The annual walk expands into a daylong conference in Bemidji to help combat the MMIW epidemic

BEMIDJI — Nevaeh Kingbird, Jeremy Jourdain, Brandi Lynn, Krista Fisherman, Tim Stone.

These are just some of the names on signs that family members and friends raised as they marched from Paul Bunyan Park to the Sanford Center on Sunday, May 5, to commemorate National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Day.

After the nearly 1.5-mile walk, participants gathered in the event center for a full day of events, complete with drum songs, speakers, lunch and breakout sessions on a variety of topics from arts activism to community resources.

Beginning with a healing song, attendees who have been affected or have lost a loved one lined up to let others pass, shake hands and offer words of encouragement.

After everyone had made their way through and the song had ended, organizers gave a few opening remarks before the drum group played the official MMIW 218 song written by Mark Kingbird.

Attendees then moved to the next room to hear from a panel of event organizers – Audrianna Goodwin, Valahlena Steeprock, Bee Gauther, Simone Senogles, Winona Kingbird and Natasha Kingbird – who explained the motivation behind adding a full-day conference at the annual event. then just take the usual walk.

For Senogles, it was simply time to take things to the next level.

“We have been doing walks and the community has been supporting us for a long time,” she said. “But we think it’s time to start digging into the root cause, why are we here? What is going on? Why is this happening to us?”

She added that the events are growing every year, which proves the impact the issue has on the community, and how almost everyone in the room has been affected in some way by missing and murdered Indigenous women and family members.

“This is a symptom of colonization, and what happens to our land and waters also happens to our bodies,” she continued. “I see this as a continuation of land grabbing, of sexual violence and gender violence as a weapon of war, and we are living with that legacy now, and that is why we are dealing with MMIW.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that homicide is the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native girls and women ages 10 to 24, and the fifth leading cause of death for Native American women ages 25 to 34. .

Senogles said MMIW 218 is also committed to raising awareness about racism, patriarchy and environmental injustice.

“We are grateful to everyone involved in this work,” she ended. “Thank you to all the families who show up every year and allow us to help. We have to keep advocating and we have to keep the stories going. We should always listen to our relatives. We care about our community and that’s why we do what we do.”

One issue raised by Natasha Kingbird is the gap they see statistically between the metro area and rural communities in the northern part of the state, and how crucial it is to continue to bring resources and attention to the region.

“MMIW 218 aims to build relationships with other organizations and agencies from other parts of the state to build collective power,” she added. “We need to build that bridge because when things happen in the Twin Cities, a lot of their reports and statistics come from the urban areas. We want to have our own story and we want to hear stories at the local level.”

She also added how the organization is working to diversify its capabilities to support those in need.

“We need to be able to support them and provide resources to families entering the crisis area,” Kingbird said. “I know that just having a community here, having other people around us, can bring a little bit of peace to the families who are experiencing loss or grief, whatever they’re going through.”

Steeprock noted how the disconnect for her since her teenage cousin Nevaeh Kingbird went missing in October 2021 was tied to law enforcement and the government’s response.

“I think that’s something we need to work on, not just us, but the community, the government, and we’re still invisible to them. Like Gabby Petito, when she went missing, she literally immediately received national attention. For Nevaeh she has no national coverage at all. The only coverage we had when she first went missing was our city – the Bemidji pioneer was the only one to share her story.

She then commented on the apparent absence of law enforcement in the room and during the event.

“There are no police officers here at all,” Steeprock said, gesturing toward the room. “We always invite them, but they (rarely) come. And it just shows us that we are still invisible to them. And so, this right here, it’s triggering, it’s emotional, but I feel like after we’re done with the panels today, we’re going to lead to that healing and what we can do.

Goodwin shared how she sees healing and progress happening by telling a story about a woman she met on a recent trip to visit indigenous tribes in New Zealand with her mother and children.

“I asked her, ‘Do you have experience with missing murdered indigenous relatives?’ she said, ‘Yes, my girl, we do.’ And I said, ‘Well, what should we do? How can we help solve this problem?’ and her response to me was that we are focusing on the model,” Goodwin recalled. “So that’s what I want to talk about today: focusing on the model, the principles of the seventh generation. Because it is through this model that we will heal and uplift our people.”

Goodwin then gave examples of the good that can come from having principles of vulnerability, looking to the past, present and future, being intentional, having reciprocity, leaning into your gifts, balancing between walking in two worlds, having a strong commitment community and collaboration, along with an intergenerational focus.

“By sharing our stories, we can connect in a different way,” Goodwin said. “We share them in the hope that people will listen, that organizations and leaders within our community can hear our stories, so they can bring those stories back to the spaces where policy change is happening. And so we take time away from our families, from our jobs, to be able to contribute. This is grassroots organizing at its best.”