- Details
- By Elyse Wild
The garments were installed on May 15 to commemorate MMIP Awareness Month under a permit KIC held from the U.S. Forestry Service. By the time the installation was scheduled to come down on May 31, 48 of the dresses were missing. In recent days, photos have been surfacing on social media showing some of the dresses crumpled near the lakeside trail, half buried or discarded in piles near drain pipes.
The tribe’s council issued a statement condemning “a hurtful and disrespectful act that undermines the efforts to bring understanding and raise awareness about the MMIP epidemic.”
Similar installations are featured throughout Canada and the United States during May to bring awareness to the disproportionate number of Indigenous people who are victims of violent crimes or go missing.
Murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women, with the murder rate ten times higher than the national average for women living on reservations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, Alaska reported 229 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous persons — 149 missing and 80 murdered.
Gloria Burns, KIC’s vice president and the chair of the social services committee, told local radio station KRBD that the tribe hung the dresses with remembrance and intention in an effort to create a “safe space.”
“And so when you’re going through that process of trying to create a safe space, and then it’s intentionally made unsafe, it feels very much like a violation,” Burns told KRBD. “I think, you know, the hard part is that missing and murdered indigenous people, it’s been happening since colonization, we really don’t talk about it. We really haven’t spoken those to the outside community.”
Anyone with information on the vandalization is encouraged to contact local law enforcement.
More Stories Like This
Biden Nominates Salish & Kootenai Tribal Attorney Danna Jackson for Federal BenchA Conversation With Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan: What We Can Celebrate Around the State
Return to the Heart Foundation Gives 44 Micro-Grants to Native Women Leaders
Indigenous Journalists Association President Addresses Members of the UNPFII
Inter-Tribal Council Passes Resolution Urging FCC to Establish Specific Event Code for Missing and Endangered Persons
Native Perspective. Native Voices. Native News.
We launched Native News Online because the mainstream media often overlooks news that is important is Native people. We believe that everyone in Indian Country deserves equal access to news and commentary pertaining to them, their relatives and their communities. That's why the story you’ve just finished was free — and we want to keep it that way, for all readers. We hope you'll consider making a donation to support our efforts so that we can continue publishing more stories that make a difference to Native people, whether they live on or off the reservation. Your donation will help us keep producing quality journalism and elevating Indigenous voices. Any contribution of any amount — big or small — gives us a better, stronger future and allows us to remain a force for change. Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous-centered journalism. Thank you.