The Native American Higher Education Resources office acknowledged the national day to honor the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous people on May 5.
A dedicated day for awareness, May 5 is a day to advocate for the missing and murdered Indigenous children, women and men as well as Two Spirited People, who are Indigenous people that are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, said Shaina Philpot, director of the Native American Student Support and Success Program.
The event was coordinated by Philpot, educating attendees by using slides that showed the significance of the day and the actions needed to be taken to stop these problems.
“This is a crisis that is happening in our country,” Philpot said. “Even in California, even here, it is happening.”
The slides showed there were 4,200 unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Reported victims of sexual and violent crimes affected mostly Native American women and Alaskan Natives women, with the numbers being 25,817 for violent crimes and 8,575 for sexual crimes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Seeing the difference from one year to another, and just that huge jump from numbers between those years, that was a surprising fact for me,” said Alejandra Trejo, a student personnel assistant for the PRIDE Center.
The event displayed a tub of 4,200 hearts to represent families and communities who mourn the pain of their loved ones, and ones who have been unheard or unfound.
Two proposed bills, Assembly Bill 31 and Assembly Bill 285, were addressed with the bills centering around improving and helping public safety in Indigenous communities.
Assembly Bill 31 grants tribal law enforcement the status of being state peace officers if they meet California standards and Assembly Bill 285 will grant temporary restraining orders to victims of domestic and sexual assault if their perpetrator is released from prison, according to CalMatters website.
The “Letter to Representatives” activity had attendees write postcards to California Democratic 10th district assembly member Stephanie Nguyen and Democratic California Sen. Angelique Ashby, with the postcards showing support for the representatives to approve the bills.
“I’m hoping that these postcards are one step in that direction,” Philpot said. “That’s what it takes, reaching out to representatives because they are the ones who are going to vote on our behalf.”
The event also included a showing of a short documentary film, “Say Her Name” (2021), that details accounts of missing and murdered Indigenous teen girls in Bighorn, Montana.
“These stories are not getting enough coverage, which I think is a major problem,” said Athena Singh, student advocate for the Center for Inclusion and Belonging.
The event ended with attendees tracing their hand on red paper and writing their reflection of the meeting on the palm of their traced hand.
“I hope that folks can take away that this matters,” Philpot said.
The NAHER center is located in L-106C in the library, open from Monday-Friday, 9a.m.-4:30 p.m.