Hundreds of Minnesotans march for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives

As Ana Negrete read the names of Indigenous relatives missing and murdered in Minnesota, a deep silence fell over a room dressed in vibrant red at the East Phillips Community Center.

Due to gaps in data and reporting, the list was not comprehensive, Negrete said Wednesday at a memorial and march meant to honor those lost. As she neared the end of the long list, audience members, overcome by emotion in the overflowing gym, began to shout out names of their own, the air filling with ceremonial smoke and loss.

“There’s so many,” Negrete said. “Today we remember you. Today we call out your name. Today my hands have been removed from my mouth ... it is my responsibility to speak for those who cannot. I will not stay still and do nothing.”

Hundreds of families, organizers and supporters of efforts to end an epidemic of murdered and missing people in the Indigenous community gathered Feb. 14, known as a day of remembrance for those lost.

Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people disproportionately face violence in Minnesota. Though Indigenous people make up just 1% of the state’s population, 9% of all murdered girls and women from 2010 to 2019 were American Indians, according to a 2019 report from the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force.

Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, a Standing Rock Lakota descendant, sponsored legislation to address the violence faced by Indigenous community members. That led to the establishment of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office in 2021, the first of its kind in the United States.

“We’re meeting to address this historic pandemic of violence, of missing and murdered relatives across this nation and across any nation that was colonized by non-Indigenous people,” Kunesh said.

Kunesh announced that the office has a special license plate, available Wednesday through the Department of Vehicle Services, bearing a red handprint and ribbon skirt. Proceeds from the plates will go toward the Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag fund, Ojibwe for “they will be remembered forever.” The fund supports local investigations and community efforts to find the missing and murdered.

Supporters packed the streets of the Little Earth neighborhood in Minneapolis, donning ribbon skirts and red T-shirts, with matching scarlet palms painted over their mouths. People held signs reading ”Not One More” and “No more stolen relatives” with photos of their loved ones. Some carried small empty red dresses for girls no longer with their families.

Busloads of children from local schools marched as well, also dressed in red, some tossing a football.

Binesikwe Means attended the event along with students she works with at Migizi, an educational support group for Indigenous students. The day hit close to home for Means: Her aunt Sheila St. Clair went missing in Duluth in 2015.

“I believe walks like this bring a sense of peace our family doesn’t get otherwise,” Means said. “Because there’s been no justice and no end to how our family has suffered the loss of our aunt.”