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Photo: This press conference in 2024 launched California’s Feather Alert System for MMIP. (Courtesy Asm. James Ramos / Facebook)
Events are being planned at the California state Capitol in Sacramento to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) cases.
May 5, on national MMIP Day, state lawmakers and tribal leaders will deliver remarks at the Capitol Park, and the Capitol Dome will be illuminated red for two nights to observe MMIP.
Events will continue through the week, including a hearing involving tribal safety and a candle light vigil will be held.
The Native American Legislative Caucus and its chair, Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), are leading the weeklong activities.
Asm. Ramos is the first and only California Native American currently serving in the state legislature.
He spoke at a California MMIP summit this winter about tribal advocacy and representation in the legislature to address MMIP.
“Being in the state legislature and with all your support, we’ve been able to start to bring pieces of legislation forward … we continue to look at those issues moving forward and gaining allies in the state legislature and within law enforcement. Gaining allies to bring forward the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.”
During the week of activities, Ramos will present a resolution on the Assembly floor to designate May as MMIP Awareness Month.
Incoming President Heather Shotton. (Courtesy Fort Lewis College / Facebook)
Heather Shotton has been appointed the president of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., becoming the first Native American to hold the position.
The board of trustees appointed her to the leadership role on Friday.
President-elect Shotton is an enrolled citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes and a descendant of the Kiowa and Cheyenne Tribes.
Shotton has more than 20 years of experience in academic leadership and has been part of the college’s executive leadership team for the past three years.
In a statement, she said she’s honored to lead Fort Lewis College and is committed to building a future grounded in belonging, access, and academic excellence for students.
She’s been recognized for advancing culturally responsive practices and policies for Indigenous students.
Her work at Fort Lewis College has included reconciliation with faculty and staff acknowledging the institution’s history as a federal Indian boarding school.
Shotton officially assumes the presidency on July 1.
A scene from season three, episode six of “Dark Winds”. (Courtesy AMC)
AMC’s acclaimed series Dark Winds has tackled various heavy issues, which now includes clergy sexual abuse in its latest episode.
National Native News’s Brian Bull has more.
In the episode titled, “What He Had Been Told”, Navajo police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has a series of visions and flashbacks while pursuing a mysterious figure through the wilderness.
One involves a priest taking a young relative into an isolated space to do the unthinkable.
Actor Zahn McClarnon plays Leaphorn.
“There’s a lot of things I could relate to in that scene growing up, I went through some things as a kid. I’m not going to get into details but they’re very similar to how Joe was affected when he was a kid. And so it’s … I think as … human beings, we go through these painful experiences, these loss, this tragedy, joy, as an actor all I try to do is lean into that.”
McClarnon says the episode’s director, Erica Trimblay, put a lot of thought and sensitivity before shooting this specific scene.
“Erica made a very, very safe environment. Along with the other producers, Tina Elmo of the show, Jim Chory, and John Wirth, made a safe environment not just for me, but for the kids in the scene. It was a closed set, so people weren’t allowed on the set. It was just the directors and the actors, and the cameramen.”
In recent years, accounts of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse against Native children have come out in both government-run and church-run boarding schools.
Last year, President Joe Biden formally apologized on behalf of the United States for atrocities committed against government boarding school students.
AMC’s Dark Winds is on Sunday nights.
It’s been renewed for a fourth season.
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