March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Focuses on Wisconsin, Minnesota, Several tribes

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By Frank Zufall

February 24, 2025

More than 100 people attended the 10th annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIW/R) on Friday, Feb. 14 in Duluth, Minnesota.

The event was co-sponsored by the Native Lives Matter Coalition and No More MMIW/R Great Lakes and supported by a dozen-plus entities, including the Wisconsin MMIW/R Task Force and the Minnesota MMIR Office.

[Editor's Note: This article was first published by the "Wisconsin Examiner." Used with permission. All rights reserved.]

Proclamations of support were made by both the cities of Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin and state and tribal representatives from Wisconsin and Minnesota made  presentations.

The opening ceremony began at the American Indian Community Housing Center on 2nd Street followed by a march on a cold winter afternoon down Superior Street ending at the Building for Women on 1st Street.

The opening ceremony was kicked off by Ricky Defoe, a Fond du Lac tribal elder, who offered prayers and comments about the significance of the event for raising awareness.

Rene Ann Goodrich, a Bad River Tribal member from Wisconsin and one of the organizers of the march, thanked those who gathered for supporting the MMIW/R movement and she recognized the families who are seeking healing and justice.

“Visibility is the number one,” Goodrich said of the importance of the march. “Over the past 10 years this has grown into a huge movement across the state, across the nation and is now recognized on the federal level.”

Each attendee was given a small amount of tobacco,  traditionally used as a spiritual  offering.

“This tobacco carries our prayers, carries our hopes, and sends those prayers out to our Creator,” said Goodrich.

Dr. Marsha Lue, Human Rights and Equity Officer for the Duluth mayor’s office, shared a proclamation signed by Mayor Roger Reinert.

The proclamation read, in part, “…whereas US Department of Justice found that Native American women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. And whereas Minnesota and the MMIR Task Force reports that indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people are far more likely to experience violence, be murdered or go missing compared to other demographic groups in Minnesota … we remain firmly committed to addressing disparities and expanding practices and partnerships that work to close the achievement, opportunity, safety and equity gaps for Native American Alaskan Native and indigenous peoples and communities.”

Superior Mayor Jim Paine also read a proclamation for his city. Paine noted that his wife, Jenny Van Sickle, is the first Native American member on the Superior city council, and that he has three Native American daughters.

“The women of my family are Native American,” he said, “so this problem is incredibly personal to me, and like all of you, it is vital that they grow up in a community that sees them, that protects them, and makes sure that they matter, and the way that we do that is bringing awareness, not just to ourselves, of the problem, but to make sure we spread that awareness to the broader community.”

“We need to tell the story of those that have been lost, or as important as that, we need to bring awareness of who it is we are protecting,” Paine added. “We need to talk about culture. We need to share culture and stories and elevate the people in our community that we are actually protecting. … We have to continue this work every single day, until everybody is brought home and so we have justice for everybody, and until nobody else is missing and murdered again.” 

Desiree Tody, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin and a direct descendent of Chief Buffalo, then spoke.

Tody works for the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse (CASDA) for Ashland and Bayfield counties, including the Red Cliff and Bad River tribes.

She read the names of those who had died in Minnesota in 2024 from domestic violence. (She noted there wasn’t a similar available list for Wisconsin and one of her goals for 2025 is to create it.)

“Every loss, every life lost to domestic violence is preventable,” said Tody. “Many of the offenders were on parole. They had previously been reported or reported for domestic violence, and many of them had orders of protection against them.”

Tody also noted that many of the families are still seeking justice.

She said recognizing warning signs of “abuse and lethality” is the way to begin to prevent violence. “If you see signs in your own relationship or that of a relative, we need to say something,” she said.

Tody recounted an abusive relationship she had experienced and recalled the support she had received from her family and community.

“Without each and every one of these people, I may not have made it out,” she said. “The leading cause of death for our women is homicide. This is a fight to the death and we can win it together. Help in any way you can. That can mean something as simple as giving somebody a couch to sleep on, helping with resources that keep them (a victim) from being able to leave, like giving their kids a ride to school.”

Tonya Kjerland, Tribal Relations Specialist for the Minnesota Department of Health, said in 2024 the Minnesota MMIR office had provided services and resources to 28 families.

“Although Indigenous women account for less than 1% of Minnesota’s population, they account for 10% of the missing females in the state,” she said. Indigenous men are also overrepresented in missing persons and homicide data, she added, quoting statistics from the Bureau of Criminal ApprehensionsMissing Persons Clearinghouse, which reported 716 missing indigenous persons in Minnesota last year,  57% of whom were women.

Kjerland said the public can raise awareness by purchasing a MMIR license plate with proceeds going toward a reward fund.

Family members and friends also shared their stories.

Brian Stillday Jr., a community health educator for the Boise Forte/Red Lake Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa in Minnesota, talked about the 2023 murder of his older brother Corey Whitefeather, Jr. on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. He said his brother died of knife wounds while attempting to protect his home.

Kayla Jackson, a tribal member from Nevada, said she was working with the Peter Martin family of the Fond du Lac Reservation after Martin disappeared from the reservation in March 2024.

Linda Martin, Peter’s older sister, talked of the family’s ordeal since her brother has gone missing and noted with each passing month it was becoming more difficult to recruit volunteers to look for Peter.

Several noted there is a $5,000 reward for any information on the disappearance of Martin.

Recently, Jackson said, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had become involved in the Martin case.

Jackson encouraged people who might be reluctant to report tips to law enforcement to contact the Martin family directly.

A woman who said she was the younger sister of Sheila St. Clair, a Fond du Lac member who has been missing from Duluth since August 2015, said she often thinks she recognizes her sister in a crowd, but then realizes it’s not her.

“I am so lonesome without my big sister,” she said. “She was such a beautiful woman and a mother and sister.”