Editor’s Note: This story contains court testimonies and language regarding allegations of sexual assault and rape. If you or someone you may know has experienced an assault or rape and would like help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673 or contact SASO Durango, the Sexual Assault Services Organization offers a 24-hour, confidential support line at 970-247-5400.
Eddie Box Jr., a Southern Ute spiritual healer, took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon in a Durango federal court to describe what a spiritual blessing looks like.
He is one of two experts testifying for the prosecution in their case against Lyndreth Wall. He is there to support arguments on topics that jurors may know little about – Native American traditional healing practices and behavior of sexual-assault victims.
Box talked through the ceremony step-by-step: A smudging comes from various herbs – California sage, sweet grass, cedar and frankincense – and are packed together and lit until the smoke lifts. Singing or a prayer starts up. An eagle fan is raised to the east, south and to each direction, as it gets gently placed over a person’s head and their shoulders.
“The power is in the eagle wing,” he told jurors.
And, at the end, he said: “We ask the creator to put the cloak of armor on him or her, and we go over head to toe and … all the way down.”
Prosecutors have accused Wall of abusing women under the guise of traditional spiritual ceremonies, and his federal trial completed its eighth day Wednesday as the government is reaching near the end of its witness list.
Over the past week, the jury has heard from six women accusing the former Ute Mountain Ute tribal leader and Wednesday, they heard additional testimony from the experts and the FBI agent on the case.
Box spoke softly and firmly, tracing decades of training he said was passed down from his father, Eddie Box Sr., the late Bear Dance and Sun Dance chief.
Box said he has given over 1,000 blessings and each takes from 15 to 20 minutes.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Player asked whether sexual contact was ever part of such a traditional blessing, Box said “No.”
Later when asked if the blessings are ever given alone, Box added: “Never.”
During cross-examination, defense attorney Laura Suelau asked whether there’s specific, written criteria for these traditional blessings. When Box replied “No,” she offered him a counterpoint from his uncle’s book on spirituality and healing:
“In his book, he wrote 'I think everyone has a different way of doing this, so no one can say everyone does it this way or that way,’” Suelau read.
She later asked: “It is not a requirement to perform a ceremony with your wife, that is just what you and Betty do?”
“That is just what me and Betty do,” the witness replied.
Suelau then pressed him about what she characterized as an unfavorable opinion of Wall: “Fair to say, you guys aren’t close?” Box then agreed.
With an hour left in the day, prosecutors called their second expert, Sarah Deer, a professor at the University of Kansas and citizen of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma. Deer is a nationally known scholar on tribal law and sex-abuse policy.
Her credentials include a MacArthur Foundation award, a Carnegie fellowship, four textbooks, multiple testimonies before Congress, as well as leading an Obama-era task force on sexual assault in Indigenous communities.
Deer is testifying generally about victim behavior and is not discussing specifics of the case. Her testimony will continue Thursday morning with prosecutor Jeffrey Graves.
Wednesday morning was fully focused on an extensive cross-examination of FBI Special Agent Scott Crowley by defense attorney Summer Woods.
“People understand that an FBI agent is an important title?” Woods asked.
“I wouldn’t judge anything by TV in real life,” Crowley replied.
“You really don’t want people from the FBI to think that you have lied to them. As we have established, here, when you’re meeting with these witnesses, you’re talking with them about what is said in the past,” Woods then said.
“Each interview is different, it depends on what the purpose of that interview is,” Crowley then replied.
Themes of the defense’s four-hour-long cross-examination mainly questioned how the FBI handled the case. Woods not only brought up the pace of Wall’s arrest, but pointed to the completeness of the FBI reports – saying, “You know, we only get what you put in these reports.”
Woods spent considerable time pressing Crowley on why he didn’t record audio of his over 100 interviews with witnesses. She questioned why some reports were limited to one-page descriptions and implied certain details were noted but intentionally lacked elaboration.
“Most of the reports you wrote are a single page. These reports are not a transcript of what each woman said. They are your determination of a summary of what each woman said, ” Woods said.
“That was for trial preparations only,” Crowley replied.
“Your report does not capture everything she said on that topic?” Woods asked a little later.
“It doesn’t capture exact words,” he replied.
