May 5 was Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (and relatives) Awareness Day. Via the Minneapolis Star Tribune, AP staffers Susan Montoya Bryan and Felicia Fonseca report in Ceremonies, prayer mark day of awareness for Native victims:
Some shared agonizing stories of frustration and loss. Others performed ceremonies and said prayers. All called for action.
Across the U.S. on Wednesday, family members, advocates and government leaders commemorated a day of awareness for the crises of violence against Indigenous women and children. They met at virtual events, vigils and rallies at state capitols and raised their voices on social media.
In Washington, a gathering hosted by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other federal officials started with a prayer asking for guidance and grace for the Indigenous families who have lost relatives and those who have been victims of violence. . . .
Indigenous women have been victimized at astonishing rates, with federal figures showing that they — along with non-Hispanic Black women — have experienced the highest homicide rates.
Yet an Associated Press investigation in 2018 found that nobody knows the precise number of cases of missing and murdered Native Americans nationwide because many go unreported, others aren't well documented, and no government database specifically tracks them. . . .
Here on the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota), MMIR families and allies prayed, and walked from Old IHS and walk to the SWO Memorial Park through the streets of Sisseton, SD. In the video posted on the SWO DARE Covid-19 Response Facebook page, Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse opens the event with a prayer.
View the video on the post, which notes:
Beautiful turn out today, thank you to the organizers for putting this on and everyone in our community for raising more awareness safely and inclusively.
Many of our Oyate are remembering the family members lost to violence and so many are still searching for their loved ones.
Times are changing around us and it is so powerful. It’s time for justice!! #MMIW
One positive development for MMIR families in South Dakota? In early April, Christopher Vondracek reported for the Dickinson Press in South Dakota establishes office for missing, murdered Indigenous persons cases:
South Dakota tribal activists cheered passage of a law establishing a liaison for murdered and missing Indigenous persons earlier this week at a signing ceremony in the Statehouse.
Gov. Kristi Noem signed House Bill 1199, to "establish the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons," the measure that supporters say will aid delving into and investigating the disproportionate number of Native Americans on the state's missing persons database.
It may also mark a turn after rough waters between Noem's administration, which in previous legislative sessions sought to pass bills — such as a controversial riot-boosting measure — decried by tribal leaders.
"I think for leadership in the state of South Dakota and leadership among the tribes, I think it's a normal, natural process to clash," said the bill's prime sponsor, Rep. Peri Pourier, D-Pine Ridge. "But there are issues that are so important, so pertinent for us to align on."
The measure had enjoyed wide margins of support in the House and Senate on the long road to reaching the governor's desk, in part due to the MMIW crisis. . . .
At the Rapid City Journal, Arielle Zionts reported in South Dakota to create liaison for missing and murdered Indigenous people:
The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office will hire a full-time employee who works on and provides training about solving missing and murdered Indigenous person cases, according to a news release from Rep. Peri Pourier.
Pourier said Gov. Kristi Noem’s office told her on Wednesday that the governor will sign House Bill 1199 during a re-enactment signing at her office on March 29.
“On behalf of those who helped lobby this effort, and, most importantly, the countless missing and murdered Indigenous people throughout our state, we say Pilamayaye. Thank You!,” Pourier wrote in her news release.
"This will help identify the areas where existing coordination could improve, opens the door for further investment from federal and foundational opportunities, and ultimately bring our missing relatives home,” said Sen. Red Dawn Foster, who like Pourier is a Democrat from Pine Ridge.
"This is a step in the right direction for state and tribal leaders,” said Kevin Killer, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. "This is a non-political issue that we should be able to work together towards addressing and solving." . . .
HB 1199 calls on the Attorney General’s office to create the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) and hire a full-time missing persons specialist.
What's the delay for MMIR Office in Minnesota?
That's good news for all South Dakotans who want safe and secure families--and respect for indigenous women and girls.
Unfortunately for Minnesotans, the Minnesota Legislature has fallen behind the State of South Dakota in establishing an office for addressing MMIW-R issues.
We reported about legislation to do just that back in March in House Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Committee sends bill for MMIR office to Public Safety Committee:
Bluestem has been following the movement to end violence against indigenous women and girls. The creation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force by the Minnesota Legislature was a starting place--and the release of its report to the legislature in December 2020 was another step.
Friday morning, Moorhead DFL state representative Heather Keeler's bipartisan bill--HF2124--to establish the first mandate in the report's Call to Action (p. 13)--was heard in the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. The bill would create an office to coordinate efforts surrounding the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous relatives.
A first term lawmaker, Keeler is a citizen of the Yankton Sioux tribe. . ..
There's more--and video--in [VIDEO] Shakopee Town Hall discussion about state rep. Keeler's effort to establish MMIR office.
So how was that working out on the national day of awareness? Briana Bierschbach reported Wednesday for the Star Tribune in Legislators propose Minnesota office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives:
Minnesota's Native women legislators are spearheading the creation of a new state office to bring the largely hidden epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to the forefront.
They're behind legislation to establish a Minnesota office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, which would pull in data from state and federal sources on missing person cases and unsolved murders of Native American women and men. Unlike other races, Native missing person cases aren't tracked in any comprehensive way.
Thousands of red dresses were displayed across the Minnesota Capitol lawn Wednesday for a national awareness day, representing Native relatives who have been lost.
"It's powerful to look across this lawn and see the visual representation of an issue that, for far too long, has been invisible," said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. "Every Native woman I know is related to at least one person that has been affected by this issue. This violence can no longer be swept under the rug."
The office would also provide assistance to law enforcement during active missing person cases and conduct reviews of cases that have been — in some cases — cold for decades. It would link up with a new federal cold-case unit established by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead a U.S. Cabinet agency.
"This is still happening in our communities," said Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, a Standing Rock Lakota descendant who is sponsoring the Senate bill. She pointed to a February sex-trafficking sting in Itasca County that included two workers on the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline project. . . .
But while there was broad bipartisan support to create the task force, the proposal to create the state office has struggled to gain traction in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The legislation was not included in the Senate's public safety and judicial budget bill, although the House public safety proposal included $500,000 for the office each year. The two chambers are trying to negotiate the differences between their proposals before the Legislature is required to adjourn on May 17.
"Without that follow-up it's kind of a slap in the face, really," said Sheila Lamb, an Ojibwe leader and Cloquet city councilor who served on the task force.
"You have to understand the message that you will send to the Indigenous population," said Lamb. "You give the appearance that we were given the task force as a way to placate us or give us lip service without the needed follow-through."
Honestly, as a person born and raised in Minnesota and now living in South Dakota, I'm pretty embarrassed by my home state. If South Dakota's ultra-conservative legislature can pass this measure--and Governor Noem can sign the bill--what in the Wild Wild World of Sports is Minnesota's Republican-led Senate doing?
As Kevin Killer, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said to the Rapid City Journal, "This is a non-political issue that we should be able to work together towards addressing and solving." . . .
Read Senator Kunesh's commentary in the Star Tribune's op-ed section, State should renew commitment to helping Native communities. She notes:
Just in time to enhance Secretary Haaland's MMU, Minnesota's MMIW report delivers 20 recommendations to address pervasive systems failures and ensure the safety of Native women and girls across the state. Some will require action by the Minnesota Legislature; others may require changes in policies or practices at state or local agencies. For example, the MMIW report calls for the reauthorization of the federal Violence Against Women Act, the creation of a permanent Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relative (MMIR) office, and the expansion of Minnesota's Safe Harbor Law to include all trafficking victims, not just those who are 24 and younger.
At the start of this year's legislative session, I offered SF 1989, a bill that would create the office and platform to end this unacceptable level of violence. Unfortunately, Minnesota's Republican-controlled Senate did not include the measure in the Public Safety Omnibus bill; nor did they deem it worthy of a hearing in the Senate Public Safety and Jurisdiction Committee.
Despite the inaction, I am hopeful that through the conference committee process, our Legislature will renew our commitment to assisting Native communities across Minnesota, urban and rural, with these issues, and to supporting the national MMU's work to be a force-multiplier in preventing these cases from arising in the first place. I remain hopeful that the day will come that we will prioritize the safety and well-being of Native people everywhere.
Scenes from Minnesota
We'll close with reports about MMIW+R awareness organizing at the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul--and Bemidji.
The NDN Collective shared this video via twitter:
National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives (MMIW-R) https://t.co/IrxbNaOGK1
— NDN Collective (@ndncollective) May 5, 2021
The NDN Collective is "an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power" based in Rapid City, South Dakota.
KARE-11's John Croman tweeted a mobile gallery of the art work on the state house lawn:
At the State Capitol.. hundreds of red dresses mark National Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons Day. Native American women are murdered at a rate of 10 times the national average. Full coverage tonight on @kare11 pic.twitter.com/EOchBJrpVI
— John Croman (@JohnCroman) May 5, 2021
LAter that day at KARE-11, Karla Hult reported Red dresses offer poignant reminder of violence against Native American women.
At CBS Minnesota, Reg Chapman reported Missing And Murdered Indigenous Persons Day Recognizes ‘Generation Upon Generations’ Of Families With Lost Loved Ones.
For the Bemiji Pioneer, Hannah Olson and Annalise Braught report in Hundreds gather for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women rally in Bemidji:
Hundreds of people gathered from all around the community -- with some from as far away as California -- down by the Lake Bemidji waterfront on Wednesday for a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women rally to show support for families affected by these all-too-frequent tragedies.
Attendees were primarily dressed in red and held signs with messages like, “No more stolen sisters,” “Protect all that is sacred,” and “We are all related.” Some held cardboard cutouts of red dresses, many others also held up poster boards with pictures of missing or murdered loved ones on them. Some had red handprints, a symbol of MMIW, painted over their mouths and cheeks.
The annual gathering is meant to bring attention to the disproportionate amount of violence that is perpetrated against Indigenous women.
The event, which was hosted by MMIW 218, usually takes place around Valentine’s Day each year, but due to frigid temperatures in February, a scaled-down, stationary march was held instead, with the full event being postponed to May 5.
Simone Senogles of the Indigenous Environmental Network was one of the organizers of this year’s event and said she thought this was the sixth MMIW event held in Bemidji. Ordinarily, participants would march, but due to COVID-19 and certain event activities, this year’s event was a stationary one at Paul Bunyan Park. . . .
“Over the years I would say it’s been growing,” organizer Tamika Jo Andy said of the local MMIW movement back in February 2021. “This is a conversation that needs to happen in Bemidji, because Bemidji is surrounded by three tribes, and we need to inform the Bemidji community, not just Native Americans, we need the whole community.”
May 5 was selected for the rally, as it has recently been recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.
Wednesday, President Joe Biden published the following proclamation: “Today, thousands of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Native Americans continue to cry out for justice and healing. On Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day, we remember the Indigenous people who we have lost to murder and those who remain missing and commit to working with Tribal Nations to ensure any instance of a missing or murdered person is met with swift and effective action.” . . . .
Minnesota readers: please contact your state senators and ask them to follow the Minnesota House and approve language from SF 1989 in the public safety bill.
Follow state representative Keeler's lead:
I was determined to earn a seat at this table so I can help make this state better for our next generations.
— Rep. Heather Keeler (@RepKeeler) May 6, 2021
I'm grateful for my freinds/colleagues who support the efforts to create the Office for #MMIWR_MN
Now we need YOUR help. Contact your Senators tell them to support SF1989 pic.twitter.com/5KepT9LfGr
Photo: Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation, tweeted the view of the red dress artwork at the top of this post. She replied to her own tweet:
A powerful way we can both honor those we’ve lost and protect our Native women and girls into the future, is to create and fully fund the MMIW Office in the Department of Public Safety. I believe we can work together with #mnleg to get this done. #MMIW #MMIWG2S pic.twitter.com/gK80YfKkNA
— Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (@LtGovFlanagan) May 6, 2021
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