The daughter of late Native American activist and marathon runner Emmett Eastman Sr. is serving jail time after pleading guilty to depriving Eastman of medical care before his death. But several family members say the sentence was far too light.

Two days before Eastman died in 2021, police performed a welfare check at Anne White Eastman's house in New Prague, Minn., and found squalid conditions. It had "bugs everywhere," Eastman was in a "skeletal" state on a bed and the house smelled of rotten food and urine, according to a criminal complaint against White Eastman. Eastman lived with his daughter, and she was his primary caregiver.

Eastman, 89, died in the hospital two days after the welfare check. The medical examiner found Eastman was suffering from extreme blood restriction to his leg "complicated by medical neglect" and determined the cause of death to be "failure to provide medical care." It was originally reported that he died of "health complications."

In July 2023, close to two years after his death, the Scott County Attorney's Office charged White Eastman, 40, with criminal neglect for "deprivation resulting in substantial bodily harm." She was arrested on Dec. 21 and held at Scott County jail, jail records show. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Feb. 12 to 120 days in jail. But two of Eastman's family members say the sentence doesn't bring justice and that the death should have been ruled a homicide.

"She should've been charged with murder, manslaughter, something, because there was a loss of life," said Wanda Blue, a niece of Eastman. "It was horrifying. I'm sick to my stomach; we all are."

Eastman was renowned as an activist and runner. He was a member of the American Indian Movement and started running marathons at age 40. He competed around the world, carrying the message of his Dakota heritage and commitment to social justice to 22 countries. For decades he participated in a relay race to Mankato to remember the 38 Dakota Sioux Indians who were hanged in there in 1862.

Laurie Manylightnings, another of Eastman's daughters, said, "She took someone well-respected, who was a patriarch, and had many grandchildren, many great-grandchildren. He didn't have to die."

According to the complaint, nurses requested that Eastman's daughter place him in hospice care before the welfare check. He was "very malnourished and debilitated" when he arrived at Mayo Clinic, and showed other signs of neglect, according to the charges.

Court records show White Eastman's plea deal led to several other charges being dismissed, including two for child neglect.

White Eastman was also given an 18-month prison sentence that is stayed for four years, meaning she won't go to prison unless she violates her probation conditions.