Latest news with #JusticeForIndigenous
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Remembrance walk held after veto of crucial bill for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
SHAWNEE, Okla. (KFOR) – The Citizen Potawatomie Nation held a Remembrance Walk Friday in Shawnee to honor the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. This comes the same week Gov. Stitt vetoed a crucial bill that would've helped fund an investigative unit to help solve cases surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. 'The veto, I can honestly say I didn't understand,' said Lorenda Morgan. Morgan led the way for Ida's Law after her cousin, Ida Beard, disappeared from El Reno in 2015. She stood by Gov. Stitt as he signed it into law. That law essentially created an investigative unit within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that would help try to solve cases surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. The money for the unit has to come from the federal government, but officials said the process is hard, so getting money for the unit is hard too. Tribes upset over a bill vetoed by Gov. Stitt The veto came this week from Gov. Stitt, and it applied to House Bill 1137. One of Stitt's reasons for the veto was that agencies shouldn't prioritize justice 'because of race.' 'OSBI is tasked with prosecuting all kinds of crime, including anyone who is murdered in Oklahoma, regardless of race,' said Gov. Stitt in a video on social media. 'Everyone is equally protected under the law, but Native Americans didn't have that protection under the law like everyone else,' said Morgan. The peacewalk was hosted for a second year in a row and was also held through the House of Hope, the tribe's domestic violence intervention program. The goal was to raise awareness for the disproportionate violence against indigenous peoples with a walk during National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Week. There were talks this week from lawmakers about a possible override. Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton was asked specifically about overrides, and he said that there were 'several of Rep. Weaver's bills that were vetoed that we're going to talk about.' Rep. Weaver was the Senator co-author on HB 1137, he was also a part of a bipartisan-supported bill that would have required insurance companies to cover certain screenings that can catch breast cancer early, a decision that has left the bill's author, who is battling breast cancer herself, heartbroken. 'It seems like the governor has his legislation a little bit wrong in terms of what his bill was trying to do. Again, we have efforts that we're working on to hopefully see an override,' said Rep. Cindy Munson on Thursday. The way for an override to work, there would have to be a two-thirds vote to approve in both the House and the Senate. Both of those bills had overwhelming support. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
09-05-2025
- CBS News
Michigan nonprofit remembers missing and murdered Indigenous women with red dress display
Red dresses on the LACASA Center's campus in Howell, Michigan, serve as a reminder of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls who advocates say often never see justice. Across the country, Indigenous women experience murder, assault and disappearances at nearly 10 times the national average, according to Mona Shand, who works with LACASA. "The challenges of solving these cases, you're dealing with a really complicated mix of local, federal, tribal jurisdictions, so it's hard to even prosecute these cases and move them forward," said Shand. She said the dresses in the haunting display represent someone who is no longer with us. "It symbolizes a life that was take too soon, a family that was shattered and a community in grief," she said. The color matters, too," she said. "There are certain indigenous cultures that believe that red is the only color that spirits can see, so the red dresses really pay tribute to the lives that are no longer here, but the spirits they believe are still with us." Shand said raising awareness this month goes hand-in-hand with LACASA's larger mission to prevent and address domestic violence and abuse. "We thought this was an amazing opportunity to use our facility and to use our platform to speak on behalf of those who have been silenced," she said. The red dresses on display come from LACASA's collection, a resale shop whose proceeds help fund the organization. Shand said they hope to make the display even larger in the years to come. "We have more red dresses; we just don't have enough of those hooks," she said. "In the future, we want to expand this and have red dresses through the trees on our property, all around us. We just think it makes a really powerful visual impact."
