In the fading glow of a late afternoon sun, a dozen readers or song bearers greeted a crowd of roughly 40 people, in a park where red dresses and other garments hung from the branches of trees. Throughout the night, tears were shed and hugs exchanged, and a small setting with a blanket and pouches of tobacco was set up in honor of Indigenous victims.
Stacia Henry, a Paiute Indian from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe located in Nixon, Nevada, gave a healing song before poems were shared, the presenters and audience moving from one tree to another during the roughly 45-minute presentation. The poems were largely about relatives and friends lost to violence or abduction, though others touched on racial disparities in housing or the importance of ceremony.
Co-organizer Marta Clifford is a Grand Ronde tribal member. She worked with students from the University of Oregon and Lane Community College on the ceremony.
鈥淥ur voices have power,鈥� Clifford told KLCC. 鈥淎nd we spoke to the people that are missing and murdered, and we know they heard us. So that鈥檚 what I want the students to take away, that their voices matter, they made a difference tonight.鈥�
The event hit home for Megan Van Pelt, a U of O junior from the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
鈥淚 know too many aunties and too many cousins, I know too many of my friends who鈥檝e gone through sexual assault, and I guess today鈥檚 making space for ourselves,鈥� she said, holding back tears. 鈥淎nd we are here for our lost sisters, our lost cousins.鈥�
Recent events touch attendees
Clifford spoke to President Biden鈥檚 appointment of Deb Haaland as the Secretary of Department of the Interior as a positive development in the MMIW/MMIG/MMIP issue.
鈥淒eb鈥檚 always been on the missing and murdered Indigenous cases,鈥� said Clifford. 鈥淲e鈥檙e happy to see some of the initiatives she鈥檚 made on that.鈥�
Haaland 鈥� an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe and the first Native American to head the U.S. Interior Department 鈥� within the BIA Office of Justice Services in April 2021, with the intent to improve investigations and outcomes.
More recently, the possible overturn of Roe vs. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed heavily on women鈥檚 rights groups and supporters. This included participants at the MMIW observance.
Samantha Fernandez is a first-year student at the University of Oregon, and is of Klamath descent. She says losing abortion rights and access at the federal level would be harsh on an already suffering group, that鈥檚 seen inconsistent health care and disproportionate rates of sexual assault and domestic violence.
鈥淔or tribal people everywhere, it鈥檚 difficult,鈥� said Fernandez. 鈥淎nd they鈥檙e going to have to seek refuge in other states and it鈥檚 just going to make them more vulnerable. It鈥檚 just going to put them in an even tougher position and being able to protect themselves and speak out for themselves without facing any backlash, or anything like that.鈥�
The says over half of Native women have experienced sexual violence. And says Indigenous women are 1.7 times more likely than Anglo-American women to experience violence, twice as likely to be raped than Anglo-American women, and suffer a murder rate three times that of Anglo-American women.
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