How Could You? Hall of Shame-Pastor Dean Alan Smith

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Montana,”a former Lame Deer pastor was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison for molesting foster children under his care.

Dean Alan Smith, 67, served as the head of Morning Star Baptist Church on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation for just over two decades until his indictment in U.S. District Court on multiple counts of sex abuse. The foster children staying at his home came from the reservation, and the testimony of three children whom he abused led to his conviction late last year.

“These are strong girls,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan T. Dake said during his argument for a 360-month sentence for Smith. “They’re brave girls. They’re girls who walked into this courtroom and told you what happened to them at the hands of Mr. Smith. But they’re going to live with that pain and anguish for the rest of their lives.”

Smith, who previously lived in Florida, came to Montana with his family in 2001. Although he attended church regularly before the move, Smith testified during his trial, he became the pastor at Morning Star Baptist Church despite having no seminary training. As pastor, he hosted prayer walks, family nights and sobriety programs at the church. He also allowed children on the reservation to stay at his home. Some were the friends of his children. Others came to his house when they had nowhere else to stay, according to court testimony.

In 2017, Smith and his wife became licensed foster parents. The process consisted of them undergoing a background check, Smith and his wife testified, and filing the required paperwork. Neither of them received training for foster care from state or tribal officials.

For decades, Native American children have been overrepresented in state foster care systems across the country. The case is no different in Montana, where around 11% of the children living here are Native American, but make up roughly a third of kids in foster care, according to data from National Indian Child Welfare Association.

Social service agencies pulling Indigenous children from their homes only to place them in abusive households, combined with the fact that thousands of Native American children were being placed into non-tribal homes, prompted the U.S. Congress to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.

The federal law, passed in part to break longstanding policies of separating and assimilating Indigenous children, set strict requirements for where to place Native American children in the foster care system, giving preference to members of that child’s family and foster homes near to where that child was being raised. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the act in a 2023 decision.

Also last year, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act. The law, which passed by a large margin in the State Legislature, was modeled after the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, and bolstered legal protection for Indigenous children in foster care, the Associated Press reported.

Starting when Smith became a foster parent in 2017, and over the next three years, he molested three girls who were staying at his home. As of Smith’s sentencing, all three were still under the age of 18. The girls became his foster children because social workers couldn’t find any other households on the reservation safe enough for them to stay, Smith testified during his trial.

The federal indictment against Smith came in December 2022 following an investigation on the part of the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Within a month of pleading not guilty to multiple sex crimes, the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council approved a measure to ban Smith from the reservation.

Smith’s trial spanned five days in December 2023. During which, three girls described their abuse in explicit detail. One of the survivors testified that when she was around 10 years old, she was lying on a couch at “Pastor Dean’s” to sleep when she got up to comfort another child who was having a nightmare. Both children got into bed with Smith, where he molested the 10-year-old.

Following closing arguments from federal prosecutors and attorneys representing Smith, the jury was deadlocked after several hours of deliberations. Judge Susan P. Watters, who presided over the trial, gave the deadlocked jury a recess that lasted from a Friday night to Monday morning. That Monday, the jury convicted Smith on counts of aggravated sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact by force and two counts of abusive sexual contact by force and of a child. He has remained in custody since.

Even in the eyes of the verdict,” Assistant Federal Defender Evangelo Arvanetes said in court Wednesday, Smith maintained his innocence. Arvanetes, who represented Smith, argued for a five-year prison sentence. Smith loved and supported the Northern Cheyenne community Arvanetes said, as seen through his counseling and volunteer work on the reservation. Even a 20-year sentence in prison would likely mean a life sentence for the 67-year-old Smith, Arvanetes argued.

When given a chance to speak, Smith spent nearly 20 minutes listing his contributions to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, among them volunteering for the local fire department and providing counseling for men through his ministry. Smith also reiterated his innocence.

The question of Smith’s guilt, Judge Watters said before issuing her sentence, has already been answered. The jury heard from Smith and the three girls he abused, and ultimately determined their accounts were credible, she said.

“Your home was supposed to be a safe place for them,” Watters said. “They were extremely vulnerable girls. They were very young and they put their trust in you. And you violated that trust.”

Along with the 30-year sentence, Watters also required that Smith undergo sex offender treatment while in prison. Following his release, he will remain under federal supervision for the rest of his life.

Indigenous women are physically and sexually assaulted at substantially higher rates than white or Black women, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. More than half of all Native American women in the United States have experienced sexual violence at some point during their life, per a 2022 report from Amnesty International.”
Former Lame Deer pastor sentenced to 30 years for molesting foster children
[Billings Gazette 4/10/24 by Paul Hamby]

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