• May 6, 2021
Communities, Advocates Commemorate Missing And Murdered Indigenous People
Advocacy groups and community members gathered across the state and country Wednesday to commemorate Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and to call for preventative action.
“With increased funding, resources, and partnerships, we will be better equipped to enforce laws and deter crimes committed against our Indigenous mothers, sisters, daughters, and LGBTQ community, said Navajo Nation First Lady Phefelia Nez.
At a panel hosted by Missing and Murdered Diné Relatives, community members shared their stories and discussed the case of Jamie Yazzie, a 33-year-old nursing assistant who was last seen on June, 2019 in Pinon, Arizona. The FBI is seeking information related to Yazzie and last month offered a $5,000 reward.
Spotify
For years, journalist Connie Walker has been covering an overlooked epidemic: violence against Indigenous women. Across North America, women and girls vanish without warning and are murdered at more than ten times the national average, according to the Indian Law Resource Center. Families often wait days for authorities to take action as they desperately seek information and accountability.
Walker, who is Cree from Okanese First Nation in Canada, helps those families find answers. In her latest investigation for Gimlet/Spotify, a new eight episode podcast called
Stolen: The Search for Jermain, Walker looks into the disappearance of Jermain Charlo, a 23-year-old woman from the Flathead Reservation in Montana who has been missing since 2018. “As an Indigenous journalist, I have a responsibility to tell the truth,” Walker tells ELLE.com. “[To] connect the dots for our listeners, so they understand how this history is connected to the crisis of violence in our communi