PROVIDED BY CNNNEXT.COM
Published on Jul 30, 2015
After Sandra Bland was found hanging from a jail cell now there are more and more stories involving women of color who are found dead in either a holding cell, a jail cell or in custody.

The latest story involves a woman from South Dakota who’s actually a Native American.

On July 6th, the death of Sarah Lee Circle Bear did make headlines, although it hasn’t gotten as much press attention as other stories.


The deaths in police custody of women like Sandra Bland and Rekia Boyd have drawn national attention to the potentially lethal threats posed to women of color by racist police.

On Tuesday, Indian Country Today reporter Sarah Sunshine Manning wrote about the July 6 death of a 24-year-old Lakota woman named Sarah Lee Circle Bear of Clairmont, South Dakota.

Circle Bear was jailed on a bond violation at the Brown County Jail in Aberdeen.

On Sunday, July 6, she was found unresponsive in a holding cell.

According to KELO, Circle Bear was taken to a nearby hospital where she died later that same day.

Witnesses said that when Circle Bear was transferred to the holding cell, she told guards that she was in excruciating pain.

Jail personnel reportedly told her to “quit faking” and “knock it off” before lifting her partway off the floor and dragging her to the cell where she was later found unconscious.