Catherine’s Column

say it is one in three of us Native women. However I have yet to find the other two who haven’t suffered some type of abuse. In becoming objects, we become non-human, and when a young woman goes missing, she isn’t looked for because, well, she doesn’t live what is called a desirable, upstanding life. Maybe she has turned to dancing to entertain people and earn a living. Maybe she parties, looking to have fun and find love. Maybe she’s a young girl on the internet with a man telling her he is 16 and he wants to marry her and they should meet in person. Maybe she’s an addict and she wants to get high.

This is a difficult topic – as we were testifying in Alaska recently, one of the tribal leaders was notified that her family member had been murdered. I watched as she finished her testimony and began her grieving.

men and children we have lost. We will pray for the day when there is no longer the need for the red handprint on the face.

I’ll conclude by borrowing some famous words: “I have a dream” that one day my daughters and granddaughters will live in a world where they won’t have to walk to their cars at night in fear, with keys between their knuckles – that we can use our tribal funds for things like education and community gardens instead of women’s self-defense classes, special VAWA projects, and security cameras for women.

Honorable People of the Suquamish!

I want to talk about Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) this month, since May 5 will be proclaimed as MMIP Day both by the Suquamish Tribal Council and the White House.

This month’s column may be hard to read – this is a hard topic. Somewhere, at this moment, a woman is afraid for her life or is being forced to do things she doesn’t want to do. Our women and girls are targets because of our vulnerabilities, and because we were dehumanized. Yes, it happens to boys too.

In Native communities we cry out because our missing relatives do not get the coverage and oftentimes don’t even get law enforcement attention. Our children and others who are vulnerable are targeted for drug, sex, and labor trafficking.

I can’t begin to imagine the pain of waiting for a daughter to come home from the store, never to see her again, and what it must be like to wonder if she is alive or not.

As you may or may not know, I am a tribal leader for my tribe, the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and one of the areas I work on is MMIP and domestic violence. I have spent countless hours testifying on this topic, along with many other tribal leaders.

I have also worked as a caseworker and guardian ad litem. In my work with tribes, I know the alarming rate that our young girls and boys are targeted via the internet and lured into getting into vehicles of complete strangers or other dangerous situations – and their families never see them again.

I learned that, at any moment, including this one, a woman is being abused, beaten, or stolen. They

The crisis of MMIP is an extension of colonization. It resulted from the systemic denial of the full authority of Indian Nations to self-government and from the withholding of federal government resources essential to lifesaving services. It is also a result of society’s tolerance of disrespect and violence toward women.

On May 5, a proclamation will be made, and the nation will once again grieve the epidemic and crisis of the MMIP in our communities. Many will paint a red handprint over their face, and prepare to march and rally. We will give speeches, we will cry, we will mourn the women,

It’s time for the federal, state, and local governments that are writing proclamations to not only help us find our daughters, mothers, aunties, granddaughters who didn’t come home, but to tell those people who target them that we – all of us – will be looking for them, and we will hold abusers, traffickers, and murderers accountable.

It’s time to tell those mothers who are waiting for their daughters or sons to come home that we care and we are going to look for them. It’s time to begin to see and notice our “invisible” populations.

Catherine Edwards Suquamish Tribe Executive Director

To learn more, check out the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center at https://www.niwrc.org

Integrated Victim Services on MMIWP Awareness Day

We walk in Honor and Memory of our MMIWP Relatives

Gather at Suquamish Admin and walk to HOAC. Gather with us inside the HOAC to receive information and hear more about MMIWP