MSUM hosts panel discussion on National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day
May 5 | Art Unveiling @ 4 p.m. – Art Gallery | Panel Discussion @ 4:30 p.m. – Gaede Stage
May 5 is National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Day to recognize American Indian and Alaska Native people who have lost their lives to violence. To raise awareness about and encourage discussion of MMIP, Minnesota State University Moorhead will host a panel discussion that brings together women working to eliminate human trafficking and violence against all persons.
The panel discussion will start at 4:30 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gaede Stage. An art unveiling and a meet and greet with artist Laura Youngbird and panelists precede the discussion at 4 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Great White Hall (outside the art gallery).
“Missing and Murdered Indigenous People is an epidemic that is now gaining some awareness,” said event co-coordinator Laura Youngbird, an artist and faculty member in MSUM’s School of Media Arts and Design. She says statistics show Native American and Alaska Native women are 25 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the United States, and 61.4 percent of Native American women will be physically assaulted over their lifetime.
Panelists
- Ruth Buffalo is a former Fargo Native American Commissioner and North Dakota State House Representative. She serves as First Vice President for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition’s board, a local FM MMITP Taskforce co-founder, and an appointed commissioner to the Not Invisible Act Commission.
- Anne LaFrinier-Ritchie is a Safe Harbor Regional Navigator for Someplace Safe in West Central Minnesota. She has worked in the anti-trafficking field in direct services, training and technical assistance in Minnesota and North Dakota since 2016, with previous history in advocacy and tribal child welfare.
- Amanda Straus is a Health Educator and Outreach Specialist in Indigenous programming with Planned Parenthood, a Fargo-Moorhead Native American City Commissioner, and an executive board member for North Dakota Human Rights Coalition.
- Tracey L. Wilkie serves on the board for the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness, the Jeremiah Program, and Fargo Moorhead Interfaith Center. She is a former North Dakota Women’s Network board member and a 2020 D16 ND House of Representatives candidate.
- Lissa Yellowbird-Chase founded Sahnish Scouts, a citizen-led organization dedicated to finding justice for missing people and their families. The organization publicizes missing persons cases through social media, postering and other creative strategies while working with families and communities to investigate disappearances when attention from law enforcement is lacking.
- The panel moderator is Dr. Caitlin Johnson, an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at MSUM.
Get free tickets at mnstate.edu/tickets.
MSUM is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible event. If you need a reasonable accommodation to attend this event, please contact Chuck Eade at Charles.Eade@mnstate.edu. You will be contacted individually to discuss your request.
Sponsored by the American Indian Student Association, Art Education Student Organization, College of Art & Humanities, George Soule American Indian Center, School of Art, and Women and Gender Studies Department.