Rapid City observes National Day of Awareness for Missing, Murdered Indigenous People

RAPID CITY — Mayor Steve Allender proclaimed May 5, 2021 as “National Awareness Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Rapid City.” The grassroots non-profit Red Ribbon Skirt Society of the Black Hills offered an art installation. Native leaders read the proclamation at a ceremony in its honor.

The installation, on the grounds of the city’s Journey Museum, featured tipi poles set up over chairs with shadow boxes illustrating missing and murdered relatives. It was entitled “The Earth is Weeping.”

City officials issued similar proclamations in 2018 and in 2019. This year’s proclamation states:

“WHEREAS, the Rapid City Municipal Government stands with other tribal, local, regional, state and national governments and organizations in support of National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People; and

“WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide was the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women between 10 and 24 years of age and the fifth leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women between 25 and 34 years of age, and

“WHEREAS, the disappearances and murders of Indigenous people is often directly connected to domestic violence and sexual assault or trafficking, which is a direct threat to tribal sovereignty and sacred humanity and compromises Indigenous people’s ability to heal from historic trauma; and

“WHEREAS, American Indian and Alaska Native women are 2.5 times more likely to experience violent crimes – and at least twice as likely to experience rape or sexual assault crimes – compared to all other races, according to a 2013 National Congress of American Indian Policy Research Center report; now therefore,

“BE IT RESOLVED that I, Steve Allender, Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2021 as National Awareness Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Rapid City, South Dakota.

“We encourage other businesses, organizations, public institutions and community members to observe this day and learn and teach others about the crisis facing Indigenous peoples and to revere the sacred lives lost and those we seek to protect.”

Community members and a new action group called “Hé Sapa MMIP Action Alliance” gathered outside the Journey Museum to welcome the resolution. Wearing red ribbon skirts or other red clothing, they offered prayers to remember the relatives who left too soon.

“We are recognizing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People: women, girls, two spirits and men,” South Dakota American Civil Liberties Union Indigenous Justice Organizer Candi Brings Plenty announced.

The proclamation comes on the heels of South Dakota House Bill 1199, which establishes the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons in the state Attorney General’s Office. Its role is to help tackle the myriad jurisdictional conflicts between state, federal and tribal agencies that complicate efforts to find missing Indigenous people, the ACLU noted. “But more needs to be done” to reduce impunity, it said.

The Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains organized a speakers’ event on the front steps of the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. Slated speakers included Lisa Heth, director of Wiconi Wawokiya, Inc., Peter Lengkeek, Crow Creek Chairman; Bernita In The Woods, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Council representative; Red Dawn Foster for South Dakota Senate from the 27th District;; Tamara St. John of Sisseton District 01; Melanie Stoneman and Letoy Lunderman, executive director of South Dakota Coalition Ending Domestic & Sexual Violence; and Carla Lisa Cheyenne, a family member of Emily Blue Bird, a 24-year-old mother of two whose disappearance from Pine Ridge eventually resulted in murder indictments.

Participants reminded the public of the reason for observing this particular date. May 5 is the birthday of 21-year-old Hanna Harris (Northern Cheyenne), who went missing and was found murdered on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in 2013. Her family’s dogged pursuit of justice sparked national legislation and drew more than 200 organizations into a campaign for the nationwide commemoration.

This year, President Joe Biden signed his own proclamation, adding critical mass to a five-year grassroots campaign for the commemoration. (See story by Correspondent Darren Thompson in this issue of Native Sun News Today.)

 

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com)

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