With the rumble of a pack of motorcycles to lead them off, people from the Forest County Potawatomi Community and Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Community marched alongside Highway 8 to the Potawatomi Community Center.
Many wore bright red, had painted red handprints across their mouths, and held signs and flags that said things like “No More Stolen Sisters”, “Out of the dark and into the light”, and “You are not forgotten”.
Some like Potawatomi Council Member Destinee Alloway wore pin with the picture of Tess White, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2016.
It was because of White that Alloway helped bring the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Walk to the Forest County Potawatomi Community in 2021.
“I'm here every year that we have this, since the first walk that we had,” said Alloway. “I'm just here to support and be here for my friend who was murdered and for everyone else that are still missing.”
May 5th was first declared the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2017.
Since then, many communities have expanded it to include Native people in general, not just women.
“Spreading the awareness of Native American people just so people care more and that we get more law enforcement to help us, and because it could be hard for other tribes out there,” said Alloway.
In 2020, two federal acts became law to direct more U.S. Department of Justice resources to the issue.
Still, the Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates more than 4,000 missing and murdered cases have gone unsolved.
Forest County Potawatomi Chairman Brooks Boyd Sr. hopes people take the time to educate themselves on the issue.
“This certainly has hit home right here in my community, unfortunately, and it's really starting to be all too common throughout Native communities,” said Boyd Sr. “That's why it's going to be important and critical for us to continue to carry this message, because it can and it does happen right here in our local communities.”
The number of missing and murdered indigenous persons cases are thought to be undercounted because of racial misclassification and general underreporting.
