Advocates prepare day of action to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous relatives and Black women
Nicole Matthews is Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, which is based in St. Paul and is organizing its third Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Day of Action on May 5.
Courtesy of Nicole Matthews
Beginning Thursday, teepees, an altar and art installations are going up in front of the Minnesota State Capitol to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Black women and Indigenous women and relatives.
The numbers are stark: Native Americans make up only 1 percent of Minnesota's population but 9 percent of missing and murdered women and girls. And Black women are murdered at a rate three times higher than white women in Minnesota. Behind each of these numbers are the lives of loved ones.
As part of a national awareness day tomorrow, advocates will gather in Bemidji, Duluth and on the Capitol lawn. MPR News Host Emily Bright talked with Nicole Matthews, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, which is organizing the event in St. Paul.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
INTERVIEWER: Starting today, teepees, an altar, and art installations are going up in front of the Minnesota Capitol to raise awareness for missing and murdered Black women and Indigenous women and relatives. The numbers are stark. Native Americans make up only 1% of Minnesota's population, but 9% of missing and murdered women and girls and Black women are murdered at a rate three times higher than white women in Minnesota.
And of course, behind each of these numbers are lives of loved ones. As part of a National Day of Awareness tomorrow, advocates will be gathering in Bemidji, Duluth, and on the Capitol lawn. Nicole Matthews is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, which is organizing the event in St. Paul, and she joins me now. Hi, Nicole. Thank you for being here.
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Hi. Thanks for having me.
INTERVIEWER: I know a central part of the day is bringing visibility to people who are missing or murdered. Is there anyone you'd like to recognize?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Absolutely. This is a day that we do-- actually, we do this day twice a year in February and in May. And so it's a day to raise visibility for relatives like Nevaeh Kingbird up in Bemidji who's been missing for about a year and a half and Sheila St. Clair who has been missing for many years from Duluth and for Alexis White Hawk-Ruiz whose body was just found only a couple of weeks ago. So it's a day to honor and remember her as well.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. I know you've been working for decades to stop sexual violence and sex trafficking against Indigenous people in Minnesota. How does this intersect with the issue of missing and murdered women and relatives?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Yeah. I think certainly the issue of sex trafficking for one. When we did our research about a decade ago, we learned a lot about the experiences of Native women who've been used in prostitution and trafficking, and many of them knew of a Native woman that they had never seen nor heard from again.
They had also experienced extreme violence, and about 79% of them were also victims of child sexual abuse by an average of four perpetrators. So all of these issues intersect and make our community and our relatives more vulnerable to being hurt.
Also, the issue of poverty and houselessness-- like if you don't have a house to go home to, how do people know when you're missing when you're out on the street? You're at much higher risk for being hurt. And so all of these are vulnerabilities that increase our risks of being missing or going [INAUDIBLE].
INTERVIEWER: Yes. What do you want to see happen to keep people safe?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Well, we need more resources. And I know that's something that a lot of people say, but we definitely need more resources to this issue. We need more resources to address health, homelessness, and poverty. We need more resources for services.
Our services that work with victims of domestic and sexual violence and sex trafficking haven't received a base level increase in funding in a number of years, so we need resources for programs that are providing services. We also need awareness, and we need visibility.
We need the media. Thank you for having me today, and we need more media who are covering these issues and for people to be paying attention because when these stories are covered, we might get one story. But I question how many people-- when they heard the news of Alexis White Hawk-Ruiz, how many people actually knew her story before they learned that her body had been found?
INTERVIEWER: And Nicole, I want to point out that you're partnering in this event with two organizations that focus on ending violence against Black women. How did this partnership come about?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Yeah. We're partnering with a number of community organizations. One of them, A Long Walk Home, out of Chicago, we have been partnering with for many years. They, for a number of years, have been bringing their-- they work with Black women and girls in Chicago and addressing gender-based violence.
And they have been bringing a group of girls and staff to our February 14 event for a number of years and really learned about missing and murdered and addressing those issues and started doing their own events in Chicago and raising this issue with their young people and within their community.
And so we have worked with them and partnered with them for a long time, and they do a lot of work with-- so they're bringing their Black girlhood altered here to have amongst our [INAUDIBLE] that will also be on the State Capitol lawn.
INTERVIEWER: Well, Nicole. I wish we had more time to talk with you, but I want to make sure that people listening know when and where the event is if they want to attend. Can just tell us?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Absolutely. It is on the Capitol lawn. It is from 12:00 to 3:00 tomorrow. We will have a number of speakers including the Lieutenant Governor, and we will have food catered by Gatherings Cafe after the event. So please, please join us tomorrow.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Thank you so much for your time. Nicole Matthews is Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, one of the groups organizing an event tomorrow afternoon at the Minnesota State Capitol.
And of course, behind each of these numbers are lives of loved ones. As part of a National Day of Awareness tomorrow, advocates will be gathering in Bemidji, Duluth, and on the Capitol lawn. Nicole Matthews is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, which is organizing the event in St. Paul, and she joins me now. Hi, Nicole. Thank you for being here.
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Hi. Thanks for having me.
INTERVIEWER: I know a central part of the day is bringing visibility to people who are missing or murdered. Is there anyone you'd like to recognize?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Absolutely. This is a day that we do-- actually, we do this day twice a year in February and in May. And so it's a day to raise visibility for relatives like Nevaeh Kingbird up in Bemidji who's been missing for about a year and a half and Sheila St. Clair who has been missing for many years from Duluth and for Alexis White Hawk-Ruiz whose body was just found only a couple of weeks ago. So it's a day to honor and remember her as well.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. I know you've been working for decades to stop sexual violence and sex trafficking against Indigenous people in Minnesota. How does this intersect with the issue of missing and murdered women and relatives?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Yeah. I think certainly the issue of sex trafficking for one. When we did our research about a decade ago, we learned a lot about the experiences of Native women who've been used in prostitution and trafficking, and many of them knew of a Native woman that they had never seen nor heard from again.
They had also experienced extreme violence, and about 79% of them were also victims of child sexual abuse by an average of four perpetrators. So all of these issues intersect and make our community and our relatives more vulnerable to being hurt.
Also, the issue of poverty and houselessness-- like if you don't have a house to go home to, how do people know when you're missing when you're out on the street? You're at much higher risk for being hurt. And so all of these are vulnerabilities that increase our risks of being missing or going [INAUDIBLE].
INTERVIEWER: Yes. What do you want to see happen to keep people safe?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Well, we need more resources. And I know that's something that a lot of people say, but we definitely need more resources to this issue. We need more resources to address health, homelessness, and poverty. We need more resources for services.
Our services that work with victims of domestic and sexual violence and sex trafficking haven't received a base level increase in funding in a number of years, so we need resources for programs that are providing services. We also need awareness, and we need visibility.
We need the media. Thank you for having me today, and we need more media who are covering these issues and for people to be paying attention because when these stories are covered, we might get one story. But I question how many people-- when they heard the news of Alexis White Hawk-Ruiz, how many people actually knew her story before they learned that her body had been found?
INTERVIEWER: And Nicole, I want to point out that you're partnering in this event with two organizations that focus on ending violence against Black women. How did this partnership come about?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Yeah. We're partnering with a number of community organizations. One of them, A Long Walk Home, out of Chicago, we have been partnering with for many years. They, for a number of years, have been bringing their-- they work with Black women and girls in Chicago and addressing gender-based violence.
And they have been bringing a group of girls and staff to our February 14 event for a number of years and really learned about missing and murdered and addressing those issues and started doing their own events in Chicago and raising this issue with their young people and within their community.
And so we have worked with them and partnered with them for a long time, and they do a lot of work with-- so they're bringing their Black girlhood altered here to have amongst our [INAUDIBLE] that will also be on the State Capitol lawn.
INTERVIEWER: Well, Nicole. I wish we had more time to talk with you, but I want to make sure that people listening know when and where the event is if they want to attend. Can just tell us?
NICOLE MATTHEWS: Absolutely. It is on the Capitol lawn. It is from 12:00 to 3:00 tomorrow. We will have a number of speakers including the Lieutenant Governor, and we will have food catered by Gatherings Cafe after the event. So please, please join us tomorrow.
INTERVIEWER: All right. Thank you so much for your time. Nicole Matthews is Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, one of the groups organizing an event tomorrow afternoon at the Minnesota State Capitol.
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