May is Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Awareness Month, where community groups, tribal leaders, and advocates highlight the disproportionate levels of violence directed at Native people.

Among the events held this month was the fifth annual Poetry in the Park event in Springfield, Oreg., which was sponsored by Illioo Theater, the University of Oregon’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Department, and the university’s Indigenous Women’s Wellness Group.

Marta Clifford is an elder with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and an organizer of the event.

She says she was inspired to hang red dresses from the trees in Heron Park, after seeing an installation by First Nations artist Jaime Black.

Clifford says the color red is very significant.

“Many tribes believe that is the color that the spirits can see, and it is a traditional color now for this program of missing and murdered Indigenous women. And people. All people.”

Clifford says all of the poems shared at the event were by Native writers and artists. And most of the readers are current Native or Indigenous students at the University.

(Photo: Brian Bull)

One of them, Pachimio Feliz, is from the Yurok Tribe of California. He says the MMIP crisis hits home because he’s friends with the family of Emmilee Risling, a UO Native student leader who went missing in the fall of 2021.

“She disappeared just a few feet from my village. I know the family, I know it’s definitely a lot of hurt and suffering’s happening right now back home on the Yurok reservation and the Hoopa reservations. A lot of missing people, a lot of unsolved cases, too.”

One student, Ericka Grunlose, is with the Colville Tribe.

She recited a poem titled, “I Am 10 Years Old”, and is about a young girl who’s kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a non-Native man with “the gentlest smile”.

“I actually cried the first time I read this. Because, it just…I just felt it, and as another Native women myself, I just really felt it in my heart. They asked me if I wanted to switch my poem, but I talked with my mom, and I felt like I was strong enough today to come out here and read this poem.”

Another student, Mykeisha Yepa of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe, read “Helen Betty Osborne” by Marilyn DuMont.

It’s based on the 1971 abduction and murder of a 19-year-old Cree woman.

It took 16 years for her four suspected killers to be tried, with only one serving time.

“The poem definitely resonated with me because the metaphor of open season. and how powerful it is and how much women are preyed upon, and I guess it’s like a hunting season for women.”

After the final reading, an honor song was given in the memory of MMIP as well as the friends and families affected.

Roses were handed out to the participants, and people who may be grieving or otherwise affected by the MMIP crisis were invited to talk with the students.

“Indian Time #2” is among the works featured at the new Native Elements Art Festival + Market. (Photo: Zoe Urness)

And this week is the Native Elements Arts Festival and Market at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Convention Center in New Mexico.

One hundred and sixty Native American and Indigenous artists are expected to be featured at the market.

A new honor, the “Native Elements Distinguished Achievement Award”, will be presented.

The event will benefit the botanical garden, the Institute of American Indian Arts Scholarship Fund, and the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

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