Picture above: Group photo of the CCC 5K Participants.
On May 5th and 6th, Crime Victims services held gatherings to honor and pray for the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women across Turtle Island. A social and candle light vigil was held at the Allegany Community Center. T-shirts, cups, stickers and bags were given away to participants as they healed through song and dance.
The next day, a 5K was held at the Cattaraugus Community Center. Elders, young adults and teens gathered to bring awareness to missing relatives. Relatives of Rubuena “Binky” Jonas held signs in awareness of their loved one that has been missing for 35 years.
This long-standing crisis of MMIW can be attributed to the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and its ongoing effects in Indigenous communities stretching back more than 500 years.
Native women continue to disappear, and many have been murdered. The issues surrounding missing and murdered Native women and relatives must continue to be elevated beyond public awareness for action and increased accountability of the justice systems.
Turning our grief to action, support and call upon Congress to address:
- the need for additional tribal victim services and tribal justice resources affirmed in several federal reports, and
- the inadequate responses of the federal and state criminal justice systems that fail Native women.
May 5th National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls will:
Honor the lives of our Native sisters, continue to shed light on the countless tragedies involving our Native sisters, highlight the need for ongoing grassroots advocacy and organizing for change of laws, policies, protocols, and allocation of increased resources at all levels to end these injustices, and create the sharing of information needed for legal reforms and changes required.
From the National Indigenous Resource Center – niwrc.org:
The current reports of abduction and murder of Native women are alarming and represent one of the most horrific aspects of the spectrum of violence committed against Native women. The murder rate of Native women is more than ten times the national average on some reservations. These disappearances or murders are often connected to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and sex trafficking. The intersection of gender-based violence and MMIW is heavily intertwined. It is important to understand the connection between domestic, dating, and sexual violence and the high incidence of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) in the United States. This long-standing crisis of MMIW can be attributed to the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and its ongoing effects in Indigenous communities stretching back more than 500 years.
In response to the crisis of MMIW, grassroots actions to honor and call for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women have increasingly grown at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Many of these grassroots efforts have lifted May 5th as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. May 5th is the birthday of 21-year-old Hanna Harris (Northern Cheyenne) who went missing and was found murdered on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in 2013. Since then, Native families, advocates, and Indigenous nations have risen to challenge the silence, tolerance, and inaction in response to the crisis of MMIW. Locally, community searches and actions, tribal press conferences, justice marches continue to draw attention and urgency to the MMIW crisis, reflecting the long-standing call in holding governments publicly accountable for the perpetrators allowed to prey on Native women with impunity. NIWRC is committed to lifting the voices of surviving family members to hold these failed systems accountable and responsible for this national crisis.
Allegany Territory Photos:
Cattaraugus Territory Photos:
