[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york this is democracy now! >> witn the la 20 yea, mo than 50000mericans haveeen kill by ovdoses. corolledeleased oxyconn -- whatf we diovered t crisis started with a crime? amy: as drug overdoses soar to record highs in the united states, we will look

at how purdue pharma and other drug companies fueled the opioid epidemic. we will speak to the oscar winning filmmaker alex gibney about his new two-part hbo documentary, "the crime of the century." then the remains of nine indigenous children are buried by the rosebud sioux in south dakota after beginning transferred from the former carlisle indian resident shall school in pennsylvania, where the children were sent over 100 years ago after being ripped from their families. >> remember me. there i will be. feeling free. amy: we will speak to

members of the rosebud sioux , who helped to return their re--- helped to return the remains of the children. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. at least four people, two of them athletes, have tested positive for covid-19 in tokyo's olympic village, ahead of the kick-off to the summer olympics later this week. meanwhile, one of tennis's biggest rising stars, 17-year-old american coco gauff, had to bow out of the competition after contracting covid-19. japanese officials announced earlier today, an unnamed american gymnast has also tested positive for covid. no spectators will be allowed at the olympics in tokyo, where there is very low public support for the event. in britain, prime minister boris johnson went into self-isolation over the

weekend after coming into contact with u.k. health secretary sajid javid, who tested positive for jonhson delivered a message to the british people from isolation sunday, one day before the u.k. lifted its coronavirus restrictions. >> this is the right moment, but we've got to do it cautiously. we have two or this virus is still out there and cases are rising. the extreme contagiousness of the delta variant. amy: in france, over 100,000 people took to the streets saturday, many spurred by right-wing politicians, to condemn president macron's plan for mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers and a health pass to gain entry to bars, restaurants and cinemas. two vaccination centers were also vandalized in france over the weekend. meanwhile the highly

contagious delta coronavirus variant is continuing its rapid spread across the globe, with poor, mostly unvaccinated countries bearing the brunt of its impact. namibia is rording a world record of 28 covid deaths per one million people as infections soar across many african nations. the world health organization is also warning cases are surging in latin america and the caribbean as the delta variant becomes dominant across the region. here in the united states, centers for disease control director dr. rochelle walensky said covid-19 is quote "becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated," as cases continue to rise in all 50 states driven by the delta variant with the most dramatic increases in areas with low vaccination rates. 20% of new cases are being reported in florida alone. u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy said vaccine refusal puts children under

12, who are not able to get the vaccine, at risk. >> our kids depend on us, the people around them, "protected and vaccinated, in order to she -- around them, to be protected and vaccinated, in order to shield them. we are seeing it increasingly in states like arkansas, missouri in the vada and my home state of florida. these surges within th unvainated population. amy: dr. murthy also says he expects more localities throughout the u.s. to reimpose mask mandates and other mitigation measures, as l.a. recently did, as numbers continue to rise. 99.5% of those dying of covid-19 are unvaccinated in the united states. meanwhile, at least five texas democrats who fled to washington, d.c. last week to block their state from

passing sweeping voter restrictions tested positive for covid-19. the legislators were fully vaccinated. a federal judge in texas ruled friday that daca, that is the deferred action for childhood arrivals, is unlawful, in a crushing blow to immigrant community and activists. the order does not affect current recipients for now but blocks the department of homeland security from approving any new applications. daca has offered legal protections and work authorization for over 800,000 undocumented people who were brought to the u.s. as children. judge andrew hanen said the program exceeded president obama's authority when he created the program through executive action in 2012. president biden vowed his justice department would appeal the ruling as he, and -- appeal the ruling. biden and other democrats called on congress to pass legislation providing a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants who have spent almost their

entire lives in the u.s. a joint investigation by 17 news outlets including the guardian and the washington post found israeli surveillance company nso group targeted the phones of journalists, activists and political figures around the world for foreign governments, using their pegasus software. a massive data leak, shared with the publications by amnesty international and forbidden stories, a paris-based non-profit, contained over 50,000 phone numbers gathered since 2016 which reportedly includes heads of state. it's unclear how many phones were actually breached. the report has identified 37 hacks out of 67 listed smartphones that were analyzed. the washington post said the cell phone of the fiance of its slain columnist jamal khashoggi, was infected with the malware days after his murder october 2018 at the

saudi consulate in istanbul. in climate news, the death toll from the catastrophic, -- catastrophic floods through -- that have for days tore through western germany and belgium continues to rise. at least 157 people have been confirmed dead in germany, while 31 fatalities are being reported in belgium. rescue efforts are continuing while hundreds of people remain missing. this is the heaviest rainfall many european countries have seen in at least a century. this comes as climate change fueled wildfires continue to rage across the western united states. in oregon, firefighters battling the massive bootleg fire were forced to retreat from portions of the fire line last week as the blaze keeps growing. as of sunday, the bootleg fire had burned nearly 300,000 acres, more than 70

major fires are burning in in the western -- burning in the western united states. the widow of assassinated presidenjovenel moise and a survivor of the attack at the presidential residence, s returned to haiti after being treated at a miami hospital. colombian authorities said friday a former haitian justice ministry official, joseph felix badio, may have ordered moise's killing. few other details are known, including his whereabouts. in occupied eastern jerusalem, israeli police attacked and forcibly removed worshipers from a mosque sunday, just two days away from eid al-adha, and as israeli forces continue their attacks in the occupied territories. this is sheikh omar al-kiswani, the director of the al-aqsa mosque. >> it is clearly provocative action. at dawn, israeli forces

evacuated worshipers by force. extremists -- occupation forces raided the compound and attacked worshipers who were in there until now. amy: prominent egyptian human rights activist esraa abdel fattah has been released from prison. she had been behind bars since october 2019, part of president abdul fattah al-sisi's brutal crackdown on dissent. esraa abdel fattah played a leading role in the 2011 uprising which helped topple dictator hosni mubarak. the first guantanamo bay prisoner to be released under the biden administration has returned to his home country of morocco. 56 year old abdul latif nasser was imprisoned for nearly two decades without charge and had been cleared for release since 2016. 39 prisoners remain at guantanamo. in afghanistan, some 12,000

families have been displaced and are in need of immediate assistance amid deadly fighting between afghan forces and the taliban. this is a displaced woman speaking from takhar province. >> we have not come here eagerly. 10 women and 10 men are here together. we had our own village and house before. whatlse can we do? our children are sick and we have no carpets or anything else. amy: intra-afghan talks have resumed in doha as the u.s. and nato withdrawal is nearing completion. in other news from afghanistan, pulitzer prize-winning indian photojournalist danish siddiqui was killed while covering a clash between afghan security forces and the taliban friday. siddiqui, a staff journalist at reuters since 2010, was embedded with members of afghanistan's elite special forces attempting to recover a district near the border

with pakistan. siddiqui is the first known journalist killed in afghanistan since u.s. and allied troops began their withdrawal. he was just 38 years oldnd is survived by his wife and two children. in washington, d.c., at least three people were injured in a shooting outside nationals park saturday night during a baseball game the washington nationals and san diego padres. multiple loud gunshots were heard, causing panicked fans inside the stadium to flee and seek shelter. gun violence erupted elsewhere across the country over the weekend. including washington, d.c. and other parts in chicago where eight people were reported dead and some 50 others injured in shootings since friday night. other fatal shooting's were also recorded in philadelphia and tucson. illinois has become the first u.s. state to ban law enforcement from lying and using other deceptive

methods when interrogating minors. the ban goes into effect in january. it will prohibit law enforcement agents from falsely promising leniency or claiming to have incriminating evidence when they don't. these methods are still largely allowed in the u.s., often leading to false confessions, with minors and people with intellectual disabilities particularly vulnerable. the remains of nine indigenous children were buried saturday by the the rosebud sioux in south dakota, after being transferred back from the former carlisle indian school in pennsylvania. on friday, another ceremony was held missouri river landing near sioux city, iowa, where the children departed their homes, ripped from their families, over a century ago, as part of the cultural genocide orchestrated by the u.s. government. we'll have more on this

later in the broadcast. with christopher eagle bear. in kansas, hundreds of workers at the frito-lay factory in topeka have been on strike for two weeks to demand fair pay and humane working conditions. workers say they are forced to work 12-hour days, including over the weekend, and many have not received a pay raise in years. in the summer, workers endure triple digits temperatures without air conditioning. multiple workers have reportedly died on the job of a heart attack. senator bernie sanders voiced support for the strikers over the weekend, noting frito-lay made over $4.2 billion in sales last year. and the civil rights pioneer gloria richardson passed -- died over the weekend at the age of 99. richardson was co-founder of the cambridge nonviolent action committee in maryland, which fought to desegregate public institutions like schools and hospitals.

richardson also spent much of her life fighting for economic justice. richardson described herself as "a radical, a revolutionary," and was one of the few women leading protests during the civil rights movement. in 2013, democracy now! spoke with her about her work, including the brief moment she took the microphone during the 1963 march on washington. >> i went up and by that time, i was so annoyed, i was going to tell them, you will just sit here until they pass that civil rights bill, even if it is just a week -- even if it is a week. amy: they pulled the mic from you. >> they did, they wanted me off of it. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, as drug

overdoses surge to a record high, we look at how purdue pharma and other drug companies fueled the opioid epidemic. we will speak to the oscar-winning film maker alex gibney about his two-part hbo series, "the crime of the century." stay with us. ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: "nobody beats the biz" by the late great biz markie. one of hip hop's true original voices, biz markie passed away friday at the age of 57. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the centers for disease control and prevention says u.s. drug overdose deaths skyrocketed to a record 93,000 last year, a nearly 30% increase. that's the largest one-year increase ever recorded. overdoses rose in 48 of 50 states. opioid overdoes accounted for nearly two thirds of the deaths driven in part by synthetic opioids inuding fentanyl, which is 50 times

stronger than heroin. overall, drug overdoses accounted for more deaths in 2020 than car crashes, gun violence and hiv/ aids combined. this comes as the nation continues to deal with the fallout from the devastating opioid epidemic that has killed half of a million people in the united states since 1999. 15 states recently agreed to abandon their fight to block the bankruptcy plan of purdue pharma, the maker of the highly addictive oxycontin. in exchange, purdue will release tens of millions of documents and pay a settlement expected to reach $4.5 billion. the owners of purdue, the sackler family, will agree to cede ownership of purdue but will not have to admit responsibility for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. they will also be shielded from future opioid lawsuits. meanwhile closing arguments will be held next week in a closely watched federal trial in west virginia

against the nation's three largest drug distributor. -- three largest drug distributors. we turn now to a stunning two-part documentary directed by alex gibney about big pharma's role in driving the opioid crisis. is titled "the crime of the century." >> the was a representive of pure and he said weick up a of the cal and takup as ch as yoneed and said it soundlike a dl. >> within t las20 years more than 500,0 americs ha been kied by overdos. controed-relse ocontin wi be the ug that triggered th ocontin - thatriggerhe opioi cris. wh if ittartedith a crime? >> we talk aut drugsike oxontin,e are lking about eential heroi

pills. it was staed for chric pain conditions. >> pure didn't haveny iden the druwas safe e compy obtaed the heth -- e help a mecal offir at theda. this is theirst tim i've eveseen this. is isn't justnethical this cld be ilgal. >> hdredof thoands o pillreps mee with doors d say the a approv this. big phar celebted s marketg. lung docto to writg scpts. >>hey re drug alers aring sus and lacoats. bically he is se moy, writeome scris. >> early th were eaki theaw. >>urduends up tting rsued byhe authorities the mpy li under oh. etcs did n play a re. e compy took oer checooks to y. ou areasicly telling armaceical cpanies y have a gen lighto do is.

>>t plains how america got hked on ooids. octors wilng to b paid >> the abu expdes and spread le cancer >> youobjectivto fetch high dos >> other companiidn' ke thathey werbeing held accntable. ey dided to ange the statute. >> they should changing thr behavis, not t rules. >>eoe were dng by th tensf thousas. the onlyepresentates arbasicallselling em downhe river >> you could talto peopl whose ves haveeen uched. whatoes matt to a loof the peoples truth. amhat's the ailer to "the cri of the ntury," a o-partocumenta avaible on h and hbo x. the seri is direed by academy awd-winnin domentary lmmaker,lex gibney, who joins us now. his other films include, "enron: the smartest guys in the room," "going clear:

scientology and the prison of belief," and the oscar-winning "taxi to the dark side." alex gibney joins us from summit, new jersey. welcome back to democracy now. this is a powerful explosive documentary that describes the sackler family purdue pharma as a sort of crime syndicate. can you talk about why you got interested in this and then lay out the crime of the century? alex: i think this started for me when i had a discussion with a group of investigative journalists at the washington post who collaborated with me on this project as well as some other journalists, and they sketched out the scope of this opioid crisis over the urse of 20 years. as they talked to me, i realize the big problem was we had been seeing it as a crisis, like a nural disaster, like a flood or hurricane, rather than as a

series of crimes, and the crimes really coalesce around the idea of fraud. it was purdue pharma that really launched that fraud with a drug called oxycontin, which is a time-released opioid. what they did initially was gain approval by the fda, and they worked with a man who was at the fda and essentially worked with him to write the review of tir own application. they got inserted into the package, the paper that comes along with the prescription, two notes. one that it was not terribly addictive and two because of the time-released system, it wasn't prone to abuse. neither of those things were true but their salesman used those pieces of information to aggressively mount a campaign for greater and greater use of the drug.

this is a powerful and very useful drug for people with end-of-life cancer pain, for example. they wanted to expand the market rather dramatically. as the perdue sales would say, the one to start with and the one to stay with. you might prescribe it for knee pain for a high sool athlete. that kind of thing. that is how the opioid crisis really started, with fraud. it spread from there. amy: tell us who the sackler s are and who the men were in the family, who began this and understood it is essential not only to produce the drug but to sell it, and the kind of scheme that they developed to include drugstores, doctors, and on. alex: the sacklers, the key sacklers were three brothers, arthur, mortimer

and raymond. at some point in time, they all found themselves in a psychiatric facility and they were rather appalled at some of the procedures they were forced to do, formidable lobotomies and electroshock therapy. they thought wouldn't it be better to find a pharmacological solution to some of these melodies? that is where this started, with a sense of idealism. it quickly turned the eldest brother -- developing a mechanism of selling drugs like you would sell soap. he became famoufor pushing valium. it was the model for what would become the selling mechanism for oxycontin, pitch directly to doctors, sometimes remunerate them

and use all sorts of madison avenue techniques to pump up the volume. arthur died before the introduction of oxycontin, but mortimer and raymond established purdue, frederick and purdue pharma, two companies that wou make and market oxycontin. raymond's son, richard sackler, is the guy who is most associated with oxycontin. he was the guy who developed a strategy to pitch directly to doctors, sometimes hiring doctors for speakers programs, which would effectively cause them to take money to prescribe more and more oxycontin, and also promote the use of oxycontin to doctors all over the country and kind of convince them that people who took it would not be at risk of addiction, and that it could not be easily abused. they came up with a term or

they became famous for really pushing a term called pseudo-addiction, which is to say you can't really be addicted to oxycontin, no matter how -- no matter how high up the scale you go in terms of volume. that is pseudo-addiction because it is the pain you are suffering from, not the need for the drug. all of these things were false, and they knew that to some extent, their business model depended on bad doctors, pill mills, which were sometimes pharmacies and sometimes doctors purposefully miss prescribing -- mis- prescribing this drug. it held sucpowerful opioid material that you could just dissolve it into water and either shoot it or dust crush it and snort it. they were like heroin pills. amy: let me go to video

testimony of dr. richard sackler from 2019. the maker of oxycontin, a part of the deposition he gave in 2015 in kentucky, the company waged a three-year legal battle to keep this video secret. sackler was questioned by tyler thompson. >> sitting he today,fter all y have comeo learn as a witssdo you bieve puue' cduct in marketg and promoting of oxyconticaused a of e presiption dg addictn problems nowlaguing e commwealth? >> don't belie so. >> sting hertoday after alu havcome to arn witnessdo you bieve puue' condu has ledo an eesve or unnessary ount of opids bei loted thughout t coonwealth? >> i d't lieve so

>>o you lieve th any ofurdue'sonduct h led to an ireasin peopl being addicte and the commonwealth of kentucky? >> no. amy: the significance of this, alex gibney, and how rarely we hear the voices of the sacklers. alex: that is true. it is a great thing that they did, and we worked with them to further release more of that deposition. what is staggering about that exchange is that you see that richard sackler doesn't have any sense of sorrow or responsibility at all, for the opioid crisis, whent is quite clear, and don't just takmy word for it, but there were federal investigations into purdue. it is quite clear that they bear an enormous responsible -- under enormous responsibility for the debts of over 500,000 people.

the idea that he could simply brush off any sense of response ability at all is staggering. but then, you see that often with people who allow themselves to rationalize their havior. a professor of mine once said, economic actors aren't rational, they are rationalizers. amy: i want to go back to your documentary, "the crime of the century." this features a salesman talking about the four cateries of doctors. >> the are four categories. blue, yell, gree red. blue's analytical. that means if u don't have the scientif double-blind placo-controed stu at proveyour da is righ youre not gting e sale. whatoes thatean to m

means i'not gog to anical docrs. then y he your ylow, amble docto. th want evybody toove them. icmeans ifou are selling dg and ere are five oer competors,hey ju go in ration. is oneets sutance, this one gs this a we go back aroun they are o, bause the are ju sharinghe wealt now u' got youreen which is ke your rtrthy type of dr., like god forb yodo a lun and not recycle. th you havyour red red is youbusinessn. they own tir practe and ey run their pctice an theyanage thr books. eyee a cra number patients it iall abouefficien. when yous a rewalk i they run wit y -- th run you wita peno si and therun awayt thame timeecause ty d't ha time to talk you cause th are trting pients anmaking money. if ty are re i have sh him t whist.

-- the wifm wh's it fome? stopalking aut the dg? st talkingbout savg theatie. pleaseell mwhat it in fore becausyou' wastinmy time. those e theeds, e ctors you want to find. those of the doctors you want to move in and live, eat and breathe with. amy: perhaps the best argument for medicare for all i've seen. alex: 100%. amy: alex gibney, if you can talk about who he was and if you start with purdue pharma, the prototype of all of this and expand to other drug companies. alex: it was a company that was selling a product called substance which was a spray where you would spray fentanyl in small quantities under your tongue and it would help to alleviate pain but alec was a salesman,

pretty high up in terms of sales, and they are using the playbook that purdue kind of initiated, but taking it to a great extreme. it is all about the money, all about trying to find either corrupt money hungry, doctors who that becomes your business model, to look for those people to compensate for being speakers to promote your drug. they actually had a return on investment flowchart, so that if you got $40,000 as a speaker, you had to prescribe at least two times that amount, or they cut you off. amy: explain as a speaker.

alex: it is legal to pay doctors to speak on behalf of your drug, but in -- in other words, to talk to other doctors about how great this drug is. the problem is they want really speaking. they would just pay the money and then have dinner and maybe talk to a couple of people. it was really a quid pro quo, it was just a bribe. we will give you $40,000, provided you prescribe $80,000 of this drug. they would encourage them to up the dose, and because the more you increase the dose, the more money that they make. you see in alec, exaly the argument for medicare for all because you have these terrible incentives where the incentive is not to cure the patient.

the incentive is to just make as much money as possible. i can't recall there was anything in the hippocratic oath that had anything to do with the supy d demand but by the time you get to them ripping on the purdue formula, it is all about the money. amy: i want to go to another clip from "the crime of the century." this is gary bnn talng out hohe was gen 50 oxycontipills a y. >> they were testi it. theytarted me with may eight 10, twi a day. 0 was the hhest dos wasn't working they uppethe dution. two mes a day15. wenup to 20 i saidt stilisn'doing . he made e phon caland

ld me it w the docrs at pure. ey staye-- theaid give h mor that is one goupo 25, twe aay -- ths when we got uo 25, ice a day, 50 lls a day it wld take aost 15 minutejust to t them all. siing do for a bl of eerios i was startingo feel toxi le my bodwas teingwe areot doing ll what can dbut takeore? when y'ren thatuch pain, andou areddicted to tha such high dose,o maer what it is. amy: that is gary blinn, talking about how he was give50 pills of oxycontin the day.

alex gibney's documentary, "the crime of the century," they interviewed him. explain why he was chosen, what was special about him? alex: he had such a high tolerance for the medication. these weren't just0 pills, itas 5160 milligrams tablets. anyone else would have been dead. he was approached by a purdue salesperson, who said we can give you some free samples. wouldn't that be great? he said sure. they gave him free samples and as it turned out, the purdue sales rep also had a sexual relationship with the doctor prescribing these pills and was prescribing them without even examining the patient. what purdue did, or what the sales rep did with gary blin and used him -- was used him as a marketing tool, going to other doctors

and saying this guy is taking 50 pills a day. no dose is tooigh. you may be asking, surely when purdue discovered the behavior of the sales rep, she must have been viewed as a bad apple and harshly punished. to the contrary. she was promoted to a position in sales training, so it gives you some idea about just how aggressively and how fraudulently purdue was marketing its drug. amy: how does this connect to the 93,000 people who died in 2020 alone, of opid addiction? alex: we have to be careful here, and say that it doesn't necessarily connect directly, but there is a trace, a trail, and part of what happens is purdue and other companies, by overprescribin oxycontin and also allowing massive abuse, created an enormous demand. for some of those people,

when they either couldn't afford the drugs, insurance wouldn't pay for them anymore, or prescribing tendencies changed, they had a real problem. so they sought out a substitute, heroin. when that became too expensive, they sought out a new drug called fentanyl. fentanyl, as you pointed out earlier is an extremely potent drug, 50 times more powerful than heroin. one characr in our film goes through that process. he ended up becoming a fentanyl dealer, because he could pay for his own habit by selling it. fentanyl is an extraordinarily dangerous drug, because it is very difficult to monitor the dosage. you don't really know how much you are getting, and so fentanyl began to be imported from china, sometimes just by mail. there would be websites in china that would say want

some fentanyl? here it is. a lot of it now comes up from mexico. we look at a task force in the film that is trying to stanch that. we have to see the 90,000 dead in the past year as a kind of legacy of this enormous demand that was created initially by the pharmaceutical companies. of course you have companies like insys that are overprescribing a drug like fentanyl. that is a technical matter. insys wasn't of the companies that was successfully prosecuted and a number of their executives were sent to jail. that gives you a sense of the three-parttructure of this crime, and also the blurry line between illicit pharmaceutical sales and essentially cartel sales. they are not so different. amy: in december, members of

the sackler family refused to apologize when house lawmakers grilled them over their role in fueling the pureed epidemic -- fueling the opioid epidemic. this is ayanna pressley addressing david sackler. >> we do not need another failed war on drugs. neea reckoning and accountability for drug companies who put profits over people and rob us of lives and freedom of our loved ones. you have created a nationwi epidemic. 450,000 people have died. let me be clear. people struggling with addiction are not criminals. your family, and purdue pharma, you are the criminals. you are the ones who disregard your duties to society, and you should be ashamed of yourself. amy: so, alex gibney, when you talk about insys, people there were in jail. the sackler family, and this goes to the recently settled lawsuit, and i'm wondering if you could comment on this

. 15 states recently abandoned their fight to block the bankruptcy plan of purdue pharma, the maker of oxycontin, and exchange purdue releasing tens of millions of documents, paying settlement expected to reach $4.5 billion, but the sackler family agreeing to cede ownership of purdue will not have to admit responsibility. alex: that settlement was designed to sound good. it is a lot of money, but the sacklers have about $11 billion. that $4.9 billion gets pai over years. i think the larger thing here goes to a failure of accountability. perdue w investigated by the federal government back in 2006 and indeedound guilty, but that

investigation really laid out the roadmap for how perdue did what it did. the attorneys were arguing for very extensive felony convictions. ultimately, purdue used its muscle to go above those attorneys and have the charges knocked way back to misdemeanors a a fine. most importantly, and this gets to the current episode, they were able to seal all of the records relating to the prosecution. the most important evidence was buried which meant all of us, the public could not see what had really happened, in order to be able to stop it. the one bit of good news in the settlement, and there is not much good news because they are not being held financially or criminally accountable, but the one bit of good news is a huge

treasure trove of documents will be released. at least to prevent the next episode from happening agai we can study those documents and see exactly how it was that perdue did what it did. amy: people shouldn't forget that the sacklers sponsored so much of the arts, not only in new york but around the country. you have sackler galleries at all of the major art installations, which now are deciding what to do about this. alex: that's correct. one thing i would like to point out, as much as we talk about the sacklers. we shouldn't be naive and think that was the only company that was making extraordinary profit out of the opioid crisis, and indeed did not know better. three huge compani, distributors of drugs,

cardinal health, and others, they knew very well that there opioid pills were being diverted in ways that were causing massive addiction, but they didn't do anything about it. they ended up influencing congress to pass a law which made them even less accountable, because they used the power of the revolving door to rig the rules. johnson & johnson, famous for baby shampoo was one of the biggest manufacturers of a potent kind of opioid, produced in tasmania that actually supplied purdue pharma with all the oxycodone they needed to make their drug. they would not have been able to do it without johnson & johnson. there is a pretty big and robust -- amy: johnson & johnson payday settlement of over

$200 billion for their part in the opioid crisis. with all of these companies, we are talking about profits of billions. alex: that is correct. in many cases, we are talking about burying evidence. the deal is almost always -- and this is something we have to look at as a country -- the deal is always we will pay a fine, won't admit responsibility and most important of all, the evidence will never be seen. amy: we want to thank you for being with us, alex gibney, oscar-winning filmmaker. his latest film, the two-part hbo documentary, titled "the crime of the century," which traces the origins of the opioid epidemic and those who enabled it. next up, the remains of nine indigenous children were buried saturday by the rosebud sioux in south dakota after being transferred from the carlisle indian school in pennsylvania where t children were sent over a century ago after being ripped from their families. we will speak with

christopher eagle bear, from a native american youth council that helped bring them home. stay with us. ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: this is "we will rise up" by joanne shenandoah. democracy now!, democracynow.org. i am amy goodman. -- arrived at the carlisle indian industrial school. they were forced to attend in pennsylvania. this weekend, some of them returned home after they were ripped from their families more than a century ago. carlisle was the first government boarding school that was off of reservation land, and it set the

standard for other schools. the schools were known for their brutal assimilation practices, forcing students to change their clothing, language and culture. more than 10,000 children were taken to the carlisle school before it closed in 1918. many of the kids died and were buried in a cemetery on-site instead of being returned to their parents. in the past week, 10 of them, their remains were returned home. one was returned to the alaskan tribe. the other nine were returned to the rosebud sioux tribe of south dakota. five of them were among the first students brought the carlisle. on wednesday, interior department secretary deborah haaland, whose great-grandfather was sent to carlisle, spoke at a ceremony at the carlisle barracks.

she announced the creation of the federal indian boarding school truth initiative, to investigate policies that forced children to assimilate. after wednesday's ceremony, a caravan of rosebud sioux youth left the barracks with the children's remains and traveled us is -- and traveled to south dakota. they made several stops, including a prayer stop in sioux city, iowa. >> remember me -- morning sky there i will be. feeling free. amy: most of the nine children were reburied saturday morning on the rosebud sioux reservation in south dakota. for more, we are joined by one of the rosebud sioux youth council who played a key role in all of this.

christopher eagle bear, a member of the sicangu youth council, joining us from sicangu in south dakota. we welcome you now to democracy now! can you take us on the journey you have gone on? this was not the first time you went to carlisle, to bring the remains of your family and the ancestors of others at rosebud sioux reseation. christopher: thank you for having me. we first started, we were a youth council that was primarily kids. a lot of us were still in high school. when we started, it was the first time for a lot of us, the first time we had a good understanding of what a boarding school was.

boarding schools are really talked about growing up where i come from. something traumatic event -- something traumatic happened that made you not want to talk about it, and your parents just wanted you to be protected from all of that horricness. we went to carlisle, it was eye-opening to who we are. everything that makes us who we are was kind of detached from our boarding schools. six years later, we come back around, to bring back these kids. it was very eye-opening, in the sense of what we had to learn that we can move forward. what that was was the knowledge of our way of life . the schools played a key

part in trying to sever the connection. they took away our language and made it impossible for us to be who we really are. the kids that did make it home, they came back with that traumatic experience. i guess i would say that as we move forward, it all started with a single question, a simple why don't we bring them home? that one question set off a big movement that 60 -- that six years later, we were able to get the tribes involved that were able to bring the child home and ours was just the first of what i hope to come, big things. amy: so you are there on wednesday at the ceremony at carlisle when the remains of the children were handed over.

the interior secretary spoke there and then this weekend she appeared on pbs newshour after attending that repatriation ceremony. >> you wrote recently about the challenge of loving your own country, a country that was responsible for committing these acts. how do you explain that to others, to other native americans who look at this in question -- how can you love a country that has done this? >> first of all, my ancestral homelands are here, and i can't go anywhere else. this is my home and this is where my family is. this is where my history is. we have been here for tens of thousands of years, and we want to make sure that we are defending this land for future generations. i believe very strongly in democracy and if you look at

tribes across the country, so many indian tribes had long-standing historical democracies in their communities, and i am confident that our country can live up to its promise, to people, to our citizens, and i want to be a part of that. amy: that is interior secretary deb haaland, speaking to pbs. she is the first native american cabinet member. this is her speaking last month. >> more than a century, the interior department was responsible for uprooting the indian boarding schools across the united states. we are therefore uniquely positioned to assist in the effort to recover the dark history of these institutions that have haunted our families for too long. it is our responsibility.

today, i am announcing and sharing with you all, first that the department will launch the federal indian boarding school initiative. at no time in history have the records or documentation of this policy been compiled or analyzed, to determine the full scope of its reaches and affects. we must uncover the truth about the loss of human life, and the lasting consequences of the schools. amy: that is interior secretary deb haaland before that congress member from new mexico, the first native cabinet member in u.s. history. christopher eagle bear, take us on that journey that you went. wednesday, the repatriation ceremony at carlisle, and where you went from there with the remains of the ildren. christopher: on wednesday, at the carlisle industrial military school, we were

given the right to hold the ceremony, the transferring of spirit ceremony. we first went there, we didn't expect it to be what it was. we were just thinking it was going to be a little thing. it was a big surprise to see the interior secretary there, as well as the other big officials who came along. when we went on, it was very beautiful. the morning was very calm, it was very cool. when the ceremony started, all of the emotions came into it. when you walked in, -- express the emotions that could not be put into words. the ceremony itself took about two hours to commence

so we could do it properly, the way it was supposed to be done by our spiritual leaders. we were really fortunate that secretary deb haaland came. it showed that as an american people -- as a native american people, we still have an extension to one another. it is really a good feeling to know that someone in her position is listening to what we are doing, and is paying attention to how we move forward with the repatriation act. as we move forward, there will be other ceremonies with other tribes that move forward with bringing home their children. amy: and we will certainly follow them. i want to thank you, christopher eagle bear for joining us, a member of the sicangu youth council,

speaking to us from south dakota. that does it for our show. democracy now! is produced with renee feltz, mike burke, deena guzder, messiah rhodes, nermeen shaikh, maria taracena, tami woronoff, charina nadura, sam alcoff, tey marie astudillo, john hamilton, robby karran, hany massoud and adriano contreras. our geneç?ç?ç?ç?o■o■ñ■ç■ç■ç■

sa ♪ nice to have you back with us on nhk "newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. u.s. president biden has been open about his criticism of china. he says leaders should do more to protect human rights and respect territorial integrity. now he's sent a high-ranking official to raise concerns directly. wendy sherman is the administration's first senior diplomat to visit china.