Missing but not forgotten

Editor’s note: This version is updated to show that U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has called for a hearing on missing and murdered indigenous women.

A local college group held a remembrance of people affected by an issue that is gaining national headlines - missing and murdered indigenous women.

"People just really want to find their loved ones," said Sweetgrass Society member Kiara Love minutes before attendees started arriving at Thursday's walk at Montana State University-Northern. "Even just the bodies, because in our culture that's such an important thing that goes on. So it's really hard on a family to not even know. This needs to end. Not a lot of people are talking about it; not a lot of people know about it."

The Awareness Walk for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women started at the Student Union Building on Northern's campus. The goal of the Sweetgrass Society, the group formed to unify and provide for communication among Native American students, in holding the walk was to raise awareness for the many missing Native American women.

"I would like to see more news reports," Love said. "We don't see very much. Unless it's on Facebook. This past summer I saw my family sharing different missing persons posters from different reservations. So it's like we only have Facebook and certain people who care to post when it should be everywhere."

Half of the missing women in Montana alone are Native American women, though Native American women only make up 6 percent of the total population, according to the documentary "Missing, Murdered and Native" that was screened prior to the walk.

In the same documentary, local activist Ivy MacDonald discusses how Montana is so vast and open that it makes it nearly impossible to locate people who have gone missing.

The poster for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Walk states that, since the beginning of 2018, 20 Native American women have gone missing in Montana.

Four out of 5 Native American women experience violence of some sort and have no resources available to them, the documentary added. One-third of Native American women will have been raped at some point in their lives.

Part of the problem lies in the jurisdictional spider web that surrounds tribal lands. Most tribes have their own tribal police force, but the number of officers on the force is grossly inadequate for the area they are asked to cover.

Sweetgrass Society member John Healy said this is a similar issue on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

According to their website, Fort Belknap covers 675,147 acres which is approximately 1,055 square miles. The directory lists seven police officers along with the chief, lieutenant and sergeant of police. That equates to about 105 squaremiles for each police member.

"We need more police involvement," Sweetgrass Society Secretary-Treasurer Morgan Lilley said.

Love added that "most people assume these women were out drinking, but that's not the case."

Furthermore, jurisdiction needs to be established, some say. When a crime happens on tribal land, authorities must determine if the case will be handled by state, county, federal or tribal law enforcement. This is believed to be the reason why most cases are never solved according to the documentary "Death and Disappearance in Indian Country."

"Most people are afraid to speak out because they believe nothing is going to happen," Lilley said.

Once the documentaries concluded, attendees picked up signs attached to stakes that had the names of all the missing and murdered Indigenous women. Listed under their names were various dates - "The dates are the last date of contact," Healy said.

Then the group made the one-mile walk through the surrounding, rain-filled neighborhoods in a testament to how close this issue is to their hearts.

The crowd walked to the Northern campus at the grassy area just off 11th Street, where three teepees had been erected earlier this week. As the crowd arrived, they planted the signs in front of the teepees with the names facing the street.

Jonathan Nepoose introduced Justin Goggles Sr., a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe from Wyoming, to lead the concluding ceremony.

Goggles performed two songs from his tribe's culture; one honoring the missing and murdered women and the other a blessing for all those who showed up to participate.

Prior to his songs, he offered a simple statement.

"Women are very important," he said, "they give us life. That is why we must respect our women."

After the blessing, the crowd moved back into the Student Union Building where soup and frybread were served.

Goggles talked again, during an interview in the SUB, about the importance of women.

"Think about home," he said as a little girl handed him his soup and frybread. "What do you think about? You're thinking about your mother, aren't you? I know I always do. When I think of home, I think of my mother. That's how important women are."

Some awareness is growing within the United States government regarding missing and murdered indigenous women.

U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced Senate Bill 1942, Savanna's Act, into Congress Oct. 5, 2017. The act is aimed toward making law enforcement and justice protocols standardized with regards to missing and murdered Native Americans.

The bill also seeks to develop protocols to investigate these cases and provide tribes and law enforcement agencies with training and technical assistance relating to the implemented protocols.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., a supporter of Savanna's Act, also called for a Senate hearing regarding the crisis of missing Native American women last month.

Last week, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., also sent a letter requesting a hearing.

Justice and closure remain elusive for some of these missing and murdered women, Kiara Love said, but if people can raise awareness and get the nation to see that it is a crisis, maybe the nation can take a step forward to bringing peace to hurting families.

Maybe the people can get a step closer to bringing home aunts, daughters, sisters, cousins and even mothers, she said.