NYS acknowledges Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Week

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – New York is recognizing the deadly epidemic that’s impacted Indigenous people for generations. May 5 is the National Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (M.M.I.P.) Awareness Day but the state is now acknowledging an awareness week.

According to the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, “Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder of tribal members. Community advocates describe the crisis as a legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples.”

“We know that four out of five, or 84 percent, of Native women and girls experience violence in their lifetime. 81 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native men have experienced violence according to the National Institute of Justice,” said Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) Deputy Commissioner Gail Geohagen - Pratt.

She said Indigenous people are murdered at an alarmingly high rate, 10 times the national average. 

New York has the 10th largest Native American population in the U.S. That’s why OCFS, the Education Department, and other state agencies, organized a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Memorial Walk.

It started at the Missing Persons Remembrance Eternal Flame Monument, ending in the Empire Plaza Concourse, where we caught up with Heather La Forme - Maldonado, the director of the Office of Native American Services at OCFS. 

“The person in my position 100 years ago would actually go into the homes and determine if children were sent to the boarding schools. And so this position has actually come 180° with the Indian Child Welfare Act. So now instead of sending children away or trying to dissolve families we’re actually trying to keep and ensure that native families stay intact,” said La Forme-Maldonado.

She is a member of the Onondaga Nation. She collaborates with other leaders in other state agencies – like Clarissa Jacobs in the Education Department – on anything that impacts tribal nations, from education to health services. 

On Monday that meant educating the public and spreading awareness around MMIP. But it’s not just their job, they do this for personal reasons.

“I have two cousins lost to this particular issue,” said La Forme - Maldonado. 

Jacobs is from St. Regis Mohawk. “Her name is Sheena Bullett and she was from La Ronge, Saskatchewan up in Canada. My other cousin was Jeanette Mitchell, who was originally from Akwesasne, but grew up in Syracuse,” said Jacobs.

While May 5 is nationally recognized as MMIP Awareness Day…

“I would also like to acknowledge that Governor Hochul has sent a proclamation in recognition of MMIP Day,” said Geohagen - Pratt.

That proclamation states, New York state acknowledges MMIP awareness for an entire week, from May 5 - 9.

Jacobs appreciates the governor’s recognition. “She delivers that support for us and that’s what I really appreciate the most, that New York state is now listening to Indigenous people,” said Jacobs.

“I come from a community that’s very traditional and what they say is that I have a foot in each world. So I have my Haudenosaunee life that I live and then I have the mainstream life that I live. And it’s very hard to navigate that but at the same time, it’s very important that somebody sits in this world, whether it be myself or somebody else at another state agency, so that we can advocate for services and funding for the tribal nations,” said La Forme - Maldonado. 

Funding they said would help with obtaining more focused data on the issues. Jacobs said these events show people how to be supportive allies.

“I just want to thank everyone. It was a great event today. I look at the future, I’d like to see bus loads of students coming here to Albany so that they’re a part of this. This is history, actually, that’s happening,” said Jacobs.

The Empire State Plaza will illuminate in red tonight in honor of missing and murdered indigenous persons awareness day.