studied piano in his youth. At a party, somebody asked him why he did not play the accordion. As a result, he began learn ...

) was written about Stonechild's death and the Saskatoon freezing deaths more generally. * Thomas King: ''The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. The illustrated edition.'' Doubleday Canada, 2017 pp. 200–201 (First ed. 2013: without illustr.) With a portrait of Stonechild * The podcast '' Criminal'' covered the case of Neil Stonechild, and the

, in their episode, "Starlight Tours."

Notes

External links

Report of the Commission of Inquiry Re: Neil Stonechild
Government of Saskatchewan
Report of the Stonechild Inquiry
APBnow {{DEFAULTSORT:Stonechild, Neil 1973 births 1990 deaths Deaths from hypothermia Cree people Violence against Indigenous people in Canada Canadian children