Friday, May 5th was the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People. In Bemidji, the group MMIW 218 continued their work in raising awareness on the issue with a walk/run that took place downtown along the shores of Lake Bemidji.

According to the Department of Justice, four out of five Native American women experience some form of violence in their lifetimes. Native women also face murder rates 10 times the national average, something local advocates are well aware of.

“This issue really hits close to home for us here. We’ve had several murders, we also have a few of our relatives that are still missing – Jeremy Jourdain, Nevaeh Kingbird,” said MMIW 218 organizer Audrianna Goodwin. “And we also know through the data and through the statistics that our rates of violence are significantly higher here in Beltrami County, and so it’s really important and critical that we raise awareness around this issue, that community gets involved, and that we get answers for some of these injustices that we experience.

Hundreds of people took part in Friday’s event, including visitors from Guatemala and Brazil who spoke to Lakeland News through interpreters.

“It’s important that we as siblings and sisters recognize what’s happening to us on Indigenous territories and to our people,” said Miluvean from Guatemala.

“The kidnapping and murder of Indigenous women is not something that only happens in North America,” said Sheline from Brazil. “It’s something that happens in all of the Americas, and we are here to address this problem.”

“It’s important because these issues have been normalized,” said Liseth from Guatemala. “They’ve become so – people take them for granted and they don’t pay attention to them because it’s so normal. And they normalize – they say things like, you know, ‘I’m abused but it’s out of love, and people do these acts of violence from a place of love,’ and that’s not true. We need to be cared for, we need to be loved.”

Red Lake, Duluth, and the Twin Cities metro area also hosted events for the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People.

By — Lakeland News