Tuesday is National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day, with a formal remembrance celebration held at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.
"My son was murdered last April," said Natasha White, one of many to honor slain or missing family members on Tuesday.
Violence and murder ravages the Indigenous community, as an average of 63 people were missing on any given day in 2025.
"The impacts of colonization, and dehumanizing us as Indigenous people, creating barriers to justice and safety for our people, has caused us to be more susceptible to experience harm," explains Guadalupe Lopez, Office Director for the MMIR Office.
Governor Tim Walz issued a proclamation that Tuesday May 5th, 2026 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day in Minnesota.
"We really wanted to create an event to honor families, lift up the names of the murdered and the long-term missing community members that we are grieving for and that we feel the impact of them not being around our tables, and our ceremonies, and our cultural events, and our community events," added Lopez.
She said on average, 63 Indigenous people were missing on any given day in 2025.
U.S. Justice Department data shows Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to be homicide victims than the national average. Many people wear red and paint their faces with red handprints while vowing to speak for those who have been silenced.
