Group rallies for missing and murdered indigenous people
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IDAHO FALLS – Several people made the choice to not be silent as they joined together for a rally in a Idaho Falls Saturday.
Around fifteen people marched along the Snake River, past the crowded Idaho Falls Farmers Market and then crossed Broadway Street. They stopped along the bridge and held signs raising attention to a group of people who often go overlooked when they go missing – indigenous people. Particularly, women.
Many of the people at the rally had red handprints on their faces, over their mouths.
“They don’t want to be silent anymore,” said Michelle Perez, who organized the rally. “When they put that hand print on, that’s showing that… indigenous people have (gone) missing and (been) murdered. It’s a silent mark.”
The rate at which indigenous people experience violence far exceeds the national average, according to “Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis,” from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, according to the National Crime Information Center, but this number is likely an undercount. The BIA states that indigenous women are often misclassified in a different racial category on missing-person forms.
While Perez isn’t indigenous herself, her six children are of Aztec descent. After hearing about the murder of Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teenager whose remains were found nearly a month after she disappeared in late January, Perez decided she needed to organize an event that would make more people aware of the decades-long crisis.
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Perez organized this rally ahead of May 5, which is a nationally recognized day of awareness for missing and murdered indigenous people.
“When everybody’s out celebrating Cinco de Mayo… I want everybody to think of that one person that’s out there that’s missing, or that was murdered, and (those responsible) don’t get arrested because they don’t have justice,” Perez said.
Erin Conley, a resident of Idaho Falls since 2018 who is descended from the native Alaskan Tlingit tribe, took part in the rally in honor of her mother’s memory. Conley said her mother, Melodee Wagner, went missing when she was four years old. They were living in Sacramento, California, and her mom was found dead after around six months.
Conley said that indigenous women experience fear in their daily lives because of how often they’re overlooked by the rest of society.
“Indigenous women get overlooked all the time. It makes it really hard to just live,” Conley said.
Miranda Armenta, who comes from indigenous Mexican descent, said that people can start to understand the fear indigenous people feel if they think of them like family.
“Treat indigenous people like they were your sisters and you were a protective older brother, and that will give you the same feeling of fear that everyone fears for these people,” Armenta said.
Perez’s oldest daughter, Juleymi, feels that people who aren’t affected by the crisis don’t pay much attention to it, but she hopes that more people who saw the rally will decide to learn more about it.
“It’s always a good thing to be aware of the problems that are going on,” Juleymi said. “It is always a good thing to acknowledge that there is a problem, that you see it, and you understand that it could be better.”
