Latest news with #MissingandMurderedIndigenousRelatives
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- General
- Miami Herald
Two graduations, two empty chairs and the long shadow of a missing Indigenous teen
BENA, Minn. -- The pomp and circumstance of graduation carried somber tones for the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School class of 2025. A dozen seniors graduated last Thursday, and two classmates received honorary diplomas - their absence marked with a pair of empty chairs on center stage in the school gymnasium. As the students walked into the gym, they held framed photos of the two friends they lost in 2021 and who should be graduating with them: Preston White, 14, died by suicide that March, and Nevaeh Kingbird, 15, went missing on a cold October night. In the long shadow of Nevaeh's unsolved disappearance, friends and family continue to search for answers and purpose. Her mother, Teddi Wind, sat in front row of the graduation ceremony. She has never given up hope in finding her daughter but has taken much of the search into her own hands. Wind graduated from the law enforcement program at Leech Lake Tribal College on May 17. That same day, she attended a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) event at Bemidji's Sanford Center, where she spoke in front of supporters. Wind told them she earned her degree in honor of Nevaeh and because she no longer has faith in law enforcement finding her. "In my journey at school, I learned that there were holes that they missed while they investigated my daughter's case," she said. "No parent should ever feel the way that I feel ... not knowing where their child is, having to celebrate their milestones without them." Wind said she is happy for her daughter's friends and wishes Nevaeh - heaven spelled backward - was there for this moment. "She loved school, loved this place," she said. For this small K-12 school in the center of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe reservation in north-central Minnesota, reaching this milestone carries additional meaning given the obstacles they have overcome. In Minnesota, the graduation rate for Native Americans is a little over 60% compared with nearly 90% for white peers. Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig students once had to study in a school that was in dire need of repairs and among the worst in the federal Bureau of Indian Education system. But in 2018, the government finally followed through on treaty obligations and moved them from a leaking pole barn into a new facility. When the pandemic struck, however, these students had to navigate distance learning, only to return to classrooms in 2021 and lose Preston, then Nevaeh. "It's kind of just a lot of emotions today," Kimmela GrayHawk, who was Preston's cousin and Nevaeh's best friend, said as she waited in the library for the ceremony to start. "But overall, I'm proud of myself, happy that I made it. I'm gonna walk with them in my heart because they will always be there, always." An unfinished vision board Teacher Bambi Brown said in her graduation address that memories of Nevaeh and Preston are vivid. He was known for being a talented pow-wow dancer and drummer. She said Nevaeh took his passing hard. An incomplete vision board Nevaeh was working on before she vanished in Bemidji on Oct. 22, 2021, included many quotes about loss. She wore Preston's clothes to feel closer to him, Brown said. Nevaeh had a passion for volleyball. She was artistic and fluent in Ojibwe. She wanted to go to college in Colorado. "You could often hear Nevaeh saying, 'Love you' to her friends as she went down the hall," Brown said. "She felt things real deeply and was extremely sentimental." Brown's classroom door is decorated with Nevaeh's missing person poster and a People magazine article about her disappearance. Posters that students bring to rallies and marches for MMIR hang in the hallways. This spring, the idea was floated to put a red handprint that symbolizes missing Indigenous women on graduation caps. So many seniors were supportive of the idea that they all got the decals, which Wind paid to have done at a shop in Bemidji. A silhouette of Nevaeh was in the center of the handprint. Brown said Nevaeh would be proud of the class showing support of MMIR at graduation. "It's exactly what she would have done if she were in your shoes," she said. "When we find Nevaeh - and we will - she surely will go on to help Native youth in our communities," she said. 'I had to find my voice again' Wind said during the first year of her daughter's disappearance, she couldn't speak and had to relearn how to be a parent. At the time, she was raising a baby. She pursued a degree, held two jobs at the casino and Indigenous treatment center, and raised six children, all while searching for Nevaeh and maintaining her sobriety. "I did what I could to keep going," Wind said, "and then I had to find my voice again." She works closely with Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, the first office of its kind in the nation dedicated to MMIR. She's planning search efforts for Nevaeh this summer and is seeking employment options to put her new degree to work. Nevaeh's sister, LaKaylee Kingbird, 20, is following her mom's footsteps and will return to the tribal college in the fall to earn the same degree. "[It's] inspirational knowing everything she went through, watching her cry when she couldn't get homework done, and she ended up getting it done anyway," said LaKaylee, who graduated from Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School in 2023. "Just seeing her push through all that and coming out stronger than she was before is very beautiful." Petra Rodriquez is a family liaison at the school who grew close to LaKaylee after her sister's disappearance. "I'm just so proud of how she overcame all that heartbreak," Rodriquez said of LaKaylee. Rodriquez said Nevaeh should be here. She wants recent graduates to not take life for granted, to be grateful and to be careful out in the world. "There's a lot of strong kids," she said. "I just hope they can honor her by reaching their goals." Nevaeh's letter jacket was draped on the empty chair at the ceremony. When Wind retrieved her daughter's diploma, eagle feather and Pendleton blanket gifted by elders, she put on the jacket and glanced down at Nevaeh's name stitched on the front. "She probably would love this more than anything." ____ Anyone with information on Nevaeh's case can call the Bemidji police tip line at218-333-9111, or submit tips by texting 847411. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Annual MMIR conference in Bemidji aims to push back against 'historic silencing'
May 19—BEMIDJI — Attendees of MMIW 218's second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives conference exemplified the spirit of resilience as they marched through Bemidji on Saturday despite cold and rainy weather. The event, which expanded from a walk into a full-day conference last year, is held annually in May to honor the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. Raising signs showing photos of their loved ones, attendees walked from Paul Bunyan Park to the Sanford Center, where the conference took place. Following an opening ceremony that included a prayer and drum songs, participants had the opportunity to take part in breakout sessions focusing on topics like community organizing, domestic violence, healing for men and boys, two-spirit advocacy and talking circles. As attendees gathered in the ballroom for a panel ahead of the breakout sessions, emcee Christian Taylor-Johnson welcomed the crowd. "Today we're here to honor our stolen sisters, aunties, mothers, daughters, cousins, fathers, brothers, uncles, sons and our sacred two-spirits," he said. "We say their names, we hold their memory and we demand justice — not just with hashtags and the occasional press conference — but with our everyday presence, prayers, persistence and resilience." Taylor-Johnson also took a moment to share the value of gathering while processing grief. "I am truly humbled to share and be in this very sacred space with you all today. We gather like this, not just to remember, but to rise and to learn," he said. "We all come carrying heavy hearts, sacred stories and the weight of generations, but also the strength of our ancestors, the love of our communities, and yes, even our perfectly timed side-eyes and our jokes that keep us breathing through the pain." Organizer Simone Senogles noted that although it was an unseasonably frigid day, organizers and participants have not historically been deterred by cold temps. MMIW 218 also holds a walk on Valentine's Day each year for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Day of Remembrance, drawing community members outside to endure subzero temps in an effort to raise awareness. She recalled a moment before Saturday's walk where organizer Natasha Kingbird expressed the significance of persevering through the inclement weather. "(Kingbird) said 'I want to be out here in this weather, if it's just one thing for me to spend an hour, or even all day, being cold and wet for our relatives then that's what I'll do,' and that's how it's always been for us," Senogles said. "We'll be out in 30-below weather on February 14th every year and we'll keep coming out, rain or shine, honoring our missing and murdered, remembering them, letting them know we're out here asking for help to find them." Throughout the plenary, a common theme was the importance of collecting data on missing and murdered Indigenous relatives in order to start creating solutions. Senogles noted a common phrase that states Indigenous people go missing three times: once in life, once in the media and once in the data. "It's crucial that we are seen in the data, that there is research about what's happening to us, that there are numbers that people can look at so that people notice and so that solutions can start to be formulated," she said. "Data collection, accurate and comprehensive data, is essential for understanding the scope of the problem and developing effective intervention." Goodwin noted that through increased MMIR advocacy efforts throughout the country, methods of data collection and analysis are slowly improving. "We just have more resources, we have more data, we have more information," she said. "So we're really able to identify connections, identify spots and points where we see the most MMIW happening." In the pursuit of gathering valuable data, organizer Audrianna Goodwin then introduced an interactive portion of the panel where attendees had the opportunity to answer poll questions via a QR code and see the results live on a screen at the front of the room. One of the questions tasked attendees with contributing to a word cloud to answer the question, "What are some reasons why Indigenous peoples experience violence at the rates we do?" Following responses from the crowd, words that appeared in the cloud included racism, alcohol, fetishization and systematic disparities. Goodwin highlighted many of these themes, especially focusing on how patriarchy and historical trauma have lasting effects on the Indigenous communities and the MMIW epidemic. "When the United States government came here, they recognized how powerful women were. In other European communities, women didn't have the same respect and honor that we had in our communities and so that was a threat," she said. "They deliberately harmed the women in pursuit of our land, our resources." Tawny Smith Savage, violence prevention coordinator with Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, discussed her role in educating young people about the topic. Holding up the MMIR bandana showing its logo — a woman with a red handprint over her mouth — Smith Savage noted that she often asks young people to describe the meaning of the imagery. "A lot of kids will say it represents violence, it represents the violence toward women, it represents murder," she said. "Those are tough topics for kids to acknowledge and talk about, but they're absolutely right, and it also represents ... the historic silencing that has happened in our communities." Smith-Savage noted the importance of educating young people about MMIR so they can begin to understand and identify the risk factors that contribute to the epidemic. "We have many youth that have so many risk factors out there right now and they're struggling. We want to make sure that we hold them close and we take care of them and get them the best information that we possibly can," she said. "Let's help our young people understand those risk factors and also empower parents to be able to put those skills in place for our youth who are vulnerable." She also described the process of how the office assists families of missing persons, including providing high-visibility vests and two-way radios to use in searches, as well as information on how to set up an incident command center and providing education on different apps that can be useful in grid searches. "Many times, you'll see families needing to do searches. They want to do searches," she said. "Sometimes law enforcement says they don't have enough time to do this ... We know our law enforcement offices are short-staffed and so families are going to search." In closing, Senogles expressed the importance of reconnecting with culture in order to change the narrative surrounding violence. "There's this intentional disconnection that was made to happen of Indigenous peoples from our culture," she said. "The boarding schools, the genocidal policies and practices, the violence, the disruption of our own education system, the disruption of our family system, the disruption of our government systems, all of those things were intentional to disconnect us from those things which make us strong." She also noted the connection that Indigenous peoples have with their language, using an example of the Ojibwe word mindimooyenh, which means "old lady" and translates to "the one who holds us together." "Our language holds respect for women in the way we even describe ourselves," she said. "Our language is our worldview. When we connect with that again, disrespect of women doesn't happen the same way."
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives conference set for May 17
May 8—BEMIDJI — MMIW 218 is set to host its second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives conference from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, in Bemidji. The event will start with a walk from Paul Bunyan Park to the Sanford Center. Here's a look at the schedule for the conference: * Registration * Opening, honoring song and prayer * Plenary * Lunch * Session 1: Jeremy and Lenny — Healing and Wellness for Men and Boys, 2 Spirit Advocacy, MMIW218 — Community Organizing * Break * Session 2: Bring Nevaeh and Jeremy Home — Families of MMIW, IEN — Violence on the Land Violence on the Body, Mending The Sacred Hoop — Domestic Violence and the connection to MMIR, women's talking circle and men's talking circle The conference is free to attend. For more information on how to register, visit the MMIW 218 Facebook page.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Yahoo
Portland's MMIR Day of Awareness and Action
Nika Bartoo-SmithUnderscore Native News + ICT Content warning: domestic violence, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives On May 5, crowds gathered throughout the day at the Oregon Convention Center Plaza in Portland to bring attention to the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives and create space for remembering those who have been impacted. Red shirts, ribbon skirts and red handprints filled the plaza square as people began to make signs with phrases such as 'We are their voices,' 'Honor their spirit,' and 'Justice for MMIR.' Early in the day, a bald eagle flew overhead, a rare sighting in the middle of the city. As people paused to point it out, a hawk joined it. To many, this seemed like an offering of a blessing from the two birds. Across the country, May 5 is a National Day of Awareness and Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and People (also referred to as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives or MMIR for short). American Indian and Alaska Native women are murdered at a rate of 10 times higher than the national average, and more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women experience violence in their lifetime, according to the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. Two Spirit and trans Indigenous relatives also face disproportionate rates of violence, which is part of the push to change the name to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives to acknowledge the reality that Indigenous people of all genders are impacted by the MMIR crisis, according to Polimana Joshevama, Hopi, research and evaluation mode lead for Future Generations Collaborative. MMIR Day of Awareness and Action is a day to raise awareness, demand justice, take action and create space for healing. 'I think that the MMIR Day of Awareness and Action that we're having today has two parts to it. I think there's the external, bringing awareness,' Joshevama said, mentioning the importance of wearing red and holding signs out in public. '[And secondly] just a space to be able to come together and hold space for those memories and the thoughts and the prayers that we have for all those people,' she added. Creating a space for both education and healing during a particularly intense day, organizers of the MMIR Day of Awareness and Action grounded the occasion with opportunities for ceremony. After a free lunch provided by Sisters Fry Bread, Shalaya Williams, Cayuse from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, asked those gathered to come together in a circle. Williams led more than 50 people in a breathing exercise, acknowledging that MMIR Day of Awareness brings up trauma for many people. Williams talked about how their grandmother taught them how to release that stored, intergenerational trauma and called on those in need of healing to step forward. 'Whoever has a heavy heart today, who needs extra prayer, come join me in the middle,' Williams said. People stepped forward to form a smaller circle in the center around an abalone shell filled with burning sage. The smaller group held hands while Williams offered a song and prayer, encouraging those in the larger circle to do the same. Later in the day, community members marched to the Willamette River to take part in another ceremony, joined from the water by the 7 Waters Canoe Family at the Duckworth Memorial Dock. Around 50 people walked the three quarters of a mile to the dock, including women pushing strollers and elders pushing walkers. People raised their signs high in the air with phrases such as 'No more stolen sisters,' 'Gone missing but still in our hearts,' and 'Search the landfills.' Cars honked their horns in support all along the way. Angela Polk, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and a Yakama Nation descendent, spent the walk to the river reflecting on her sister, Tina Spino, who went missing two years ago. 'My daughter has never been the same since,' Polk said. Two weeks after Tina went missing, she was found dismembered, Polk said. She has lost other loved ones as well to the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, including her nephew Casey Lillie. 'The importance for me is to release the pain we carry,' Polk said, reflecting on MMIR Day of Awareness and Action. 'I pray for the children and I pray for my family.' Once at the river, those standing at the dock welcomed the 7 Waters Canoe Family with war whoops. 'We're happy to be here, happy to pull our canoe in prayer,' said skipper Lukas Angus, Niimiipuu and Cayuse on his father's side and Tlingit and Haida on his mother's side. 'When we paddle, we're praying. We're offering our strength. We hope that you can pray with us.' Event organizers handed out flowers to those gathered on the docks, to take part in a 'letting go' ceremony. One by one, community members were invited to step forward and add their flower to a growing pile on a wool blanket at the front of the canoe, sending with it a prayer of something that they need to let go of. After everyone stepped forward, the 7 Waters Canoe Family pulled back out into the center of the river. The two paddlers in front gently threw the flowers into the river, one by one. Silence fell over the dock, as people watched the canoe family release their prayers into the river through the flowers. Out of the silence, a man's voice rose, sharing a song. When it comes to the actual numbers of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives across the country, and specifically in Portland, it is hard to know the true reach of the crisis, according to Joshevama. 'We know there are so many gaps in data,' she said. 'There is no official data for the City of Portland.' One of the reasons there is such a gap in data has to do with racial classification, as Indigenous people are often misclassified, according to Joshevama. Acknowledging the gaps in data, Joshevama is working with Future Generations Collaborative on creating a database to track MMIR cases in the Portland Metro area. The hope is to engage with the community and officially launch the database in 2027. In Oregon, secrecy and data issues seem to be impeding progress on MMIR cases, as Underscore Native News reported in August 2024. Family members and grassroots groups are leading the way when it comes to advocating for and searching for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, such as the MMIW Search and Hope Alliance based in Oregon. The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center created a guide as part of its MMIR toolkit for what to do in the first 72 hours after a loved one goes missing. Some state legislators in Oregon are calling for further action to improve the state response to the MMIR crisis. This legislative session, state Reps. Tawna Sanchez, Shoshone-Bannock, Ute and Carrizo, and Annessa Hartman, Haudenosaunee, championed House Bill 3198. If passed, the bill would allocate staff within the Oregon Health Authority to lead prevention efforts, provide victim services and collect statewide data on MMIR cases. 'For years, we've heard from families and community members who've done this work alone because state systems weren't built to support them,' Sanchez said in a press release about the bill. 'This bill is a response to that call. It invests in the prevention, coordination, and healing our communities have asked for.'
The Guardian
14-03-2025
- The Guardian
‘They shouldn't have to fight alone': the families on the frontline of the Navajo Nation missing people crisis
On a cold January evening in 2021, Joey Apachee, a Navajo father of two, set out to meet a friend near the water tower in Steamboat, Arizona. Hours later, he was found beaten to death. However, despite a confession from a suspect, no trial has taken place. Joey's father Jesse Apachee, a retired police officer, says the family feels abandoned by the Navajo Nation's justice system. Indigenous people experience violence at alarmingly high rates. According to the Urban Indian Health Institute, in some parts of the US, Indigenous women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average. Additionally, 10,123 Native American people were recorded as missing in 2022, though the real tally is probably higher due to inconsistencies in reporting and data collection. In recent years the crisis has expanded to affect more men and boys, who now account for 46% of missing person cases. This crisis, referred to as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) crisis, is deeply felt in the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. As of February 2024, the Navajo police department reported 73 missing individuals (some of whom have been missing since the 1970s). Of those, 51 were men and 22 were women. Across this vast and isolated landscape, Navajo families are often left to search for their loved ones, or else clues to their loved ones' deaths, with little to no assistance from law enforcement agencies. Depending on the case, those agencies might include the Navajo Nation's own authorities, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the FBI or state police. 'Mom, I'm going home.' Those were the last words Calvin Willie Martinez spoke to his mother, Aldeena Lopez, when he called her from a truck stop on his way back from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in May 2019. He never made it. The years leading up to Calvin's disappearance were marked by profound loss: his girlfriend and youngest son perished in a house fire in 2014, a tragedy that weighed heavily on him though he remained close with his family. Jurisdictional challenges have impeded the investigation into his disappearance: Albuquerque police initially refused to take the case because Calvin was from Farmington, a border town near the Navajo reservation, and Farmington's police pushed the case to yet another jurisdiction. As the investigation drags on, Aldeena makes repeated trips to retrace her son's last known steps, clinging to the hope that she might uncover a lead. 'I went to all the stops from Farmington to Albuquerque. I think I am doing the right thing,' she said. Darlene Gomez, the only lawyer in the US providing pro bono representation for MMIR cases, has seen first-hand the slow, indifferent response from various law enforcement agencies. 'There is a lack of resources, training, accountability, transparency and emergency response,' she said. 'Families have to become their own investigators. They're the ones putting up posters, following leads, demanding accountability.' Many families rely on grassroots networks, online campaigns and advocacy groups to keep their cases alive. The Navajo police department's Missing Person Unit, one of the few dedicated MMIR law enforcement teams in the region, is tasked with partnering with search-and-rescue teams and working closely with families to document and track cases. But with just one sergeant, four patrol officers and three civilian staff members, it faces an overwhelming caseload. Overall, the Navajo police department has approximately 210 officers to patrol the entire Navajo Nation – a vast area roughly the size of West Virginia. With limited personnel and funding, they struggle to respond effectively to the MMIR crisis. Border towns near the reservation, where many Navajo residents travel or move to for work, have also long been sites of violence and disappearances. But law enforcement coordination between tribal, state and federal agencies remains fractured, leading to cases that fall through the cracks. Families often find themselves shuttled between jurisdictions, each unwilling or unable to take full responsibility for an investigation. The Navajo Nation president, Buu Nygren, acknowledges the severity of the crisis, saying that it would be 'a very difficult task to guarantee the safety of the Navajo Nation' while individuals continue to go missing. Meanwhile, Richelle Montoya, the first woman elected vice-president of the Navajo Nation, has made MMIR a priority, advocating for policy changes and increased resources to keep Navajo residents safe. 'These families shouldn't have to fight alone,' she said. 'We need real, structural change – better coordination, better funding and more accountability.' In the absence of meaningful administrative action, the families have become the frontline in the crisis as they try to bring their missing relatives home. For them, there is no option but to keep searching.
