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with the Oglala Sioux tribe on the issue of unresolved deaths.
• "It was more of a stepping stone ... so (Johnson) can put some faces with names," she said.
• Baker said several family members of the 39 people were in attendance. Other people came forward with additional names of cases that should be reviewed, Baker said.
• Oglala Sioux Vice President Tom Poor Bear and council judiciary committee chairman James Toby Big Boy have led the effort to re

view the cases. The men wrote a letter to Johnson earlier this year asking that the U.S. Attorney reopen the cases. Last month, the two provided a list of 39 cases that they feel have gone unsolved or not sufficiently prosecuted.
• While the majority of the cases are from the 1970s -- when the murder rate on Pine Ridge was the highest in the nation -- there are three cases from the 1990s, including the deaths of Poor Bear's brother, Wilson Black Elk, and cousin, Ron Hard Heart. Their bodies were found in 1999 on reservation land just across the border from Whiteclay, Neb.
• "I really feel that U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson came with a sincere heart and a concern about these uninvestigated deaths," Poor Bear said, adding that the families simply want closure. "It gave them hope that one day they will find closure."
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