Hundreds of Native people and their allies marched through in California s capital to bring awareness to the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
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Hundreds march in California for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women May 10, 2021 10:30 AM CDT By Albert Bender
Photos from the Sacramento Prayer Walk. | Top left and right photos courtesy of Craig Lewis / Angela s March; Bottom left photo: Sacramento Native American Health Center
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Hundreds of Native people and their allies marched through the streets of Sacramento to bring awareness to the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) that has plagued this country, and Northern California in particular, for years. It is hoped that this march will become an annual occurrence. Those who organized this first event hailed it as a “Prayer Walk.”
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Leticia Aguilar poses for a portrait holding a picture of her grandmother Betty Ann Sigala in her home in Elk Grove.
(Salgu Wissmath/USA Today)
For years, Betty Sigala spoke to her family about her death: she didn’t want to be put on a machine and she didn’t want to die alone.
When she was admitted in June to the COVID-19 care ward at her local hospital, her family refused a ventilator. One of her grandsons convinced the nurses to ignore the no visitors rule and let him in.
He set up an iPad so the family could speak with her, then held her hand as she died.
Native American leaders across California said COVID-19 deaths are a shadow on their communities, yet state figures show few American Indian people have died here compared with other states. Leaders and experts fear their community s deaths have been undercounted because of a long history of Native Americans being racially misclassified. And data shows they may be correct.
This unacceptable and damaging practice can bar Native people from getting the help and resources they actually need, they said.
California has the largest number of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and the largest number of American Indians and Alaska Natives living in urban centers. They are often declared white, Latino or Black on official forms by uninformed hospital workers, according to community leaders and various studies. Sometimes they are simply listed as other.