In between the moments of prayer and heart-wrenching stories of missing loved ones, Laura White-Woods, a Yurok Tribal Court community outreach manager, found the space to insert a beacon of hope into the otherwise somber room.
She shared her dream of a day when there would be no more missing and murdered Indigenous people. A day when she would no longer need to bear the mark of fellow tribal people who’ve been lost in the shape of a blood red handprint across her mouth.
“This morning, in my quiet time, my prayer time, I was thinking about the party we can all have when we no longer have to have these conferences,” White-Woods said. “The day will come when we no longer have the missing and murdered Indigenous people. That’ll be a day of celebration.”
She spoke about her wish for the future during the Yurok Tribe’s fourth annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Day & Walk at the Adorni Center in Eureka on May 5, an event focused on community healing and providing space to speak openly about the systemic issues at the root of the crisis.
While long known in tribal communities, a larger awareness of the MMIP epidemic has been growing since 2020, when the Yurok Tribe and Sovereign Bodies Institute released a groundbreaking report showing Native women and girls were far more likely to go missing or become victims of violence than the general population, including a cluster of cases centered on the North Coast.
In addition, the report found that murders of Native women in the state are seven times less likely to be solved. The following year, the Yurok Tribe declared a state of emergency after a spate of attempted abductions and reports of missing persons.
Alanna Wright, a Yurok Tribe MMIP drone pilot, explained that when communities are dealing with issues like poverty, substance abuse, housing shortages and food insecurity, tribal people feel the brunt of it.
“Tribal people are like the canary in the coal mine,” Wright said. “When something goes wrong, when something is wrong with society, the tribal people feel it first. So when you have such a huge percentage of tribal people going missing in an area, it speaks to the larger issues [that] are going on in the area.”
Wright was one of several people tabling at the event, her display set up with the drones she uses to search for missing people. Alongside her were volunteers handing out T-shirts, representatives of California Indian Legal Services and a group providing attendees with paint to cover their mouth in a red handprint, a symbol that has become synonymous with the MMIP movement, representing the missing and murdered Indigenous people who have been silenced.
Two dresses adorned in earrings made with materials native to the local area such as abalone, bone, grasses and beads were propped up at the front of the room. The exhibition was part of the One Earring Project, an initiative aimed at bringing awareness to MMIP, with the tribe inviting community members to add to the display.
The event also included a walk to the Humboldt County Courthouse, where more than 100 participants held signs, chanted and demanded justice for their missing and murdered family members and friends.
Jessica Carter, the Yurok Tribal Court director, said that organizing awareness walks like this one are important because they make the issue of MMIP hard to ignore.
“I think it’s important to put it at the forefront because this issue affects all of us in the community and a lot of families, so we want to make sure that our family members are recognized and they’re not forgotten,” Carter said. “It’s definitely an important event not only for us but for the community and the families.”
The organizers of the event acknowledged that MMIP can be a heavy topic and very emotionally taxing on attendees. To provide some emotional support, Crescent City Police Department K-9 volunteers Cathy Schneider and Gloria Crow-Bobertz attended with three of their therapy dogs.
Carter also noted that the Yurok Tribal Court provides support for families through its To’ Kee Skuy’ Soo Ney‑Wo‑Chek’ Project, which means “I will see you again in a good way.”
The project focuses on justice, healing and prevention by offering the families of those murdered or missing assistance with private searches, coordinating awareness events, accompaniment to court hearings and more.
Following the awareness walk, attendees made origami hearts and flowers to pin to a large poster board in solidarity with MMIP. The event organizers also handed out backpacks filled with snacks and supplies like reusable utensils and a portable battery.
Before the dinner and film screening, several community speakers shared their stories with the room. Among them was Gary Risling, a Yurok tribal member whose daughter Emmilee Renea Risling was last seen on Oct. 14, 2021.
The disappearance of the 32-year-old mother of two, a University of Oregon political science graduate and ceremonial singer and dancer, was one of the first to bring national attention to the MMIP crisis in Northern California.
“We haven’t given up hope, we’re still looking. We’ll always keep looking until we find her,” he said. “So very sad that the journey is tough, especially when you have small children and kids that are growing up because they always want to know, ‘Where’s my mother? What’s gonna happen if we don’t find her?’ Well, we just keep looking.”
Mia Costales is a senior journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is the news editor at El Leñador, the student-run bilingual newspaper. Reach her at costalesmia@gmail.com.
This article appears in Your Local Coven.