Tribes, city residents join in weekend for families of missing, murdered

A 5k prayer walk and run followed a community-based search for a Native woman last seen in Rapid City two weeks earlier.
COURTESY / NDN Collective

RAPID CITY – A 5k prayer walk and run here on May 23 raised awareness about the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit relatives. The previous day, participants gathered in a community-based search for a Native woman missing for two weeks.

The search failed to turn up Susan Lacee Fast Eagle, 30. However, it provided members of the search party skills, thanks to trainers from the Native grassroots Sahnish Scouts of North Dakota.

The two-day collaboration constituted an opportunity to strengthen ties between relatives for a united front, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council Representative Totes Waln remarked. She called for prayers honoring missing and murdered male relatives, as well.

Community members took part in the activities sponsored by the national non-profit NDN Collective, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The events staged at Memorial Park attracted hundreds of people and made a big impression on social media.

Lissa Yellow Bird, along with family and friends, founded Sahnish Scouts in 2013, to respond to the disappearances of people in the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota. Since then, more than a hundred families have sought the group’s support in cases where loved ones were lost. The group not only publicizes missing persons, but its members also search for them.

“We assist law enforcement or fill in where they are absent. We believe that everyone deserves to be looked for,” their mission statement says.

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

The post Tribes, city residents join in weekend for families of missing, murdered first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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