[soft piano plays] When I had my dance, I felt the strength, the prayers.

[♪] The medicine man teaches you that life of circle.

You go through four stages.

Enduring a strength.

Showing her that life is hard.

When you see the young girls at the Sunrise Dance ceremony, it's a sign of resilience and resistance.

[violin plays] A lot of times, this is like my only self-care.

Just get out of my head for a little while.

Growing up in Gallup, I think fighting was just a part of the life of a kid in our town.

Dione's advice was if you ever get into a fight, you want to one, two, and jump back.

That's always stuck with me.

You have to be able to project yourself.

So I am making a spirit dish right now.

I just like to say a little prayer.

In honor of Dione's birthday, yesterday was her 47th birthday.

Put out some food for her and anybody, any other spirits that are passing through.

Then we'll come back again later on and check on it and put it out.

Bury it, usually.

I'd rather celebrate her birthday than the memorial of when she passed of her death.

But of course, that's a hard day to forget also.

When she was born we called her Pooh Bear.

She was Pooh Bear, started to call her Poohvie.

And Poohvie turned into Pootie.

A shocking statistic, Native American women in the United States are ten times more likely to be murdered than the rest of the population.

Why and how thousands of Native American women have mysteriously been killed or have vanished?

A broken system in the ongoing problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

New Mexico with the most cases.

New Mexico continues to have the most Indigenous people disappearing... What's happening with our Native women?

Cases are not taken seriously.

Members of the New Mexico Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women want to hear from victims and their family members in the coming year.

With that, I'd like to hand it over to Christine.

Good morning, afternoon.

We are here to ask for your help.

Saturday, April 25th, 2015.

My sister woke up in the Colonial Motel in Gallup, New Mexico.

The Gallup Police Department was called to hotel room, room number 155 three times that day.

And at 6pm, it was for 9-1-1 because she was unconscious.

She was not alone in the room.

Throughout the day, she was with her boyfriend.

A known offender, they had a long history of domestic violence.

The Gallup Police Department knew who he was.

Neighbors reporting that he was yelling.

Witnesses that reported violence happening in the room, arguments, fighting.

Her boyfriend made a statement to the police that she had fallen.

She must have hit her head.

His statement is what the police ran with.

That night, she was flown out to UNM hospital.

She arrived here in Albuquerque.

She was unconscious.

She had bruises all over her body.

She had tubes going in and out of her body to keep her alive.

And at the time the UNM hospital staff reported to us, that she probably wouldn't make it.

And we knew that he had done this to her.

In the days that followed, we did everything we were supposed to do.

We worked with the police.

The police made statements that it was suspicious.

They were actively investigating it as a homicide.

They said let us do our jobs.

As of today, November 2019, it has been over four years.

No charges have been filed.

So at this point in time, my sister's death is unclassified.

And if nothing happens from outside political public pressure, this we know, the charges will not come.

Because we can go and sit at the District Attorney's office.

We can make the phone calls.

We can go in person.

We can demand justice.

We can be as a polished, polite, respectful, educated as they want to be on all of this.

And it will not move the system that has allowed for this to go on for so long.

We want charges filed for the death of my sister.

She was a murder victim.

It was homicide.

And the precedent has been set in Gallup, New Mexico.

If you want to get away with murder, do it there.

And make sure that it's an Native woman.

Because they won't come looking for who did it for you.

This, I know, I've seen it.

[applause] I'm an enrolled member of Laguna Pueblo.

That's where I was raised.

[guitar softly strums] When I started participating in the Task Force and I started seeing numbers, that's when I said, "This is pretty, pretty alarming, right?"

Our counts are probably higher, of Native Americans that are missing.

A lot of confusion, right?

A lot of chaos.

It has to do with the jurisdiction, It has to do with these imaginary lines that we've drawn for law enforcement in our communities.

With the different land status in New Mexico, there's the state land, federal land, tribal lands.

And so when you have all these different borders that are set up artificially, law enforcement can only go up to here.

And then once they cross that line, they're no longer covered by the insurance.

If something goes wrong, they could be personally liable.

So it creates challenges because we know that crime doesn't just exist within these artificial barriers that have been set up for us.

And a lot of times, I think that some of the perpetrators are well aware that, you know, once I cross that border, they can't touch me.

Without accountability for bad actions, it is telling you, like, this is a vulnerable population.

We can target them if we want to because we can get away with it.

The tribal law enforcement, they sure have their work cut out for them, and I do respect them.

Having been in those boots myself, they're underfunded, they're under trained, and we don't have enough of them.

And part of that goes back to probably their pay as well, right?

You know, how much are we paying these guys and gals to be tribal cops?

Is it competitive with what they could be making in the city?

Navajo Nation is over 27,000 square miles, 11 million acres.

To give you an idea of just how vast the area is, whenever I have to go to a meeting, either in Tuba City or the northwest corner, it's a three hour drive.

The service area is over 5,000 square miles.

You know, the community is always upset about our response times, or lack of response, and I just, I don't think they truly understand what's happening.

First and foremost is lack of resources.

We've been short-handed for years.

We recently had a consultant team come in and basically tell us we need at least 500 officers to conduct the basic functions of a police department.

The entire time that I've been here, I don't think we've eclipsed 200 certified officers.

Our officers go to a lot of these calls, these critical calls by themselves, and they've got to wait for backup.

[laughter] Oh, gosh, that is not classic Dione!

Don't do that to her!

That is not her!

Oh, my gosh!

Look at this!

[laughter continues] See how big the hair got?

Remember that hair?

Did you guys have to do that when you had to get your hair up there?

I don't care what age your child is, you remember them like this.

And when they're this age, you never think that they will grow up and go through these things.

No, you never just think you'll never lose them.

But we lost her.

We did.

Before we ever really lost her, we had already lost her.

Grandma, is this you?

Tisha, look at your mom.

Look how young she was.

And she'd already had you and Caity.

For sure at this age.

You know, Dione was always... she always wanted to be older than she was.

She never was this little girl for very long.

She wasn't.

She was always really fun.

So it was like, cool, this is my fun big sister.

She does fun things.

And I see she gets in trouble for them.

But for me, it was never a problem because I never had to deal with the repercussions.

Dione is the oldest and then Karen.

They're just a couple years apart.

I was the baby.

They were the older sisters.

So we just kind of hang out behind them and hope that we could play with them.

We're so different, me and Dione.

We were very different.

I didn't.

I could not understand the way she thought.

I always take things very seriously.

Like I've got a plan.

I'm going to A, B, C, D, execute and I'm going to document things.

And I'm going to organize my life.

And she would always laugh at my attempts to be in control of a situation.

Dione!

Thank everybody for coming!

I was so happy to see my dad stand up and talk.

There's so many girls with big mouths in our family.

He can not get a word in!

All we do is talk and he listens.

My sister, Dione, used to get in a lot of trouble when she was young, but she was the bad one.

My parents were always chasing her, literally chasing her.

That picture was taken at Great-Grandma's house in South Dakota.

Remember, we picked her up.

Why did she come with us?

She had been beaten up and had black eyes.

She had been beaten by the same guy.

That's why she was wearing those sunglasses.

She had black eyes.

My mom was so hurt when she saw her.

[♪] Her last boyfriend, they were together ten years.

That's when it changed.

Up to that point, she had a home, she had a car, she had a good job.

She was with her girls, taking care of her girls.

Of course, it was really hard to watch it.

But I never gave up on her.

Never.

Never.

And I never intended to.

I kept trying to convince her though.

Just stay.

Stay with me.

She wanted to go back.

She was so... she wasn't in any kind of pity mode, regardless of what her situation was.

She was always so upbeat.

Make you laugh.

[laughter] Thank you, everybody, for coming.

It's hard to keep that relationship.

It's so hard to be compassionate and patient when you see your sister hurting, willingly putting herself in danger.

It was something that I couldn't comprehend at the time.

And I think here in Gallup, growing up, you see so many people on the street.

And... a lot of attitudes in a place like this are very discriminatory.

Like, drunk Indian.

There's a drunk Navajo.

Ugh, look at them.

They're ugly, they're gross, they're the problem in this neighborhood.

You know, my mom always told us, you never know where they came from.

That's somebody's child.

They never wanted to grow up and become a drunk on the street.

That was never in their life plan.

She had Tisha at a very young age.

Our family tried to be very stable for them.

My parents took in the girls.

And then I just tried to be a good support system to them to make sure that things were okay in their lives.

And I just tried to always be a stable adult figure in their life.

She was different that day.

She was still in bed.

So I told her, "Come on Dione, let's go."

"Come with me for a while."

And Dione never cried, but she cried that day.

I don't know why.

She was always just a really happy person.

But for some reason, she cried that day.

You know, they say that you know... they say this, I don't know whether it's true that you know beforehand.

And I think it's more like Native American people.

That you know before you die that that's going to happen.

And um, maybe she knew.

But I tried to get her to come back with me that day.

She just, she wouldn't.

But she did say, I'll see you Sunday, I'll come see you Sunday.

Well Saturday came and she was gone and I never saw her.

She got with this guy that just took her down.

Took her down.

You hope that they will know better.

You know to leave or to... but you don't know that.

You don't know that.

If anything I've learned is you don't know that.

You have no clue what your kids are going to grow up and do.

She had turned to drinking to cope in a very abusive and violent relationship.

I can't even imagine the things he did to her.

It was the last hit, the last kick, the last punch.

It was one hit that her body couldn't take anymore.

How could this not have been a murder?

When Christine talked about her sister, Dione, being murdered in Gallup, that was where I work.

Once I got the basic details of that case, I wanted to reach out to the investigating agency and say, look, what resources do you need?

Can we help out?

Do you need a second set of eyes?

And at the time, the District Attorney didn't even know about the case.

We had to dig up the case and kind of get caught up on it, right?

So it got the dust shaken off of that file and it got it opened back up.

And so here we are, January 2020.

We just got our first ever meeting with the District Attorney of Gallup.

I don't want to stop until Gallup Police Department, Gallup District Attorney, all of the different people who were involved in her death, in letting her case pass, realize that they screwed up.

[♪] The detectives that were working this case, they actually admitted to us that we know he did this, but we have to have concrete evidence.

But there was no way I was just going to let it go.

I know this man did this to her!

I knew it!

We all knew it.

I think it's really important that we at least try to do something to get him prosecuted.

It's just thinking about if he does this to another person.

I don't want to hope for too much.

Here we are.

We're going to walk in and it's us again.

They're going to be like, oh no, you guys?

[laughter] This is a new DA.

She's not the same DA that was in office when the crime happened with your mom.

The previous DA is where a lot of the case is built up, and where the case sat for the majority of these almost now five years.

And so this new DA, I don't know how long she's been in office, Paula Pakkala, first contacted me in November.

And so she's been really good.

I think it's natural for us to feel a lot of anger and frustration like, "What the heck?"

"What the heck?"

"How long has it sat?"

-Yeah.

-But I think just take a breather.

It's okay to feel like that.

But maybe let's not try to take that kind of attitude in there where we're trying to fight.

So we're not going to fight.

-Yeah.

-All right.

[laughter] Just breathe it out.

I mean, we're all pissed that it's sat for so long, but... We're going to hope for the best.

Warrior women!

Right?

Mm-hmm.

-Yes.

-We're going to do it again.

What else can we do?

We go do it again.

Yeah.

[♪] Okay.

[♪] This is still an ongoing investigation, so we have to be careful.

It's been a reopened case we're investigating.

And we have to be cautious if we bring charges against someone.

We can't have everything out there in the press.

While this case is still under investigation.

Because once we found out about it, I was concerned that everything would be gone.

But the Gallup Police Department still has everything.

Because that was my first thought.

Has the evidence been gone?

But it isn't.

So nothing to worry about there.

I think I really do want to go into a private session so we can talk a little bit about what we've been doing and, what the detectives are doing.

I'm glad that it's a reopened case.

I had no idea it was closed.

As far as what was said, I've heard it all before.

They did take notes of some new things.

Things they didn't know and are going to check into.

I mean, we all walked out kind of with this feeling defeated again.

A little bit of hopelessness there.

I did after listening to them talk.

But then as we were coming back, I thought that it's classified a whole homicide.

That is a big thing right there, to have that.

Which we never had.

It never was that - homicide.

It was okay, we're going to do this.

We're going to check into this, but we never got to that point.

So, it's there today, at least.

[upbeat music with vocals] We want justice for Pepita!

We want justice for Pepita!

Justice for everybody!

Hello everybody, my name is Darlene Gomez.

I'm from Lumberton, New Mexico, but my family homesteaded Dulce before it was an Indian reservation.

I was taught we are all a community.

So I stand here with an education of being an attorney.

My family taught me; you use that education and you help your community.

And I represent 10 families.

And as an attorney, people tell me, well, you don't make money doing that.

Life is not about money.

Life is about protecting our sacred, protecting our sisters and our brothers.

What do you think of the front?

Nice, I love it.

I love it.

With the purple.

And did you see the hand?

Uh-huh.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it's a jingle dress, yeah.

Nice.

Do you need a hug?

I know.

I know this wasn't the outcome you wanted.

[sobbing] We got it.

We'll find out what happened.

The family of Jamie Yazzie, who I've been working with, I think since about October of 2019.

Jamie went missing June 30th.

The U.S.

government says Tribe you are sovereign.

But they're dependent on the U.S.

government to prosecute cases.

They're dependent for the money to put into the resources to be sovereign to bring justice to their people.

So, truly, they're not sovereign if they're having to have the U.S.

government prosecute their cases.

There's nothing is sovereign about that.

[phone ringing] Good morning, Darlene.

Hello, Miss Rose.

How are you today?

I'm good.

Has Navajo Nation Chief talked to you?

No.

What about President Nez?

No.

How about FBI?

No.

Ranelle went missing the same day as Ella May so it's June 15th.

-Yes.

-Okay.

Well, thank you, Darlene, for all you're doing.

Okay.

Well, hopefully, we'll be able to find Ranelle.

I am out here with my daughter, Mikahe.

And we are running in honor of the National Day of Awareness for Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, girls, two-spirit, all people.

I am working with the New Mexico, State of New Mexico, MMIW Task Force.

I am a project assistant.

And, you know, there's just this whole unexplored space of cases that have gone unsolved.

[♪] We get this ash from my dad.

It's a form of protection.

So, I put this on their forehead.

I say a prayer for them.

They're just like us when we go out there.

Things we see, they dream too, they can have nightmares too.

Good boy.

[dog panting] Are you ready to go to work?

We had Native families approaching us.

We need help.

My son, daughter, niece, nephew, has been missing for so long.

And we don't know what to do next.

Police have done so much.

We don't know where to look next, where to start again.

[violins play] So, I went out on my own separately, just as a volunteer.

My daughter, Ranelle Rose Bennett, when she didn't show up, I know something was wrong.

And the day went by and the next day... I have to report her missing.

So, I went to Navajo Nation in Shiprock and I did a missing persons report.

Two days later, I called the criminal investigator in Shiprock.

It wasn't even in the system he said that there's nothing in there.

[violins strum quickly] [♪] [indistinct radio chatter] She said, uh, bones that appear to be fingers or toes.

Hey, over here.

Over here.

Yeah, we'll have you guys wait right here, okay?

[♪] The dogs have interest, but, he's not indicating that it is human.

So, that would be this way.

So, that looks, you know, enough for us.

Come on, Trigg.

[♪] It's really worrisome that there's going to be a new DA in Gallup.

Paula, she's leaving office this month.

So, just knowing that there's somebody new coming in, we don't know them.

We don't know if unsolved cases, miscategorized cases will be a priority for them.

It is worrisome.

The New Mexico Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force met to give a one-year update on their findings and to share the recommendations they have for the Governor.

71% of cases were declined due to insufficient evidence in homicide investigations.

And this can tell us something really important about how cases are being investigated in tribal communities.

Investigations are just not happening in ways that support the prosecution of offenders.

Simply the lack of federal funding for our tribes in the state, which we're all aware of, it's just simply not enough to meet the immense need that exists in our tribal justice systems.

The funding limitations in Indian Country, BIA only funded 21% of law enforcement needs, 49% of detention center needs and 3% of tribal court needs.

So today we're having House Bill 12 and 13 signed into law, and that is a Missing Person's Day in New Mexico.

And the second one is setting up a specialist within the Attorney General's office to investigate, to gather data and provide services for the families.

We want this to be a celebration.

We know that there's so much more work to do, and that this is just a start.

The report's out.

And now that I sit and be alone with no work to do, it just hits me like... No work of a task force, no data, no matter how heartfelt, can heal the hurt I feel for her loss.

And just really how much I miss her.

And how much I wish that her life did not end.

and end way that it did.

Jamie Yazzie, I got a call from one of her family members that Jamie's remains had been found and identified.

So we're meeting with the FBI at 10, and also with Jamie's mom and dad.

[phone ringing] So, can you tell us a little bit about how media finds out about things before family members do?

Sam, can you tell me, I know that there had been some previous DNA evidence.

Can you tell us where we are on that?

Because I think when I did my little follow-up, Tre had been incarcerated shortly after and was in jail.

He was actually in Navajo Nation custody for a crime against another woman shortly after.

To me, that is some huge oversight on someone's agency, because you could have.

Well, and it's not blaming anybody, but he was there.

So, 2021, the first interview, when he was in jail, 7-11 of 2019.

That's two freaking years.

[Ethelene] I want justice for my baby.

If you had poor police work on the criminal investigator side, then those packets are lacking.

So, now the FBI is having to go back and do other warrants and do other investigations.

He has six agents.

How many cases pending?

Three, four, five, six thousand cases?

It's a manpower issue even at this point.

Hey!

Don't look back.

MMIW stuff has really stopped.

I walked away from my role.

Mainly, you know, I just think about my dad and the teachings from, you know, my Navajo side and how when you're pregnant, you really do have to protect the spirit of the baby.

You know, hearing some details about MMIW cases and just working in that realm.

crossed over to some things that were, you know, maybe not so positive and definitely some dark stuff.

Just even reliving details of, like, Dione's case in my head.

With Dione's girls, you know, as an Auntie to them I always felt such a strong feeling to protect them.

I learned this from my mom, you know, she didn't want to expose them to everything.

They didn't need to know things.

I don't think I understood what that meant until I became a parent myself.

They didn't get the luxury of being children for too long, you know, before things with their mom became really difficult.

[sewing machine whirls] My Auntie, Christine, she was mainly the person that taught me who I was as a Native person.

A Native woman.

She showed me how to bead.

She showed me how to sew.

My mom.

It's kind of hard to keep a grudge against her.

Just because she was a human being.

Like, she made mistakes.

I forgive her now.

When I was younger, I didn't.

I didn't understand.

And, like, I never knew why, like, you would pick someone that was awful to you over, like, your family.

And then, I got into a really abusive relationship myself.

The whole, like, gaslighting and, like, cycle of domestic violence.

He made me actually feel like he was all that I had.

And he said things were going to be different.

Like, all the typical, like, "I'll change for you" type stuff.

And then he started hitting me, like, not even that long after.

And, I don't know, I had too much pride to, like, be like, hey, this is happening again.

Like, I need your help.

And so it went on for a while.

And then, like, one day I was just like, I'm just kind of fed up with this.

Like, even though it had been, like, six or, six or seven years or so, it wasn't the life that I wanted to live.

I'm lucky.

I'm super, super lucky because it could have ended really, really badly.

Just kind of, like, the way it happened with my mom.

Dealing with parents that weren't really around and never really showed you, like, the love that you deserved.

Like, you kind of search for it and then you kind of settle for, like, whatever is given to you.

And I think that's what I struggle with now.

Like, he did a lot of, like, damage emotionally and, like, verbally to me.

And so, that's the only thing that I struggle with.

I think that's why it's so hard to get out of those relationships because the people that are like that, the abusive people, they tear you down to a point where you feel like that is all you deserve.

See, I forgive her.

I feel like I'm getting back to who I used to be, but better.

Mainly I just kind of want to be happy.

I want to know my language.

I want to know more about who I am as a person.

And then I want to be able to teach others about breaking cycles, whether it be, like, domestic violence or even, like, the issues that we face in our communities.

I just want to be helpful.

I got an email from a podcaster.

She's going to do a show, an episode on my sister's unsolved case.

I opened the email and there's an attachment, a picture.

So I pull it up because it's a face and up on my phone screen pops the mugshot of my sister's ex boyfriend in prison.

The last time I saw him was in the hotel where she was murdered.

So that was some pretty shocking news.

I mean, I'm not surprised.

Hi!

Look, she just went to you so easy.

She won't go to mom.

Mom, she just went to Karen so easy.

Just jumped into her arms.

What's going on over here?

Karen's a natural!

She's going to have some food tonight.

Yeah, she's going to have some food tonight.

So, I talked with the District Attorney.

She did give me the update.

They're going to charge him with homicide before he's released.

Wait, did she say charge him with homicide or just charge him with homicide charges?

Serve him.

with homicide charges.

Serve him with charges.

I don't think you said that she said that in our first convo.

She did.

She did?

Because I asked what would the charges be?

I mean, we've kind of been here before getting close to this point.

And then the DA's change.

So the concern now is how long is... I'm going to talk with her Friday and that's going to be one of my questions.

Is how much longer is your term?

Because we don't want to get to this point, and then there's another new DA.

So we go back again and we do this again.

Why are they waiting?

I don't-- Is it interstate?

Because they could charge him and he could stand trial while he's in prison.

And they could convict him.

And they could run his sentence.

Right.

Concurrent with the one he's on?

Not even concurrent.

Oh, I mean, they could run a concurrent, but they could run a consecutive.

And he could finish up his jail time there and then come to New Mexico and serve his jail time.

She did say to call her back Friday.

See if we can get together next week.

Where is my secretary?

[laughter] It's because we've dealt with three District Attorneys.

Everybody's new all the time.

And we get going and then it's over and then we get going and it's over.

They kept saying we need more evidence.

More evidence.

And they were leaning on an admission of guilt.

-Oh yeah, totally.

-This DA has said we don't need an admission of guilt.

We can go forward with the evidence we have.

That's what's odd about it though.

It's like, do you have to just inquire to get a murder solved?

Excuse me, can I ask you?

You don't mean like push a little?

Yeah, like if we wouldn't have pushed, what would have happened?

How do I do this and feel like so much emotion?

And then just like that, you know, in two minutes the baby will be crying.

My son will come home.

I got to get my daughter to practice.

And being able to shift gears that quickly.

Because I want to be there with them and I want to enjoy life with them.

Oh, over here.

Look at me.

There's just such a big loss with her being gone and her being absent in my family.

And her being gone from my mom.

My mom and Dione had such a close relationship.

You know, with that, went a piece of my mom.

[phone ringing] Hi, Ernest.

This is Debbie Begay.

Is Bernadine in?

Okay.

Okay.

[voicemail beeps] Hi, Bernadine.

Good afternoon.

This is Debbie Begay.

Calling back.

It is Friday.

I think we will be fine without having to meet.

But I do have a few questions if you would give me a call please when you get time.

They just think she's another drunk, Indian woman.

I let the Gallup Police Department know you do not treat her this way.

She did not deserve to die that way.

Yeah, I want to see it through the end.

Regardless of how it comes out.

We know that we did everything we could.

Maybe this won't go anywhere.

I have no clue.

I have no clue.

We've just run into so many setbacks.

And so we've had to adjust to that and just still keep going.

And we intend to.

We intend to.

We're not going to quit.

Strong Native women.

That's what I raised.

And I got strong Native granddaughters.

[typing] In April 2015, my sister was murdered in Gallup, New Mexico.

She attempted to leave many times and each time was drawn back to the relationship.

Their relationship was much like the cycle many experienced with phases of happy pursuits and fantasies to phases of jealousy and violent rage.

The reality is that this all starts in anger and ends in anger.

Everyone is mad and angry.

We as a collective have so much anger and immense rage.

And that's all I've got so far.

Sometimes I think, would Dione like what I'm doing?

Would she accept that something really terrible happened and move on?

Because she didn't want to operate in a place of anger?

[baby talking] Yeah, talking.

Oh my goodness!

I'm all part of this conversation.

I'm a part of this conversation, huh?

You know, she wasn't an angry person.

She wasn't angry.

She didn't hold the grudges.

I mean, I could ask for charges.

I could ask for jail.

But those things don't serve me, those actions.

Wanting something to happen to someone else is not going to make this better.

What will is me prioritizing my own healing from this traumatic experience.

I can't stay in this mode of fighting to protect her anymore.

[♪] Today is the beginning of the end because we have been waiting to seek justice for Jamie for four years.

I really feel like it's a win for all the families.

And the fact that her father, James Yazzie, is incredibly sick.

And he's been hanging on for all these four years and praying that he gets to see justice for Jamie.

[♪] [drums beating] I know that all our relatives are mourning for our lost relatives, for the ones that were murdered.

For the ones that are still seeking justice.

My older sister played a really big role in helping to guide me in my young life.

Seven years ago, almost to this day, we buried her, my family and I. And something I've come to realize is that I started this process thinking that I was in this fight for justice for my sister.

And as the years passed, I've tried so many different things.

Very uncomfortable, difficult things like standing here today.

And a hard truth that I've come to realize is that this was about me as much as it has been about my sister.

It has been about my grief and my healing.

I've been angry throughout this process of her going from our loved person that I grew up admiring.

To becoming a case on someone's desk.

Where that case was moved to another desk and then on to another person's desk.

And eventually forgotten and pushed to the side.

We have to believe that there is an end to this.

I don't know what it looks like, but I do know that we are the strong ones.

We show up repeatedly.

We bear the responsibility.

And in order to sustain this fight, we have to be our own advocates.

And I just want to take this moment to ask you to stop.

And take a breath.

And feel the energy that we have here today as a collective.

My healing is what I have today.

And I don't want to become a victim.

I am actively seeking closure.

We have to talk to our children, our boys, our girls, young men, young women, about abuse and violence.

We have to tell them how they should be treated.

Violence and abuse are insidious.

They are there in the dark corners of all of our lives.

And when we go home, I encourage you to think about the words we can speak into our young relatives.

So that we can start on a new path of prevention, of this cycle of violence and abuse, and our families in our own homes.

Because that's the only change that we can really make today.

[femme voice singing] [crowd chants] Jamie Yazzie!

Antonia Gonzalez [crowd] Antonia Gonzalez [crowd] Betty Ann Claw [crowd] Herman Etcitty [crowd] Dione Thomas Dione Thomas!

[♪] [♪] [♪] [♪] [♪] [♪] ♪ I hope you know ♪ ♪ I never want to see you go ♪ ♪ I hope you know ♪ ♪ You've always been the one ♪ ♪ I hope you know ♪ ♪ I'll never break your heart in two ♪ ♪ I hope you know ♪