EWU Observes Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Day

On Tuesday, May 5, 108 red shirts hung from the trees surrounding Arévalo Mall to commemorate the same number of missing and murdered indigenous people in and around Washington state, raising awareness for EWU’s fourth annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People day.

“It’s all about awareness,” says Evanlene Melting Tallow, the program coordinator for indigenous studies here at Eastern. “We need to make sure people know who we are and why this is so important.” Tallow says the combined imagery of the red shirts and the signs bearing the name of each victim are key to understanding how violence disproportionately affects indigenous communities.

Melting Tallow, a First Nations descendent of the Blackfeet and Kainai tribes, says educating the community about this epidemic is the first step toward stopping it. “We know that if we do not get everyone involved, then it’s so much easier to go on our reservations and take our people.”

While Washington State has recently adapted a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People alert that functions similarly to the Amber alert system, there is still a lot of progress to be made in reconciling the immense hurt and loss of loved ones in local indigenous communities.

“These are our relatives. These are real people,” Melting Tallow says. “They’re infants and children and women and men and all of them should be able to get justice.”

For more information, please visit ewu.edu/mmiw or contact Evanlene Melting Tallow directly at emeltingtallow@ewu.edu, and be sure to attend The Spirit of the Eagle Round Dance, which will take place at Reese Court Pavillion from 12-7 p.m. on Saturday, May 30.

**Story written by Rachel Weinberg.