Searching for Savanna: the Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many by Mona Gable

Author:Mona Gable
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

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Joe Greywind testified next. Sitting in the witness chair, Savanna’s father was tight, contained, his broad face a stone. He chewed gum, his answers clipped. He’d been smoking pot, he told prosecutors beforehand, to allay his anxiety.

Viste went over some of the same material she did with Norberta. Would Savanna have taken off for a few days, a few hours? the prosecutor asked.

“No, she was scared,” said Joe. “She wasn’t going anywhere. She worked. She didn’t go anywhere alone.”

“So what are you thinking?” Viste asked.

Joe didn’t really answer. “Called Ashton. Police came.”

“During the weekend, after you found out Savanna was not coming home, do you call relatives from all over the place to help find your daughter?” Viste asked. “Would that sense of urgency be because she was so pregnant?”

Joe didn’t really answer again. “Somebody took her. Somebody did something to her.”

He described his feelings. “I had a lot of anxiety and a lot of anger.”

It did not surface at trial, but Joe was working hard to be calm. He had a temper, had been in trouble with law enforcement at various times in the past. Mostly for minor things. Driving without a license. Driving with expired plates. Jaywalking. Failure to register a motor vehicle. But some were more serious, and involved drugs. At one point Joe received treatment at Spirit Lake Wellness Center. In January 2017, he was arrested, jailed, after he and two other males broke into a neighbor’s apartment, assaulted the couple who lived there. After being positively identified, Joe pleaded guilty to criminal trespass, acknowledging a jury could find him guilty. He was sentenced to 360 days, served seven, then was given credit for seven days. Subsequently, his felony was reduced to a misdemeanor because he avoided trouble.

When Savanna disappeared, continued to be missing, Joe was acutely mindful of his history. He told people he regretted how he’d behaved in the past. So he waited, tried to let the police do their job. He didn’t go upstairs, break down the door, try to force Crews and Hoehn to tell him where Savanna was. “Even though he fully believed his daughter was inside,” a source told me. “Because he was trying to change his ways.”

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