(water gurgling) (speaking in Ojibwe) (singing in Ojibwe) (speaking in Ojibwe) - Today, I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to the song.

(speaking in Ojibwe) The song that I sang is about healing, and it talks about as Grandmother Moon travels in the night sky, she's healing you, and she's healing me, too.

I introduced earlier my father.

His government name was Clyde George Day, and his Anishinaabe name was (speaking in Ojibwe) And I also introduced my niece, Karina Day Early, whose name is (speaking in Ojibwe) White Eagle Woman.

So they are the two most recent in our family that have been murdered, and those cases are still open.

Miigwech.

(speaking in Dakota) - Hello, my relatives.

I greet you all with a warm handshake.

Thank you for joining us.

My name is Leya Hale and I come from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Dine Nations.

I am a producer at Twin Cities PBS, and the Director of "Bring Her Home."

"Bring Her Home" is a story of three Indigenous women fighting to vindicate and honor their relatives, who are victims in the growing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Through the making of "Bring Her Home", we not only wanted to bring awareness to this crisis, but we most importantly wanted to share stories of perseverance, healing, and hope to encourage our communities to remain strong and resilient, while finding solutions to this issue.

So welcome to look inside "Bring Her Home", a virtual panel discussion, where we will have an opportunity to hear more from our amazing film participants, and the work they are currently doing.

At this time, it is my honor to introduce our moderator, President and CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, Marisa Cummings.

(speaking in Dakota) (speaking in Umonhon) Marisa Cummings (speaking in Umonhon) Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center.

It's a good day today, and I'm glad you are all here with us.

My name is Miakonda.

I am a Umonhon and belong to the Buffalo Tail Clan of the Sky People.

Prior to the invasion, our people had fully functioning government and justice structures.

We were high functioning and knew what worked best for us.

The disparities that we now suffer from are inherently rooted in a colonial structure that is predicated on genocide of our people.

It is essential for us to dismantle these systems that harm our people, and to build systems of justice that work for us all.

Tonight, we will discuss the epidemic through the point of view of the women in the "Bring Her Home" documentary.

We will also be sharing with you some clips from the full documentary that will air nationwide on PBS on March 21st.

Please check your local listings.

In our first clip of the documentary, we see artist, Angela Two Stars, as she reflects on a piece of art that reminds her of her grandmother's MMIW story.

Please roll the clip.

- Chase, are you gonna get up for breakfast?

- [Chase] No.

- I see you have a Chipotle cup in your room.

Do you like having ants?

Is it busy on the weekends?

- Yeah.

- As an artist and a curator, I'm interested in artwork that highlights issues impacting the native community.

This is a piece done by James Audio.

It's titled Out There.

It totally brought like a flashback to me of like watching my dad when I was a kid go out to look for my grandma.

And we were in the car, we were driving home, and he pulled off on the side of the road, and walked out into the woods.

And I remember like, watching my dad kind of disappear into the woods and I was scared, because I was afraid that he would come running back out and say that he'd found her body.

You know, that is the role that, you know, families take on when someone goes missing is, you know, they go out and search themselves.

- Welcome Angela Two Stars, from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.

Thank you for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- In the clip that we just saw, you have a story of remembering your father searching for your grandmother as a young girl.

Can you share with us with that meant to you, and how it shaped your worldview?

- Yes.

Well, it was a very tragic experience, and I remember how profound it was for me, as a nine year old, to experience, you know, basically the first time evil in our world, and remembering what my family had gone through in those months that we were searching for my grandmother.

And that experience, you know, for me, it was just our family's experience.

And it wasn't until I was invited in 2017 to curate the "Bring Her Home" Exhibition at All My Relations Arts Gallery, where I connected my family's experience with this national epidemic of MMIW, and because I knew and could remember what my family had gone through, that shaped and guided how I acted as a curator, and how I demanded empathy and sensitivity to the artists that were creating the work, how I was acting as a curator with these artists that were being so vulnerable, and sharing their stories.

And in order to provide that safe space, I had to share my story, so people knew that I understood.

And it was also to respect the families that were gonna be coming in to view the exhibition and the sensitivity around that continued grief, that they experience, to not re-trigger them, to not exploit this experience, but to show sensitivity.

So that was a big driving factor into how I operated as a curator.

- Did that help you heal?

Or how was that about in your healing journey?

- My healing journey actually comes from my reconnection with my language and my culture.

I think that, you know, with the "Bring Her Home" exhibition and my role as a curator was to provide a safe space for artists to bring awareness to this issue, in a way that visual artists, only visual artists are capable of doing.

They did an incredible job of creating beautiful artwork that was so sensitive and so profound, and really addressing the tragedy around the issue, bringing awareness to this, you know, national epidemic that's been going on, you know, for hundreds of years since first contact.

So for me, it was shaping that, and you know, providing the space for the artists to create work that could help uplift this awareness message.

And not only that, but to also in the second and third installment of "Bring Her Home", the show transformed into one of awareness into advocacy for change and into resistance.

And I think that's really upon powerful message of progress.

- Beautiful work.

I really love the statement in the film where you say, "How do we teach our men to be in relationship with our women?"

Can you speak more to how we can teach and model healthy interaction between our men and women?

- I think there's a lot of options.

It's a hard question to answer, but for me, it starts young.

You know, and part of what I did as a curator of "Bring Her Home", is I developed curriculum for schools, kindergarten through 12th grade.

And because as part of that advocacy for change is how do we stop having this conversation?

How do we stop this epidemic from continuing to happen to our women?

It was to create educational material, to be able to speak about how this is something that's happening, and how do we talk to our young women and our young men about how to be in relationship with another, with how they treat each other.

And it even goes so far into my own family, with my 17 year, I'm sorry, my 18 year old son, and my nine year old daughter, and how they interact.

And, you know, for me to teach my son how to be in a relationship with his sister.

And when he's being teasing, you know, the way brothers can do to their siblings, and when my daughter tells him to stop, you know, like to respect her boundaries, and to respect her, and value her as a person, because that's teaching her that she has worth and she should be listened to.

And it's also empowering her, you know, when she gets older, to know that her voice is strong, and, you know, she has value.

And so for me, it goes like, I start from home, and then go out into, you know, school, and then into adulthood.

So hopefully by the time our men reach adulthood, they have these educational ways of being, so that we can start undoing this trauma, this behaviors, that is causing harm to our native women.

- I love that, and I love that part in the film where you're talking about your son and daughter's interactions, and how we're teaching and modeling those behaviors.

So how do you see us holding men who are abusers, accountable in our communities?

And so say you're having an art exhibit, and somebody tells you that there's someone who's an abuser, that's there.

Like, what would some advice be, or some thoughts about how our communities can hold people accountable, and then also aid in healing?

- Well, I believe that the first step in holding a person accountable is for that individual themselves to recognize that they're operating in behaviors that are abusive.

You know, I mean, 'cause a community can call out people that to causing harm, all we can and we do.

But I think it takes that awareness of that individual first to be able to impact change in that person's behavior, to hold themselves accountable, to hold themselves responsible for the work that, or the harm that they're causing.

And also to then take the necessary steps towards their own healing of and fixing themselves, and the behaviors that are causing that abusive behavior to come out.

So it really falls on an individual to really take responsibility for actions and behaviors.

And sometimes that doesn't happen.

Sometimes it can't happen.

Sometimes there's deep issues.

A person could refuse, you know, so it's challenging for a community, you know, in my opinion, to call out abusive behavior, you know, and to really impact the end to it.

And I do believe that change can happen, that people that operate in an abusive manners can change.

And it is that showing that that can change, showing that reform, and implementing those programs that will help those individuals that are operating in abusive patterns to break their own patterns, to do the hard work as an individual, to heal themselves and to, you know, that is part of healing the community.

- Yeah, thank you for that.

So I could really relate to you and your walk with the language.

And the Okciyapi, I hope I'm saying that correctly, Project.

What does this exhibit signify to you and your community?

If you can just express your feelings about it, and the importance of it to you?

- Oh goodness, that piece is so special to me.

I mean, it represents so many different things.

You know, it's a tribute to my grandfather, who worked for, you know, years in our Dakota language revitalization program.

That was the first inspiration behind the development of the piece, but then it also began to represent my own healing journey through the language, and sharing that vulnerability about, you know, coming back to our language that was taken from our grandparents, you know, in really abusive manners.

And that intergenerational trauma that we have to overcome as we try to come back to the language, and what that journey looks like, the challenges that we face in that journey.

And just acknowledging that it exists and that it's okay.

We can push through it and we can overcome.

And so I'm inviting the audience to join me on a language journey.

And it's just being in the space, being exposed to the Dakota language, and being able to hear the Dakota language, and, you know, healing the community that was harmed, you know, through previous works that existed there.

And it was a very special piece for my family to be part of, you know.

And that was one of the things of the opening to have all of my family there, to have my culture like, just so prominent on display for the whole Twin Cities community to experience.

It was just a really amazing special experience for me to have in my work now, you know, permanently installed at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

And to have everybody who comes into that space, to see Dakota representation, you know, and to see the Dakota language, and to hear the Dakota language.

And it's not just for people that are Dakota speakers.

It's one that other speakers from different languages also can connect with.

And it's so wonderful to go by and see people just sitting in the space.

It just warms my heart to see people there enjoying my work.

- So you speak in the documentary a little bit about the water and the ripple, and even in the language, it's described so beautifully.

Do you wanna speak to the project, and just the meaning behind it for you?

- Yeah.

So my inspiration was my grandfather, Orson Bernard, and his working language revitalization.

And I thought about how one drop of water can ripple across an entire pond.

One fluent speaker's work in our language can ripple across generations of speakers.

And I thought after he passed away, I thought what a legacy he left behind, that we now have access to this material, because of the work that he and other treasured elders have put into their work, and their Dakota language program.

And I wanted something that would show that contribution, and that, you know, I see such joy now in our language, and people that are coming to the language, and the healing that it provides.

You know, that's one of the biggest things is the healing that our language provides us to reconnect to our language and our culture, and that ripples out, like our impact ripples out into others.

And it's also sharing a vulnerability of these are struggles that I have in trying to speak my language.

These are issues I've pushed through to overcome to speak my language and I'm still doing it.

It's a work in progress, you know, and some people do it very fast.

They get right, hit right to the middle.

Other people take their time and they meander, and some people stay on the outside, and they just, you know, stay at what they learned in preschool, you know, and that's okay.

I think giving everybody that space to be where they're at in their language journeys, and just inviting people in on mine, and showing what I've gone through.

And even the words in the piece are encouragement phrases of things like what would you want somebody to say to you on your language journey, which is like, "Never give up, be a good relative."

You know, these are reminders of values of what we hold as Dakota people, and even the center of the piece is a reminder that the name of our state, our identity as a state Mni Sota is a Dakota word.

So it's just a reminder and reinforcement of we all speak a little Dakota in Minnesota.

- Yes, absolutely.

Thank you for that.

And thank you for being vulnerable, and sharing that part of yourself.

So can we tell the audience how they would find the curriculum that you developed that goes along with the piece?

- It's available like for anybody who's interested, you know, to just reach out to me, and I can provide it.

It's really, I've gone to schools to share, you know, the curriculum, because for me, like I was nine years old when my grandmother was kidnapped.

And so I know children experience these things, and it's okay to talk to them about it.

And one of my favorite memories of sharing that curriculum to like a third grade class was translating that information of what does it mean to be missing?

You know, that's one of the components of, you know, this epidemic is when our relatives go missing, and speaking to young children about that, it was asking them, "Have you ever got lost in the store?"

And the arms that would shoot up, and those stories that they would share, because they remember, and I would tell the story of when my son went missing, you know, at seven years old.

And the panic that sets in as a parent, as you're searching each aisle.

And then you start to question like, "What was he wearing last?"

And then, you know, you just continue to build, and build, and build that worry, and that fear that they're now missing, and like finding like, security.

And I ended up finding my son at the front of the store.

And I remember, you know, I was almost running, running around the store, and locking eyes with him, and him locking eyes with me, and hugging him.

And I'm crying, and he's crying, and the security guard is like, "What's wrong with you two?"

But it was such a, you know, 'cause there's that worry like what would you do if your loved one is missing, and you don't find them right away?

And that is something that our relatives go through.

And so to be able to talk to children about that, and it's so fun for them to share, like when they got lost at the park and it was like, they didn't listen to their mom, but they remember and they can share.

And that's something that, to be able to create that space, even for youth to be able to talk about, you know, those conversations, like that's what that curriculum was meant to do.

- Awesome.

So they can reach out to you and access the curriculum that way.

So, in your point of view, in your art, and native art in general from Indigenous artists, helps expose us and make us less invisible.

And this whole story kind of flows into also the language and art, and it just kind of is all interconnected.

And so I just wanted to thank you for being an artist, and doing these beautiful exhibits that you do, and sharing our stories.

- Thank you.

- In our next clip, we meet representative, Ruth Buffalo, who recounts the search for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind in Fargo, North Dakota.

Please roll the clip.

- When Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind went missing, it really hit home because it was a young Native American woman and working mom preparing for the arrival of their daughter.

I didn't realize how traumatic that experience was, just helping with the search, until I drove to north Fargo one time.

But yeah, this whole area was the search headquarters.

The family put a call to action on Facebook that week, and so everybody just showed up here.

(melancholy music) There was a young lady standing on top of one of those tables.

I think she was an emergency management student.

They had the map of the whole area.

As soon as you got your search assignment, you just left.

Everybody realized the sense of urgency.

We were combing the river down here.

So we did that 'til it got dark.

I was asked by two women from Turtle Mountain if I would lead the search the following day.

- Joining us now is Representative Ruth Buffalo.

Ruth, would you like to introduce yourself?

- Sure.

(speaking in Hidatsa) - Thank you.

It's so good to see you.

I know that you're a very busy lady as well.

In the film, you talk about how, when a woman goes missing, the lifeline of a clan ends, and that really I felt like was an impactful statement.

Can you expand about how this impacts our communities, and our traditional ways of being when a woman goes missing?

- Sure.

You know, I'm a citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, and we are matriarchal and matrilineal people.

I'm a member of the Awaxawi clan, which is dripping dirt or dripping earth.

And so the women, as a child, I am a member of my mom's clan, but when I pass on, I'm a member of my dad's clan.

And so matriarchal matrilineal societies, like the one that I come from, are built on female bloodlines, which doesn't negate the importance of our men.

It just emphasizes the relationships and roles that women play in our communities.

Our initial identities are given to us from our mother's line, our clan, at birth.

Without that connection, it is much more difficult to carry on traditions, have a solid understanding of one's place in society.

These structures were put place in order to ensure that everyone was a part of and had a place in the whole.

We all are responsible to each other in formal, and in informal ways.

This insured the overall survival of a tribal nation from birth to crossing over.

The loss of a matriarch breaks those bonds and leaves gaps, and causes hardships for all those who are connected to her.

So when we lose our women, it's a huge, huge blow to our communities.

But we do have systems in place through our clanship systems that serve as a support system for individuals who do lose loved ones.

For example, our moms, our aunties, become our auntie moms.

And we also have clan aunts within our clanship system.

And so there's processes that happen, but I'm a bit reserved in diving deep, just because I don't want it to be taken and abused or used in the wrong way.

- So absolutely, thank you for sharing that much.

That's a form of our traditional governance, and how we know how to take care of ourselves.

So thank you for that.

Can you speak to the colonial model of justice, and how it is failing our women?

- Gosh, I think that's a very broad question.

I mean, I think of the different laws, and quite frankly, poor policies that have been enacted.

You know, for example, I was born in 1977, and so it wasn't until a year later, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was enacted.

But in that same year, we were not able to prosecute non-natives within Indian reservations, or within exterior boundaries of an Indian reservation or federal trust lands.

So there's a lot of policies that we need to dive deep in, in order to understand how we got to where we are today.

But also, I think of more contemporary times in the search for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, August of 2017, where the family, you know, was asking for quick response from law enforcement, and they did not get that.

You know, instead the police policed the family, and made sure they didn't go up past the second floor of that apartment building.

And so that is why we took action at a local level, as moms, to form a local task force.

We didn't wait for anybody's permission and we just did it, because we didn't want to waste time.

Should this happen again, we didn't wanna waste time convincing law enforcement that our loved one, our relative, deserved and needed quick rapid response.

So those are some things that come to mind when I think of how is it worded?

The colonial justice model for women has failed women.

- Yeah.

And you're bringing in your traditional governance into that, which I mean, you're just an extension, right.

So it kind of speaks to how these colonial models were actually built intentionally to create genocide, or to have unfair policies against our women and our people.

- Right.

- But you're using that extension of identity and governance to advocate.

And I think that's really beautiful and now you're doing it in very colonial systems.

You're still breaking them down.

- Right, but the key is to not let these colonial systems break us down while we're in them.

You know, I've experienced a large amount of violence within these systems that really hasn't been addressed yet, but someday we'll get there.

- There's a book called, "Children of the Movement", and that just reminded me of this.

It speaks to the civil rights era, and how a lot of civil rights leaders' children, and what they went through, watching what their parents went through as leaders.

And I think that's to what you're you're speaking about right now is that oftentimes, when we're watching from the outside, we don't know what's going on on the inside.

And so I was just wondering, you know, how your advocacy has impacted yourself and your family?

And you still are so strong, and you stand so tall, and so strong in your presence.

So I know you're doing amazing work, but I also think about the toll it takes, in terms of the violence that you're just talking about.

- Thank you.

Well, I think of my children.

I think of what comes to mind is the ancestors, you know, those that have literally cleared a path for us today, so that we can make the path a little bit wider and easier for the next generation.

But as you were talking, I thought of my son.

You know, he's 15 right now.

And back in gosh, 2016, 2017, I remember having a conversation with him before bedtime, and I was busy on the laptop and doing like, you know, just different, what would, I guess, be termed as like grassroots organizing.

Just doing what we needed to do to get something done, getting the word out, making sure people were attending, or going to attend, or provide testimony at a hearing at the state capital.

And I remember telling him, you know, "I'm gonna be gone a lot.

I'm gonna be away a lot, because we need to help each other.

We need to help people."

And so he, you know, gave me a hug, and, you know, back in when he was in the second grade, he said he wanted to run for president.

And his big sister quickly said, "No, you know, they get harmed."

You know, she said something a little bit more in detail than that.

But so, I mean, I just think of how I do talk to my kids, and tell them and prepare them, and try to say it in a way that they understand.

I mean, because they're with me every step of the way.

And I explain the purpose, and, you know, just how I was raised, it was really just watching the model that my mom, the way she led.

A very humble person and just very hardworking, could outwork the next person.

She has these great big calves.

And we're like, "Oh, that's our goal."

You know, I haven't ever gotten there yet.

But then we joke and say, "Well, I got big calves, 'cause I'm so used to jumping through these hoops, you know, so bring it."

You know, but yeah.

- That's the truth.

What gives you strength or hope while you're doing your work?

- My children, my children, for sure, give me strength and hope.

They are what really keep me going.

And just the love that they give me unconditionally, is yeah, that's very refreshing.

And also just seeing, you know, the changes that are happening, and seeing people come together supporting one another, that's very refreshing in very dark times.

- Yeah.

And I know you have your daughter with you.

You speak to that in the film too, that she's modeling after you now.

And so I just, I get so hopeful thinking of this next generation, and how fearless they will be, because of the trailblazers that went before.

So I'm excited to see what she'll bring to the table in a few years.

What is the best way for the native community to be involved in government?

Or how do you encourage engagement of our community in politics?

- I encourage people just to show up, you know.

And I think a lot of times, there are meetings that are by design, not meant to reach the people who are being directly impacted by different policies and new laws.

And so showing up if you can.

I know we're in COVID pandemic times, but there's kind of a silver lining where a lot of our hearings at the state capital in North Dakota are live streamed.

So that's been a good way for people to have access, if granted, you have Wi-Fi or access to broadband, but just showing up and having a conversation with someone asking, don't be afraid to ask questions, but I think that's one way to get involved.

Find something that you're passionate in and follow it, but just definitely, don't be afraid to reach out to any of us.

We're just like the next person, but we are here serving the people, so.

- Yes.

So when you speak to your children as a mother, about MMIW, what are some of the things that you share?

What encouragement could you give the viewers about engaging in conversations with their kids about MMIW?

- I think back to, again, August of 2017, you know, the day that I was asked to lead the search.

I was trying to get out of it, and go back into the field with my friends.

I even went up to the search headquarters, and I told my friends, "Just wait here.

I'm gonna tell them it's okay.

And I'm just gonna go back out with you guys."

And actually, it was Representative Heather Keeler, she was like, "No, we actually need a point person here, because this is happening, this is happening, and this is happening."

And so I was like, "Okay".

And so I had to tell my friends, you know, "I'm gonna stay here at the search headquarters and help."

But you know, that day also happened to be my birthdate.

And so when we got home that evening, excuse me, but so when we got home that evening, my husband, he surprised me with a security system for my birthday, because of what, you know, had happened to Savanna.

And then we got home and, you know, we turned on the news.

And so, yeah, I guess it really wasn't until that point when I had the conversation with my kids.

And so my daughter had Homecoming that fall, you know, a couple months later.

And she had shared that, you know, they went down to the football field.

Her and her friends ran down there, and then they ran back up.

But I got after her, I was like, "You cannot do that.

You know, maybe your other friends can, but you can't do that."

And so we had these conversations about being aware of your surroundings, but I don't want my kids to live in fear either, you know.

And so, but I do want them to be aware of their surroundings and to be aware, and know how to protect themselves.

- Well, I wanna thank you for your leadership.

And I know you've inspired so many of us who watched you when you walked in your traditional dress in to be sworn in.

All the way from there 'til now, you've inspired so many people and you've been courageous.

And we're thankful, because without people like you, things would just stay the same.

So I know this is really emotional, and I know that you've done the groundwork.

You haven't just sat at the top and watched.

You've been on the ground and you went through a lot.

So I just wanna thank you for that leadership that you've shown.

When you talk about the search for Savanna, is there anything that you want to share or express about what you went through with the search, or... - It was, you know, good to see everybody come together.

People from all walks of life came and helped out.

You know, I actually kind of got reunited with a former student when I was an Indian Ed tutor, when I was doing undergrad in the Fargo Moorhead area, which happened to be Savanna's, one of her uncles, you know.

And so it was unfortunate to see each other at that time, but still to see familiar faces, but everybody came together and helped, you know, it was truly a collective effort.

People were just coming to drop off, you know, supplies, water.

And so the thing there too is with advocacy, making sure that, you know, the families are front and center of these efforts.

And knowing to reach out to the families, you know, and say, "This is where we're searching."

You know, just to kind of build that relationship, and have that communication so that the family is aware of what's happening within like the search headquarters.

And so it was an unfortunate, very, very unfortunate situation, you know, that many people are still healing from, being first time searchers.

And that's why we give such big props to the people who do searching day in and day out, because that's a huge, huge, emotional... And it's trauma, you know, so it's very heavy.

And so I hope that we can all help each other heal, you know, by being good to one another.

You know, First Nations Women's Alliance had this campaign called Be a Good Relative, and how do we help each other, how do we support each other, because, you know, we are all on the same team.

So how do we help provide healing, or at least how do we not harm each other further?

- Absolutely, and there's so much trauma that we've gone through both historically with generational trauma, and compacted into experiences that are happening today.

How do you cope with that, that you carry both historically and everything that you go through day-to-day?

What are your resources?

- Oh, I just try to get outside as much as I can, and be out in nature anytime I can.

You know, being a northerner in Fargo, you know, we have some of the most coldest weather, but it's still good.

I mean, you know, you travel other places and you get back, and it's refreshing.

You feel like you're walking in a cooler, but just for sure, being outside, being with family, being able to laugh, share meals together, of course, praying every day, you know, spirituality is huge, but again, really thanking our ancestors, you know, for the many blessings they give us each day and to be here.

I used to lead a wellness program at a tribal college for seven years.

So I did a lot of wellness plans and wellness programming for students, but when you get caught up in the hustle and bustle, you have to kind of get back to the basics of drinking water, getting enough sleep, even just pausing and reflecting.

And, you know, meditation is really helpful, but I love to laugh and I love to travel too.

So those are some of the ways I cope.

- Thank you for sharing that.

And you being a wellness instructor, I'm sure has come in super handy.

Thank you, Ruth, for being here and for sharing your story.

I know you're really busy, but I think the world of you, and thank you for everything you're doing.

- Thank you.

- In this clip, we see activist, Mysti Babineau, protesting against the line three pipeline, and its connection to missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Please roll the clip.

(crowd singing) - [Mysti] As a culture, as a society, as a species, we have tricked ourselves into believing that being extractive and domineering is the way to be.

- [Crowd Participant] Right, so make sure to like really- - [Mysti] We have to learn how to live in harmony with the natural world and each other.

- [Crowd Participant] And if you have access to wealth, to show up with your dollars today too, okay?

I'm gonna invite Mysti Babineau back up to end our day.

(crowd cheering) - [Mysti] I wanna talk to you about a small place called Fort Peck, Montana.

Fort Peck has a population of 218 people.

They had 48 registered sex offenders living in that area.

Fossil fuel infrastructure project came through.

And that town of a population of 218 went to having 600 registered sex offenders living in their town.

That is a tribal community.

When you look at the statistics, the men who buy sex on average, they're middle class white men, and sometimes that's who these construction workers are.

They get away from their family for extended periods of time.

They have an excess in money and time.

Because the government and the oppressors don't let us govern ourselves, we can't do anything about this.

And that's what you're bringing to us, Tim.

Can I get a "No Line 3?"

[Crowd] No Line 3!

- Well, welcome Mysti Babineau.

She is from the Red Lake Nation.

And I'm so thankful in the clip that you bring to light the relationship between the extractive industries and the extraction of our women.

Can you speak more about your fundamental beliefs around women in connection to creation?

- Well, I believe that water carriers, as I like to call us, out of respect for my two-spirit relatives and other relatives on the gender spectrum.

As a water carrier, you create life with inside of you, and that life sits in this protective ball of water.

And for 40 weeks, your mother provides you with the sustenance, the air, everything you need to survive, and she's not asking you to return anything.

She doesn't want anything.

She just wants to give you the world, and to see you happy and thrive.

And that's the relationship that we, as human beings, have with our mother earth.

She provides everything free of charge.

She just wants us to take care of each other.

- Yeah, that's really beautiful.

And then, you know, the activism that you've done on line three, how do you connect that to the epidemic of missing and murdered?

- Well, there is an increased risk to these tribal communities when these construction workers come through.

And as people are, I feel as a society, we're being more aware of our environment around us, and the shifts in the climate.

And our resources, I think it's also important to constantly remind ourselves that we don't live outside of our environment.

And if we're fighting for her, and we're trying to keep her healthy and safe, we gotta always be looking out for the human beings that are involved in that as well.

- Yes, absolutely.

So I love the statement in the film when you say, "What you call activism, I call breathing."

I love that.

And so can you talk a little bit and expand on that statement and what it means to you?

Well, as an Indigenous woman, just existing in this world, we're constantly advocating for ourselves from a very young age, going through school, hearing some of the lies that are told about our people, advocating for your people there in class, right.

You're going to your doctor, and you know something's wrong, and you have to just really push that doctor to make sure that they're doing these tests, to make sure that you're okay.

And, you know, it escalates further when you're trying to advocate for your people at the state level, and the federal level and everything.

But in our everyday life, we are constantly trying to fight for our people, and to make our voice heard.

You know, in these planning meetings, just for that event, for example, it's having to fight to make your voice heard so that you can amplify that voice for your people in the broader spectrum.

- Absolutely.

Sometimes it's tiring, though.

- Very.

- It's exhausting.

- Yes, it is.

So in the film, the march, that scene is a method for communal grieving and communal healing, too.

Can you speak to the relationship, and this is the MMIW march that was at the Indian Center, can you speak to the relationship of community and collective grief and collective healing?

What does that look like to you?

- I think as an Indigenous people, as a collective, when we see each other out in public, like, we'll lock eyes across the airport, and like walk to each other and "Well, how are you?

Who are you?

Where's you from?

Where's your family?"

And that's just because we know we're related some way.

And when we hear and we see one of our relatives going missing, yeah, it hurts, because we're thinking about what's happening to them perhaps, or what maybe what their mother's going through.

But a lot of us also have these shared experience of violence, and can also bring that up, 'cause the healing journey isn't linear, I believe.

It's a circle and it always comes back.

And when people go missing, or we see our sisters being found, it hurts every time.

And to be able to come together with your people, and to know that you're not alone in that feeling, it's very, very therapeutic, actually, I find.

- Yeah, I agree.

And part of this in the film, you were talking about your own experience, and advocating and testifying at the state level for MMIR office.

What was that like for you?

And what was that like in your healing process?

I wish I could say that it got easier every time we testified, but it didn't.

But when I saw that bill drop, I knew that I had to do something.

I was privileged enough to be living in a close proximity to the capital, and I was already down there working to protect the environment anyway.

So I took that opportunity to amplify this bill on behalf of the people.

And unfortunately, we have to leverage our own trauma and our own pain to get people to understand, and to hear us, because we can tell them all day, but unless we're telling them, "You know, this actually happened to me", and they get to hear the details, he general public just does not believe us.

And I felt called to be there.

And I just kept going and I kept going until we got that damn task force.

Oh, I'm sorry.

- That's okay.

I know this is really emotional, because it's rooted in everything that's us, right.

Everything that is who we are as water carriers, as you said, giving life, life being taken before it's time, advocating for our very survival at every level, every day, it becomes a lot.

So, and you talked about having to share like all of the things that happened to us, in order to get any attention.

Do you see a correlation with that and media outlets not really covering, when our women go missing?

So we've kind of, like always, we find a way, and we're resilient.

And so we find Facebook and we use Facebook, but what are your thoughts on why it's not covered by larger media outlets, and what needs to happen to make that happen?

- Well, first of all, I don't think there's enough awareness out there that people even know that this is happening.

And the second,.

and maybe third, fourth, and fifth part of this problem is yes, we can identify that Native American women are targeted, and we do get murdered, and we go missing at disproportionate rates.

But we also have to turn around and ask us the question, why is this happening?

And those are the conversations that people don't like to have, because then you have to stop and look at why is she being targeted, right, because we have identified that we are targets.

But it makes people really uncomfortable when you have to look at the other side and look at these men, and wonder what's wrong with them?

Why are they doing these things?

Why are these things allowed to happen in our society?

And that raises so many hard conversations that people, they themselves either feel like they're attacked, or they're a bad person, or it's just too hard for them to engage in deep dialogue, and do that personal self-reflection that is needed for us to come forward, and to be able to have these open conversations.

So, yeah, awareness is just the first step, but there's so much more work that we have to do.

And it's hard work and nobody likes to...

It's stressful, too.

- It's stressful, absolutely.

Speaking to the environment, how do we get people more engaged in their connection to the environment, their want to protect her, I call her.

She's not an environment, and she's our mother, right.

And I love when you talk about, you know, carrying life in your belly.

When my community buries, we also bury in mounds, because you're going back into your mother, right.

And that's our connection to her.

Our ancestors are literally part of the earth, right.

How do you think we engage even our own communities on that reconnection to our earth mother.

And then how do you think that would have the effect of connecting people more to supporting our women, and our women's ways of being?

- Well, I encourage people to every day when you go outside, just the physical touch, the act of touching her, can be very powerful, and you can feel that energy that she's giving you, once you slow yourself down and allow yourself to hear her and feel her.

You can feel that energy coming from her.

And once you feel that, you know that she's giving that to every other living being on this planet.

So how can you not feel connected to them?

And in that way, once we, if we could all just do that, I think that the life givers, the water carriers, I think there would be a higher level of respect, because they would understand everything that she has to go through, just so you can be here breathing.

- Yes.

- And she doesn't ask for anything.

- I'm thinking of some John Trudell quotes right now.

so.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Is there anything you would like to end with, or anything you'd like to say that we haven't covered?

- I mean, I think this is great and I love the awareness, and more people coming forward in our communities, getting more active.

But I think we just have to remember that this is real hard painful work, and that we need to be, as much as we're out there shouting and trying to get our voice heard, we also have to remember to turn around and hold the sister or the brother next to us, because this is extremely personal work to all of us that do it.

And I think we forget to take care of ourselves.

So I'd just like to remind us all of that.

- I think that's really important, even in the work that we do, working at a women's agency.

We always have to be conscious of what we bring to the table, including, you know, the trauma, and then how we talk through that, how we support each other and just unconditionally love each other.

So, thank you Mysti.

- Thank you.

- In this final clip, we see a protest criticizing the Trump administration, as they attempt to open an MMIW office, without consulting community.

Please roll the clip.

- [Group Member] What is this about?

Nobody knows.

The governor has not been notified.

The Lieutenant Governor... - [Protestor] Our women are not for show.

We are not to be used as a political ploy.

We are not to be used as a campaign ploy.

So I have a request.

We have Mysti Babineau right here.

If you are incorrect- - [Mysti] Do you want us to shut down the highway if they don't let us in there?

- [Protestor] You can become a part of this movement.

- [Mysti] Okay, as long as you say so, I'm down.

- [Protestor] Part of resistance.

- [Mysti] The other exit is over here.

This group, we're gonna go over here.

So hopefully whichever way she leaves, she'll encounter some of us.

Please do not engage with law enforcement, simply comply.

If they ask you to move off the property, move off the property.

(drums beating) (protestors yelling) - She came and she went.

She just left.

- Well, thank you, Senator Kunesh, for being with us today.

In the clip we just saw, I could really feel your frustration.

And you said "We are not for show."

Can you speak a little bit more about performative allyship and how you see that in the MMIW movement?

- Yep.

In the day that we went to sort of confront Ivanka Trump, and this creation of a new cold case for missing and murdered Indigenous women that was being opened here in Minnesota, we were alerted just that morning that this office was opening.

And we hadn't heard about it before.

We didn't know anything about it.

And that seemed awfully peculiar seeing, as you know, we had just created this Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's task force, our Lieutenant Governor is an Anishinaabe woman, And we have state legislators that led this, as well as other organizations, and nobody knew or had heard about this opening.

It sort of came at a time, a crucial time, during an election period, a reelection period of Ms. Trump's father.

And it felt very performative.

It felt like it was being used to guide, or to elevate somebody's political aspirations.

And so that protest was organized just, you know, in a minute, and Mysti was of course, very much a part of that.

And it just felt that they were using our native women, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement as a political ploy.

And we just couldn't have it.

- Yeah.

Thank you for your advocacy.

So is this office still open?

- It actually is still open with this new Biden administration.

It was terribly underfunded to begin with, and even though there was somebody that was supposed to be in that office, we never met them.

I had one or two conversations with the gentleman, but we didn't see any action going forward.

And so I think that it is still there and they are using it as the platform to continue the work now in the Biden administration, and use that in conjunction with our Secretary of State, Deb Haaland's, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's task force at the federal level.

- Okay.

Thank you, because I didn't even know that.

- Yep.

- Okay.

So I'm gonna go a little more into the federal.

So the VAWA reauthorization expands prevention efforts, supports and protects survivors, and holds perpetrators accountable for their violent actions.

It provides for increased resources for law enforcement and judicial systems, including native communities, while improving access to essential support services, such as healthcare and safe housing for victims.

The tribal title in VAWA reauthorization further restores and extends tribal jurisdiction over offenders who commit domestic violence and related crimes, closing the jurisdictional gaps left from VAWA 2013, while enhancing access to national crime databases for tribal governments, improving existing grant programs, and permanently authorizing the Bureau of Prisons Tribal Law and Order Program.

I know this is a lot, but I just want our viewers to hear what VAWA is really doing and how it impacts tribes.

So it does not repeal Public Law 280, and it does not create any Indian country in the state.

So it's not doing anything but good things in our opinion.

So can you speak to the impact that VAWA reauthorization, it's on the President's desk now.

What does that mean for our communities and for Indian country?

- VAWA is short for Violence Against Women Act, and it's a federal level act.

One of the issues that we found most important, or the biggest challenge is the confusing jurisdictional myriad that we have in Indian country.

Too often, there are crimes that are happening on reservations, and because of hundreds of years, of policing and federal and state and county confusion, oftentimes when there are supposed to be prosecutions, nobody quite knows who to go to, or how to handle it.

So VAWA actually allows for prosecution of non-native folks on native land.

There are laws, federal laws, that prohibit that.

So that opens that door for that.

It provides a lot of funding for prevention, even education and resources for not only the victims, but the perpetrators as well.

And it addresses more broadly the issues of violence, not just domestic violence, or rape and sexual abuse, but also stalking, and those sort of things that in the past, have not been prosecutable.

And so, yes, we are hoping that the President re-ups this.

I believe he was the original author at the federal level, and it was one of his top 10, get it done right away bills.

And so we are very optimistic, because it does make a big difference in Indian country, to have those sort of expanded resources.

And I always say it's really sad that we have to go back and renew this every five years.

- Yeah.

- This should be something permanent.

We shouldn't have to go back and renew it, and ask for it again and again.

- Isn't it ironic how you always know in our society who's not valued, because they actually have to go to the Supreme Court to get their rights, or they have to actually have their rights legislated.

So I know there's some questions from the audience about jurisdiction, and this goes all the way back to Crow Dog ex parte.

I mean, I could go on.

It'd be a whole class in federal Indian law for us to explain the jurisdictional conflicts.

But what we do know is we don't have authority to prosecute criminal offenses on our reservation, because of the Major Crimes Act.

So those criminal cases, like murder or rape, all go federal, and the federal government, or the FBI can choose which ones, while the FBI does the investigation, but then they can choose which to prosecute or not.

And from some statistics that I looked at recently, over 40%, the prosecuting attorneys just say, "Nope, we're not gonna prosecute 'em, even though the evidence is there."

So that's part of the gap that we're seeing, just to explain to the viewers a little bit, but you can definitely do your research on federal Indian policy, and there's whole books you can read on that subject.

So I wanna ask, well, first of all, your role in the legislation to create the office, the first in the country, what inspired you to, or what motivated you to seek out that type of legislation?

- Oh, I don't wanna say inspire, because it's kind of a sad thing, but I was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016, and I had just completed my first session in 2017.

And I remember one evening listening to public radio, and hearing about the preliminary report coming out of Canada on their national study, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

And I was horrified, the stories that they shared, and the historical context was heartbreaking.

And it was that same summer that Savanna went missing.

And we just heard from Representative Buffalo, about how heartbreaking and how painful that was.

She was a beautiful young woman, 28 years old, pregnant.

And she was coerced to come up to one of the apartments where they killed her, and they cut the baby from her womb, and threw her body into the river, and that's horrifying.

And it was because of those two things in a very short amount of time, I thought, "You know, Canada is doing this legislation.

Why isn't the United States doing it?"

Because our relatives go back and forth, whether it's the Southern border or the Northern border.

And so Canada is doing this.

North Dakota right away, jumped in and did legislation, Savanna's Act, and that sort of thing.

Why isn't Minnesota doing that?

And then I thought, "Oh my gosh, I am a state legislator.

That's my job."

- Yes.

- So I went back into the capital that summer, and worked with the native community, the women, and asked them to help build this bill.

And we created the best, I kind of think the best, most comprehensive Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's task force in the nation.

We passed that.

The very first recommendation or mandate was to create a permanent office to continue the work.

We passed that last year.

We just installed our executive director to run that office, and we'll have more staffing and the work continues.

And I'm always kind of a little flabbergasted that we've been able to do it this quickly and so well, but we have people like Mysti that are stepping up, and telling their stories that really have such an impact that can't be ignored.

So many other folks in the communities that are behind this.

And we do have a lot of allies outside of Indian country that recognize this has to be addressed.

- Yes.

So I had the pleasure of meeting Julie Rudy, who is the new and the Inaugural Director of the MMIR office.

What do you see as your vision for that office?

And I know that you and many others spent tons of time creating a report that is so comprehensive.

It just beautifully tells a story of what's happening.

I hate to use words like beautiful, but it it's very well done.

What do you all see as those first priorities for the MMIR office, and just the immediate priorities, I guess?

- Sure.

So we can check off the MMIR office, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office, but we also wanna really do a deep dive into the systemic issues that are causing this, or allowing it to continue to happen.

So many of the women that have been victimized are, you know, homeless, have been victims all their lives of deprivation of resources, education, healthcare, housing, that sort of thing.

We have to look back and acknowledge and recognize the effects of the boarding school era, when our children were removed forcibly from their homes, and forced into schools to, you know, basically eliminate their Indianness.

We have to look at the relocation action.

When, you know, once we had our folks on the reservation, now it's like, pull 'em off and put 'em into urban core with no resources.

And we have to look at, you know, what we have done in the past, but what are some of the laws that are not, like jurisdiction or policing, ICWA, Indian Child Welfare Act, to prevent our kids from being removed at the highest rate.

Minnesota has the highest rate of child removal, and put into foster care in the nation, in the nation.

That's unacceptable, and those are the sort of things that we have to start addressing, and make sure that we are putting in the safeguards to prevent those things, so that we can keep our families together, rebuild our familial systems and rebuild our Indian nations.

- Yes, absolutely, and heal, right?

- Yes.

- And we know how to heal our communities best.

- Yes.

- So I'm looking forward to hearing more about the, you know, the boarding schools.

The foster care system is like, is an extension.

We know that of removal of Indian children from Indian homes, but now it's we're entering the stage of healing that, and acknowledging it.

People are understanding.

So is there any new legislation happening here in Minnesota that we should be aware of, related to any of, because we know it's intersectional, right.

Like, foster care system, many runaways end up doing survival sex work.

Like, all of this is intersectional.

So any and all legislation that we might be interested in and keeping an eye out.

And how do we support you in that work?

- Right.

Well, housing is a big issue for everybody, but when you have a lack of housing, it affects not just you, but your entire family.

I was a teacher for 25 years, and it was not hard to spot families that were struggling.

Students that came to school, and you realized that they were wearing the same clothes they had worn for a number days.

They were tired.

They looked hungry, only to find out that they had lost their home.

So homelessness, we're looking at finding ways to address that.

Economic development in Indian country and across the state.

We want to look at home ownership.

We know that home ownership is the very first step in creating generational wealth.

And native folks have been, you know, either under resourced or not part of that conversation.

And so how can we help folks get those homes, and build that security so that they can keep their job.

They can get their kids to bed, and have a safe place to come home.

We're looking at ways to address the opioid epidemic, which is just rampant across the nation in so many ways, but especially affecting our tribes and our Indian folks.

And so I sit on a committee or addressing the opioid epidemic, and looking at some of these different settlements.

But one of the things that's most important is that when these grants are going out, or people are looking for ways to address the opioid epidemic, that we are allowing them to approach it with a culturally sensitive manner.

Not just for our native folks, but you know, our Somali, our Hmong, our Latinx, our black folks.

We know best how to address those issues, and how to help each other heal.

And we have to have that leverage to be able to do that, and that flexibility to hold sweats, you know, to smudge, to bring our elders in to talk to us and listen to us, and hold us and heal us.

And those are the things outside of the usual way that we do business that we have to allow for.

- Absolutely.

I always say, you know, IHS has been around for how long?

And in the past 100 years or 50 years, we're sicker now than we ever have been.

Our neighborhood in Minneapolis has some of the highest opioid over rates in the state, and suffers from many of these disparities, but we know that our people do have the ability to heal.

I'm also thinking of, I heard something about some license plates.

- Oh yes.

So one of the inspirations that I had, and this came from a group of our native ladies, women up in Duluth, was to create a reward system, or a reward pool of funding to tease out some of the information and the facts around either missing relatives or murdered relatives.

You know, it seems like somebody, or some folks in the community know bits and pieces of one of these situations.

And sometimes it helps to say, we can offer you a reward if you can share some information with us.

So I have legislation to create a reward pool within the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office.

And we're looking at ways to encourage folks to donate to that, once it's created.

We haven't passed that legislation, knock on wood that we will.

But one of the things I thought about on my way to the capital one day, I was looking at somebody's license plate, trying to figure out where it was.

And I had this thought, "Let's create a MMIR license plate."

Have a ribbon skirt on it, and that red hand, and say that, you know, those live little fees and funds that come from that license plate will go into that pool so that we can be, you know, kind of self-sufficient.

And we're able to support that effort as well.

- I think that is a wonderful idea, and you'll have a lot of support on that.

Thank you, Senator.

- Thank you.

(speaking in foreign language) - Thank you all for joining us this evening.

Each of the women who participated in this film has a gift bestowed upon them by creation.

They have used their gift to advocate for our women experiencing the epidemic of missing and murdered.

Each of us has a gift that we can use to affect transformative social change around us.

And tonight we encourage you to take action using those gifts.

As we close, we thank you for joining us today, and we would love to hear your voices.

In the chat, we are placing a short survey to gather information and feedback on this event.

We would also like to remind you to tune in to watch the national PBS broadcast of "Bring Her Home" on Monday, March 21st.

Please check your local listings.

(speaking in Umonhon) - (singing in Ojibwe)