I Keep Hearing It, Like a Ghostly Voice
By: Steve Mcmanus
Tags: Rape, Mental Health, Police Training, Native Women

“How could anyone expect a sincere investigation when Weinstein’s company commander and chief is also the alleged perpetrator?”, said Charles Upham, Misty’s Dad. “Misty said to me “Dad, every time a rape victim comes forward to get justice they become the cause of the matter!” This was not the first time Misty was raped and harassed by an Executive/Producer/Director/Actor etc. And you know who you are!”

She had been here before — reports of being gang raped on the reservation when she was 13:

“First there is the physical pain and never being able to forget it. The fear of having someone hold you down, the cheering and the laughter. All these noises won’t leave my mind. I keep hearing it, like a ghostly voice. But the physical is nothing compared to the mental.” It was not her first rape.

The trauma of these experiences left Misty with crippling panic attacks and Anxiety, PTSD and Bipolar Disorder for which she was heavily medicated. The stress had caused stomach ulcers and vomiting which eroded her teeth and required dentures at a young age.

Misty had left L.A. and returned to Washington to care for her father but in doing so had interrupted her mental health care. This resulted in a lack of access to medication for her condition and she suffered episodes which escalated — and on several occasions the police were called. On one such occasion they arrested her and the family claims they mocked her while she was in custody, making fun of her and taunting her while she was in crisis. When her family went to the hospital to inquire about getting her out, she had a swollen jaw, black eye, scratches and bruises. When asked how this had happened, Misty said she didn’t remember but she said she was afraid of the police. Her mental health issues were apparently not being dealt with by anyone in the system.

Misty’ father Charles Upham also had this to say regarding the incident at the Globes: “If Harvey Weinstein has become the poster boy of Sexual Harassment among the rich and powerful then Native American Women should exemplify the most disregarded rape victims in the Americas. According to the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) Indigenous Women have the highest rates of uninvestigated violent sex and abuse crimes among women per capita. Federal government studies have consistently shown that American Indian women experience much higher levels of sexual violence than other women in the U.S. Data gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice indicates that Native American and Alaskan Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the USA in general. First Nations women in Canada and Native American women in Border States like Minnesota and North Dakota have become the targets of commercial sex trade with little or no intervention from law enforcement. An intrinsic effort on the part of victims and advocacy groups was necessary to raise awareness so that Judicial, Legislative bodies and Politicians would be shamed into action on the behalf of the Native communities.”

Misty Upham died in October of 2014 arguably because police wouldn’t look for her when she had disappeared during a manic episode. Her blood alcohol was .33 and she was not medicated for her mental health condition. She had run from the police in fear when they responded to her residence for a report of suicidal behavior, and ducked out of sight just up the road but stepped into an unseen drop-off and fell 150 feet down a steep wooded embankment, coming to rest in an area just above the White River.