00:00The red is the color of the MMIW movement and the handprint is to represent the women,
00:07and specifically the Native women, that have been silenced through violence.
00:16She's giving a voice to those who have been silenced.
00:30To me, running empowers me, and it gives me a platform where I can speak and use my voice.
00:50Missing and murdered Indigenous women is an epidemic that you can't really ignore
00:54when it's happening to your family and your community.
00:57And to me, when I realized that I could use the state track meet as an opportunity to present this issue,
01:03it was something that I knew I needed to do.
01:15Only my mother and my coach knew about my exact plans,
01:20because I knew that some people might tell me to keep politics out of sports,
01:26being Native American and representing missing and murdered Indigenous women
01:30and bringing awareness to the epidemic isn't a political statement,
01:33but rather just an aspect of my humanity and my identity,
01:36and I didn't want that to be interfered with in any way.
01:44Boston Marathon runner Jordan Marie Daniels is a Lakota tribal member,
01:48and she ran at the Boston Marathon with red paint over her mouth and MMIW down her leg.
01:54And when I saw that, I was inspired.
01:56She told me that it was going to be very painful to run, and she was right.
02:01It was very, in a way, sometimes traumatic to think of the stories of these women,
02:07and she told me that I needed to pray.
02:10We need to show up, we need to be persistent, and we need to keep talking about this.
02:24On the Yakima Reservation already, there was 13, about 13 missing women, Indian women, Indigenous women.
02:43And then for my sister to go missing, and it left our family, where is she?
02:50And we looked on the sides of the roads, we looked everywhere,
02:56and just dumbfounded as to where is she? She's just disappeared.
03:07I watched the news, and I just started shaking and trembling,
03:10because it said the body was there for a long time.
03:14And I called Mary, and she called the tribal police.
03:18She called me back the next day and said it was her.
03:21And I just broke down, because 14 months I was looking for her every day,
03:30not knowing if she was hungry, being abused in any way.
03:38But I was grateful that we got her back, our prayers were answered.
03:47We was glad we found her, but we wanted to know, well, what are you guys doing to find the answers?
03:54How did she get out there? And was there any foul play? And they couldn't answer it for us.
04:02To save our mother! To save our mother!
04:06To save everyone's lives! To save everyone's lives!
04:10There is sufficient evidence that there are predators who target Native women and girls for trafficking.
04:18Esther Smith, say her name! Esther Smith!
04:22Esther Smith!
04:25Our sisters go missing in our homes, from our families, from our tables, from our ceremonies.
04:35And then they go missing to the rest of the world, because nobody ever hears about them.
04:39Violence against women, acts need to be taken seriously and really understood that this is an epidemic and it's genocide.
05:10This is a photo of Ashley.
05:19Ashley was an outgoing 20-year-old Native college student during the summer of 2017,
05:27when she went missing on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.
05:32Last December, I heard firsthand about the devastating impact of Ashley's disappearance
05:39when her sister, Kimberly Loring Heavy Runner, came before the Indian Affairs Committee to ask Congress to take action.
05:47If they would have taken her serious as a person, because we are important,
05:52I believe that my sister would have been here, or we would have had closure.
05:58I am aware also, and I guess we'll discuss this any moment, about the epidemic which now exists in terms of violence against women.
06:10And this is an issue that will be very, very high up on my agenda.
06:16We will see cooperation between the federal government and the sovereign Indian nations in order to address this crisis.
06:28I remember she used to always wear those hats.
06:38Well, at the end of her life, she wanted long hair. She was growing it out long.
06:43I just don't think there's enough information given to non-Native people about Native Americans and how sacred our women are to our people.
06:54They're the creators, you know, of life, and they're revered and honored.
06:59And so to get no coverage, it's like they don't understand us.
07:14I was glad she's being remembered and thought of. Her life mattered. She mattered to us.
07:24On our canoe, you'll see these red ribbons with the names of our stolen relatives who we prayed for today.
07:39There's no way that I could continue running and not continue to advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women.
07:45I plan to include myself academically and athletically in the issue and to continue to raise awareness,
07:52but also see what I can do personally with the momentum I have right now to continue to advocate for my sisters and my relatives.
08:15For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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