2 women reported abuse, rape to tribal cops. Justice only came when one was dead

NEZPERCE, IDAHO — Channa Henry had known who Bessie Blackeagle was since childhood, but they didn’t become close until adulthood.

That’s when they became "kind of inseparable," Henry said.

Their friendship continued after Henry joined the tribal police on the Nez Perce reservation in central Idaho, where the tribal member has spent almost her entire life, in 2017.

While on patrol, Henry had "a few run-ins" with the man who would become Blackeagle's boyfriend, Travis Ellenwood. She was usually responding to reports of things like disorderly conduct, Henry said, but also for allegations of sexual assault against Ellenwood.

In one case, she said, Nez Perce Criminal Investigator Daniel Taylor — one of three tribal police employees later found by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have engaged