0:00

This is a Glassbox Media Podcast.

0:38

Welcome back to Missing. I am

0:40

Tim here today with Lance. Lance, how are

0:42

you today? I'm doing fantastic today,

0:44

Tim. I cannot wait for the listeners to

0:47

hear what we have coming up. It's an incredibly

0:49

special episode. But before

0:52

we get to that, Tim, how are you, sir?

0:55

I'm doing well. We just came

0:57

off of the weekend at Obsessed Fest,

1:00

and this was one of the panels that

1:02

we did at Obsessed Fest 2023. There's

1:06

a lot going on. We did several panels, but

1:08

this one is very special. And

1:10

I want to say that we don't even speak

1:12

in this entire presentation. On

1:15

this episode is Jodi

1:18

Voice Yellowfish, Kristi

1:21

Swimmer-McLamore, Phyllis

1:23

Nuneau, and Areea Gonzalez.

1:26

And these are all members of the MMIW,

1:28

the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Texas

1:31

Rematriate Organization. And

1:34

we just wanted to give Christopher Walker

1:36

the voice of IDs

1:38

disappeared. A shout out because he's

1:40

the one that brought to the table this idea that we should be focusing

1:43

on something that was very centric

1:45

to the city of Dallas. And this is where the

1:47

idea came from. And the organizers

1:50

of the Obsessed Fest were very open

1:52

to having this panel, which we

1:54

heard later on was sort of the hidden gem

1:57

of the weekend.

1:58

OK, so we're going to play a little bit of a song. the audio

2:01

now from Obsessed Fest, there

2:03

are some links in the show notes to

2:05

the MMIW

2:08

Texas Rematriate social

2:10

pages. So check that out. There are also

2:12

links to donate. And we're just going to take

2:14

a quick break for commercial and we'll be right back

2:16

with our MMIW Texas panel

2:19

from Obsessed Fest.

2:25

Before we begin today's episode, you're about

2:27

to hear a word from our sponsors. These ads

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free at the top of the feed. Now a word

3:02

from our sponsors. Hey,

3:06

I'm on highway 255 and

3:08

I've got a female in the grass

3:10

and I don't know if she's unconscious but there

3:12

is blood all over the grass, okay?

3:15

It could have been a border crosser which is a very

3:17

common occurrence in that part of the county. But

3:21

as a patrolman looked further into it, we

3:23

knew that we weren't dealing with it. You

3:26

know what this means? We may have a serial

3:28

killer on our hands.

3:32

Welcome back to Gone South. I'm

3:35

Jed Lipinski and this is season 3,

3:37

The Sign Cutter. Turn

3:40

around, please. Turn around. Binge

3:45

the entire season of Gone South, an

3:47

Odyssey original podcast, now only

3:50

on the free Odyssey app or listen weekly

3:52

wherever you get your podcasts. I just got

3:54

this feeling that maybe he

3:57

was the one. He was the one that

3:59

what?

3:59

that had been murdering. I

4:13

am so, so pleased to introduce

4:17

the MMIW Texas

4:20

Rematriate organization. And

4:23

for those who don't know what that acronym stands

4:25

for, it stands for Missing and Murdered

4:28

Indigenous Women. So

4:30

over here on the far left

4:34

is Jodi Woyce Yellowfish. She's

4:37

the co-founder and chair. Then we

4:39

have Kristi Swimmer-Makomor.

4:42

And you are the vice chair. Then

4:44

we have the secretary, Phyllis

4:47

Noonium, and their youngest member

4:50

and Phyllis' daughter, Aria

4:52

Gonzalez. So please give them a hand.

4:55

And a

4:55

warm welcome.

5:01

Our organization, we always,

5:05

with all of our work, we open and close

5:07

with a prayer. Because within this work,

5:09

we often refer to our

5:11

relatives, our community, that

5:14

aren't with our family. And if that's because

5:17

they've passed on or they're still lost,

5:19

we try to be respectful of that. Because

5:22

when we say their names, we bring them into these

5:24

spaces with us. So it needs to be

5:25

respectful. And I'm going to

5:28

open that up for Phyllis. She's going to open

5:30

us with a prayer real quick.

5:32

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this

5:34

day. We thank you for giving

5:36

us this opportunity to be here in this

5:38

space. We just ask

5:40

that you just cleanse the energy, the air, the

5:43

atmosphere. We just ask that

5:45

you watch over each

5:48

individual heart, mind,

5:50

and spirit that is here today. And

5:53

we ask that you

5:56

keep us safe from any harm.

5:59

Just continue to be with us. And

6:02

we just ask these things. Uh-huh.

6:05

Thank you.

6:07

So to start with, you know, our, like I said,

6:10

our organization is MMIW Texas

6:12

Rematriate. And we're made up of,

6:15

I think we have 14, 15 active members, 14 active

6:19

members. And we're all

6:21

different tribes, so I want to make sure that

6:23

everyone gets to say their names and

6:26

their tribe. I think that really

6:28

helps everyone

6:30

outside of our work understand what we deal with

6:32

and how

6:34

being open to different cultural aspects,

6:37

things that are different than you, how that affects

6:39

our work. So again, my name is Jodi, and

6:41

I'm Muskogee Creek, Oglala

6:44

Lakota, and Cherokee, and Kristi.

6:47

My name is Kristi Swimmer-Mclemore. I'm

6:49

of the Cherokee Tribe. My

6:51

name is Phyllis Nuno. I am a member of the absentee

6:53

Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, but I'm also affiliated

6:56

with the Choctaw, Mississippi Choctaw, Sacafox,

6:59

Shawnee, and Oneida Tribes.

7:01

My name is Erez Mzallis, and

7:03

I'm with the Cherokee

7:04

Tribe. So

7:06

just a little bit about MMIW

7:09

Texas Rematriate and what we do. Basically

7:11

our mission is to search

7:14

and bring home missing relatives and

7:16

loved ones, and we offer

7:18

support and healing processes to

7:23

our missing and

7:25

murdered and their families. But

7:29

we also advocate for social change as

7:31

well. Also, she

7:34

mentioned MMIW stands

7:36

for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, but

7:38

you'll also see other acronyms such as

7:40

MMIW 2S, which

7:44

stands for Two Spirit, or MMIP,

7:48

which stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous

7:50

People. And there's also MMIWR,

7:53

which stands for Missing and Murdered

7:54

Indigenous Relatives.

7:57

And we have this presentation

7:59

that we use all the time. time and we've

8:01

been working with that with the organizers and whatnot

8:03

so we might be going through this kind

8:05

of kind of quickly as

8:08

we we want it to be more conversational

8:10

and not just a presentation where we're giving

8:12

you facts and whatnot. Within our work

8:15

we all have our our own reasons why

8:17

we do the work and we've

8:21

our work started as

8:23

just being

8:25

in community with each other and

8:27

there was a specific

8:29

case that really pulled me

8:31

in and we started doing work as a community

8:33

to have a vigil and after that

8:36

our community was

8:37

just like what's next you know like how do we keep

8:39

combating the crisis so and

8:42

I we usually have this this slide

8:45

in our presentation because we like to not

8:47

only share the artwork but kind

8:50

of why this crisis

8:54

began with this name you're you're always going

8:56

to see MMIW before you see MMIR

8:59

MMIP it really started

9:01

with the understanding the disproportionate

9:04

rates that happen

9:07

to Native women and indigenous women and

9:09

it became the crisis that it is because we're taught that

9:12

as women women are sacred

9:14

because we are life-givers and that's been

9:16

kind of at the core of all of the work

9:19

that we do even

9:21

though our work has expanded to

9:24

to find all people

9:26

men boys two-spirit relatives

9:29

and one of the reasons why we we

9:32

open with a prayer and things like that I'm

9:35

always asked about what

9:38

pulled me into the work in that case that

9:40

I mentioned where we wanted to have a vigil was for

9:42

Savannah Graywyn and

9:44

to start with Savannah

9:47

I feel like to understand

9:49

the work when we say relative

9:53

that's how all of us work when we have

9:55

a case we take

9:57

on this case as if we're finding our

10:00

own relative, we're searching for somebody that's

10:03

our family, or even helping them

10:05

fight for justice, because

10:08

that's often the case a lot of times.

10:11

But with Savannah,

10:14

this was the case that I first

10:17

really felt like I needed to activate

10:19

myself and do something within the community.

10:22

This was the case that shook me and made

10:25

me feel like I lost a family member. I

10:28

think to understand

10:30

that I've had the privilege

10:32

to attend Haskelindya Nations University in

10:35

Lawrence, Kansas. It's a

10:37

tribal college. You have to be a tribal citizen, tribal

10:39

member to attend that college. You

10:42

are lucky enough to see a lot of young people

10:45

start their life, and not just

10:47

them find themselves and become active, but you

10:50

see a lot of families start there. Savannah

10:54

was just that. Savannah was a college student. Her

10:56

and her partner had it at home. She

10:59

was pregnant. They were going to have a baby just literally

11:01

starting their life together. Savannah's

11:04

kindness was exploited. A neighbor

11:06

asked for her help, and Savannah

11:09

obliged and went to this

11:11

person's home to help her model

11:15

clothes for a fitting and get measured and things like

11:17

that, because the person was supposedly a seamstress.

11:20

She went to this upstairs neighbor

11:23

in her apartment complex and never

11:26

left. Savannah

11:28

was murdered in that apartment. Her

11:31

baby was cut from her womb. Savannah

11:34

was dumped in a nearby river.

11:38

When her family went

11:41

to law enforcement and said their

11:43

relative was missing, that

11:45

police department there was quick

11:49

to say, oh, she'll come back. She's

11:52

probably partying. They're like, no, that's not her.

11:55

She's pregnant right now. She's not in

11:57

that lifestyle. This isn't like her. Police

12:00

really wouldn't do anything and one

12:03

thing that we've learned is we do a lot

12:05

of

12:05

the work that they should be doing and

12:08

this happened with this case. This

12:10

community

12:11

activated themselves for the family and

12:13

this community found her on

12:15

their own

12:16

and this was what really

12:18

activated myself and my sister to do

12:21

something and like I said once that happened, you

12:23

know, we had a vigil, we wanted to honor

12:25

her but we also asked if

12:28

in our community if there were

12:30

people that wanted to honor somebody

12:32

else. Like are there people in our community that

12:34

have been lost to this violence and things like that

12:37

and we got a lot of names that I had

12:39

never heard. I didn't know about. I grew up

12:41

in Dallas and you know

12:44

we got these names

12:46

and these stories and we honored them by saying their

12:48

names. We had this vigil, this butterfly

12:51

release, all of these things and

12:53

one of our members, he was told

12:56

by an elder, like we've always had this problem.

12:59

It's always been a crisis. We just didn't have a name for it. Now

13:02

we know how to talk about it and

13:04

that really, that stuck with me

13:06

because I was thinking we have these elders

13:09

that have just accepted

13:11

and lived with that pain for generations

13:14

now but I do want to mention

13:17

that Dallas, Dallas is a

13:19

relocation site and not

13:21

many people know what that means.

13:23

So the US government had a

13:26

relocation act, a relocation

13:28

act of 1956 and that was basically a

13:33

form of assimilation that got

13:36

tribal citizens off their ancestral homelands

13:38

and tribal lands and

13:41

brought them to big cities and Dallas was one

13:43

of them. Myself

13:45

personally, both

13:47

of my parents came on relocation. Our

13:50

city, you know,

13:52

I do a lot in our city and I'm in a lot

13:54

of spaces where I get to talk to city officials

13:57

and things like that.

13:59

in almost every space I go to if,

14:02

you know, how has Dallas acknowledged it? You

14:04

know, is there somebody where somewhere I can find,

14:07

like, archives that there was

14:09

a Bureau of Indian Affairs office here? They

14:11

have no idea where to send me. I

14:13

work closely with different council persons

14:16

as I'm on a board, I'm on a advisory

14:18

board with the city. They have no idea

14:20

where to send me, no idea where to find anything

14:22

to acknowledge that, why there

14:25

are hundreds of tribes represented here. But

14:27

on the screen I have some

14:29

of the contributing factors to this crisis that we

14:31

end up helping a lot of people with. And

14:34

it's important to understand that, you

14:37

know, we may not be on tribal land, but there are a

14:40

lot of citizens here in the

14:42

area that end

14:45

up facing violence. May that be

14:49

domestic violence or assault of some kind, and

14:52

that's a lot of the times how we end

14:54

up helping families or different cases. So

14:57

that's really something to, kind

15:01

of a lot to digest, but it really needs to be understood

15:03

in the work that we do. But

15:07

after we had this vigil and started to be active, once

15:09

we decided that it was only

15:11

a handful, maybe five of us that said we

15:13

want to be a group that helps our community, we

15:17

did. And we kind

15:20

of quietly

15:21

announced that

15:22

we wanted to do this work

15:24

and that we were officially a program under

15:27

this other organization. It

15:29

was less than a week later that

15:31

I got contacted and needed help, a

15:33

family needed help. And the

15:36

person that contacted me was

15:39

a grandmother that was needing help to

15:41

find her granddaughter. And that was

15:43

Kristi. Kristi was

15:45

the person that first contacted

15:48

me for that help. And I mentioned

15:51

when we were planning this talk today

15:54

that Kristi and

15:56

I often don't get to talk together

15:58

in this type of setting.

17:56

It

18:00

was a very hard time. And you know, being

18:02

an adult and being a mother and being a grandmother

18:05

now of 22 grandchildren, you

18:07

know, you come to realize

18:08

that

18:10

at the time back then, they

18:12

didn't know any better. And you learn

18:14

to forgive.

18:16

And you learn to hold on,

18:18

but that's the only mother you'll ever have. And

18:20

somewhere, our great spirit brings

18:22

back to us things that happen in

18:25

our past, to show us our path

18:27

of where we belong and what we need to do and directs

18:31

us in our setting

18:33

of our life. And that's

18:35

what happened to me. For

18:38

many years, I didn't speak of anything. I

18:40

didn't speak of the abuse. I didn't talk about

18:43

it. I was an admin, alcoholic,

18:47

and I was very

18:50

protective over my children,

18:51

very frantic and panicking

18:54

over not knowing where they're

18:56

at. Always had to know

18:59

where they are, be in touch with them.

19:01

They'd never rolled the bus. They never walked home

19:03

from school. It

19:07

really traumatized me. But

19:09

it took my granddaughter coming up missing

19:12

and being abducted and sexually

19:14

trafficked herself for me to realize. I

19:18

can continue on with my life, being

19:20

a victim for the rest of my life and living it.

19:24

Or I can find that

19:27

faith in me

19:27

to make a change, to make a difference.

19:31

And when she came up missing here

19:34

in the DFW area, there

19:37

was no help. And because of what

19:39

was going on at home, she was a habitual

19:41

runaway. And the police continued

19:43

to say, she'll be back, she's

19:45

always come back, but this time

19:47

was different.

19:49

And

19:50

I personally hadn't been in touch with my granddaughter

19:53

in about 10 years when this

19:56

happened in 2019. So

20:00

when her mother contacted me, I kind

20:03

of had that gut feeling,

20:05

you know, okay, this is different. She

20:09

hadn't returned home within 24 hours like

20:11

she normally has.

20:15

The police wouldn't escalate

20:18

anything. They wouldn't even

20:21

search for her. It

20:24

was more just a written report,

20:26

gave us a case number and that was it. Any

20:29

calls or anything that we got, they

20:31

didn't give us any resources of what we could

20:33

do, where we

20:36

could go or what we needed to do, it was

20:38

just a waiting game.

20:41

So when I came in the picture and everything is when

20:43

I contacted Jodi and

20:45

I reached out, didn't contact her directly, I reached

20:47

out to the Indian community. I

20:50

really don't trust police officers or law enforcement.

20:53

I really have no faith in them. My

20:58

father always taught me, you know, Indian

21:01

community is family. Her mother

21:03

has taken me in back when I couldn't

21:06

find my foster at times.

21:09

So with that being said,

21:12

I just reached out to the Indian community and Jodi

21:14

is the one that reached

21:15

back out to me.

21:16

With that being said, it took

21:18

us finding and doing the legwork, making

21:20

flyers. People

21:24

donated the money to have those flyers

21:26

made. She was missing

21:27

for 10 days.

21:29

And, you know, I'm a survivor and I was

21:31

only praying that my granddaughter was

21:33

going to be alive. But

21:37

it took those flyers and us doing the legwork

21:39

and continuing being up

21:42

for 10 days and nights, searching

21:45

and just every areas

21:47

that we can. A

21:50

Walmart employee happened to find her fire,

21:52

see her fire. We

21:55

just by chance that day got it on

21:57

the news on Channel 4.

21:59

little

22:00

midget of a poster

22:02

swine, a visual, that was it.

22:05

That was the only news channel that would help me.

22:09

At that time then, a Walmart employee

22:11

contacted us as I've seen her, she's here.

22:14

She was here with a man. She wasn't

22:16

allowed to speak, she wasn't allowed to do anything,

22:19

she sat right here with me, told me that they

22:21

were taking her to California,

22:23

they were getting ready to leave. We

22:27

contacted the police because Walmart couldn't

22:30

give us or show us the

22:32

video of her getting

22:35

in the car or any of that information.

22:38

So finally when the police

22:39

officer verified our story

22:41

of what our findings were,

22:43

then at that time, did they take action

22:45

and the next day,

22:48

that evening she was brought home

22:50

and she was alive. It

22:52

wasn't just her, there

22:54

were other children that they had collected

22:57

from

22:58

the east to the

23:00

from the north as well,

23:02

the youngest six years

23:04

old. These

23:08

people got a slap on the hand

23:10

for this. There

23:13

was no, do I feel

23:15

fair justice? No, they

23:17

met and got a minimum, maybe five years,

23:19

they'll be out in three and

23:22

that's all

23:24

there is. Had

23:27

this happened on a reservation, it would have been a federal

23:29

case and

23:32

hopefully then, yeah, we would have got justice.

23:36

With us being out here and away

23:39

from our

23:40

homes,

23:41

it's different and we're

23:44

shied away a lot of the time because

23:47

our native communities, we're known as alcoholics,

23:49

drug users, low life. I

23:51

mean, honestly, we are.

23:55

They rule us as uneducated, they rule

23:57

us as unsovereign. And

24:01

it's not fair. My father

24:03

was in the Army. He served.

24:06

He was made to go in the military. He

24:10

was an active relocation

24:12

activist here. He started many of the

24:14

programs for our Indian community here, such

24:17

as the Urban Tribal and Center, the

24:20

American Indian

24:21

Chamber of Commerce,

24:24

along with Tribal American Network, our

24:26

Beyond Bows and Arrows

24:28

radio station here in the community, just

24:30

so our community here of the people

24:33

that were of the relocation could

24:35

keep ties to their homelands

24:38

and their community. You

24:40

know, I don't know what's worse. My

24:43

granddaughter is still lost, and there's a lot of healing

24:46

still to this day that needs to be done.

24:50

As I said, you know, I found out

24:52

and realized that I could continue my life being

24:54

a victim or continue it being a survivor

24:57

and trying to make a difference in this world, especially

25:00

to those girls and those women that have been taken

25:02

and that have been victims and are

25:04

victims and do keep quiet and

25:06

keep that shelter and keep that pain inside

25:09

with alcoholism and drug use.

25:14

I can only reach out to them and offer

25:16

a smidgen of help.

25:19

I can't heal them. I can't cure them.

25:22

I can't take away the pain and what's happened

25:24

to them,

25:26

but I feel it, and I

25:28

know it hurts. But

25:32

I can honestly say that with

25:34

MMIW, I feel like

25:37

it really gives me that generosity to

25:39

be who I am and to speak and to

25:41

not be silent anymore. And

25:43

that's what I choose to do, is not

25:46

to be silent anymore. What's happened to

25:48

me and my family. Not only

25:50

happened to my granddaughter, just a

25:53

couple years there, a year and a half ago, my

25:55

cousin herself was

25:57

missing here in the Dallas area again. and

26:00

she was being sexually trafficked and drugged

26:02

as well. We had to take

26:04

her actually back to Oklahoma to get away

26:07

because our family was

26:09

at the site of being harassed,

26:12

threatened,

26:14

and to this day we still have not gotten her trafficker

26:17

under in jail or behind bars.

26:20

It's not even being investigated anymore. As

26:24

much as I pushed for it, my

26:26

cousin still has to go through the

26:28

pain, the heal. She has PTSD just as I do from

26:30

the trauma and

26:34

what's happened to her. I don't think

26:36

we'll ever get justice

26:36

for what happened to her,

26:39

and I don't think she'll ever be able to come back

26:41

to the DFW

26:42

area, and this is where

26:44

she grew up. So

26:47

a lot of this work, it is draining,

26:51

but it does give me the satisfaction of knowing if I've touched one life or

26:53

touched one family and helped them and assisted

26:55

them, even

26:57

in being

26:57

a voice,

26:59

if their victim didn't come home.

27:01

That in itself gives me peace, and

27:04

it gives me

27:05

the heart to move on and to

27:07

continue this work. I

27:10

have been forever indebted to Jodi and

27:12

MMIW, and I will continue

27:14

to do so and speak about what's

27:16

happened to this family. It's not fair,

27:20

but it happens, and it is

27:22

our reality and has

27:24

been our reality for genocide.

27:27

Thank you.

27:28

Like I mentioned, we learned so

27:30

much through that first

27:32

case. When we

27:35

started helping, looking for her granddaughter,

27:38

I ended up, I come

27:40

from different kind of organizing

27:42

activist spaces in the area, and

27:45

I knew how to contact the media. I

27:47

knew that you can't get law enforcement

27:50

to do something called the DA's office because then they'll get

27:52

off their ass because they're getting called. That's

27:55

what we did. We had them call the DA. They

27:57

started moving.

27:58

You can't get... on

28:00

the media, you can't get help from different

28:03

clearinghouses like foundations that help

28:06

look for people if you don't have a missing

28:09

person's case number,

28:11

if you don't have a file reported. And

28:14

I've literally seen people not want

28:16

to call the cops and not want to

28:18

work with the cops when somebody is missing. So

28:22

that was, you know, we learned

28:25

so much in how to handle things

28:27

from this.

28:30

That's part of what we do. We try to help

28:33

families navigate these situations as safe as

28:35

possible. We learn something

28:37

new and how to handle it every time

28:39

we help the family. So we don't

28:42

always have an active case, which is

28:44

good. You know, we don't always

28:46

want to have active cases. So

28:48

we do a lot of different outreach work

28:51

and different advocacy work and different

28:53

education and we're

28:55

able to tell people, it's not

28:57

the safest thing for you to put your phone number on

29:00

a flyer. You know, you

29:02

get fake tips, you get ransom

29:04

calls and, you know,

29:07

we've had people get upset like I'm going to put this and

29:09

we get it. You know, you are in crisis

29:11

mode and you are going to do everything to find

29:13

your family, your relatives. But

29:16

what we do is just try to be

29:18

that buffer. We want to help them

29:20

talk to media. We want to help them talk to law enforcement

29:23

because there's a lot of trauma when it comes to law

29:25

enforcement. I have my

29:27

own biases. I have my own reasons why

29:29

I distrust the

29:31

cops. And, you know,

29:33

I have to put that aside.

29:36

You know, I have to put because this work and

29:38

this crisis is bigger than any individual. And

29:41

I don't know. And I've even been told, you know,

29:44

in our city here, you know, other organizers

29:46

and activists have said, like, I don't know anybody

29:48

that has to work within this broken

29:51

system like you do, like

29:53

the work that we do. But because

29:56

we can

29:57

harness and, you know, manage our

30:00

our distrust or our anger

30:02

with law enforcement and stuff,

30:05

we are able now to

30:07

have a contact that we can directly

30:09

talk to. Or we're

30:12

able to call

30:12

them out and tell them to their face, like,

30:15

you know, you say to do this and do

30:17

that, but that doesn't work,

30:18

so what do we do? And doing this work too,

30:22

especially with this new relationship,

30:24

we're building with Dallas

30:26

Police Department. One of the first meetings

30:28

I went to when I got called to, I

30:31

was not expecting to walk in a room and see 20

30:34

uniformed officers and

30:36

different people. I literally just stopped

30:38

and stood there and I had to explain to them,

30:40

it's like, I don't trust you, I don't feel safe. And

30:43

then I started hearing all this stuff, like, from them, they're

30:45

like, yeah, I get it, I understand.

30:48

And if you're that open and honest,

30:52

they're a little more open to hearing the

30:55

inconsistencies and the flaws within their own

30:57

system. I've seen in

30:59

cases where they're told to call 911 and

31:02

file a report, that doesn't work. They're told

31:04

to call the missing persons unit. They do, they

31:06

get the runaround. And I can tell them

31:08

that now. Like, don't tell somebody

31:10

to do that if you know it's not gonna work. And

31:12

I know they get annoyed when

31:15

I say these things, but that's what we're

31:17

here to do. And when we

31:20

combat these crises, we have to look at

31:22

everything. I don't know how many

31:25

times, you know, Kristi and I have talked to families

31:27

about kinship

31:32

and foster care and

31:33

getting custody. And, you know,

31:35

these are things that we have to combat.

31:37

We're not social workers, we're not counselors,

31:40

and we get called for, we've gotten called for

31:42

families needing

31:43

help with somebody with suicidal ideation,

31:45

somebody dealing with domestic violence, somebody

31:48

dealing with homelessness.

31:50

These are all factors that get ignored,

31:54

you know, when we're dealing with somebody that's

31:56

missing. And that's where that care,

31:59

like,

34:00

it was an opportunity to educate.

34:02

And so I wanna make sure that

34:05

thought process around true

34:07

crime and different podcasts is

34:10

taken in. It's that

34:12

you're very interested in understanding the

34:15

ins and outs of these things that happen to these families

34:17

and these individuals

34:18

in these cases. But it's

34:20

hard work for the people that are involved.

34:22

We're a grassroots organization and

34:25

this work gets heavy. Early on when

34:27

I first started this work, when we weren't actually

34:29

just taking on lots of cases, I was hoping in

34:32

a lot of different ways and different cases

34:36

in other states, Oklahoma

34:38

and New Mexico specifically, because

34:40

a lot of that

34:41

people are trafficked. And so they cross state

34:44

lines and they come into Texas. And

34:47

I didn't realize the depth of it until

34:49

I was called upon for a case

34:51

in Oklahoma. And they were like, Jody, we're getting

34:53

the run around because they're saying, you're not

34:55

even in Texas. Why are you calling us? Why are you

34:57

calling the coroner's office? And I was like, fine, I'll do it. I'm

35:00

here, I can say. And it was

35:02

the moment I got put on hold and they were looking

35:04

through their Jane Does in South Texas

35:06

when I realized I might get told and

35:09

have to call this mom that her

35:12

daughter was found.

35:13

And I realized it just hit

35:15

me. It was so heavy in that

35:17

moment. I felt like I was waiting for

35:20

somebody

35:21

that I knew. And I was just like, oh my God, am I gonna be

35:23

able to finish this conversation,

35:25

this phone call? And she wasn't

35:27

there, we did find her. She was alive. We

35:30

were able to get her back to her family

35:32

that was looking for her. But in

35:34

that moment I realized, okay, I gotta

35:37

figure out how to work this,

35:39

how to navigate this in a healthy way so I don't

35:41

get burned out or overwhelmed. And it's

35:43

a very delicate balancing

35:45

act for all of us. And

35:47

we all just wanted to

35:49

make sure that people

35:51

are reminded that they're

35:54

human, that they're relatives,

35:56

that their family members are navigating the rest of

35:58

their lives, sometimes searching for them.

35:59

or

36:02

fighting for justice because

36:04

that doesn't often happen. We don't get that justice

36:06

we deserve and need to

36:10

heal.

36:10

And some of our work,

36:13

we uplift cases

36:15

that are seeking justice. Christy

36:18

mentioned her cousin. I

36:21

check in with our contact at DPD

36:24

and I don't really get any answers and I don't even get

36:26

told who I should ask. They

36:29

have a lot of turnover in every department and

36:33

that does advice that would be the person

36:35

that can update you. They have so much turnover,

36:37

I can't even keep the name straight. And

36:40

that's something you deal with in a large city. And

36:44

we've helped two cases that were

36:46

my family members. I had a cousin

36:48

that we had to help and she's doing amazing.

36:51

I actually refer to her a lot. And she's

36:53

mentioned to me how the

36:55

MMIW network, that's what she

36:57

says all the time, the MMIW ladies, MMIW

37:00

network made me feel

37:02

valued. And so she's in recovery

37:05

now and doing great.

37:07

Sometimes I just mentioned her and I remind

37:10

the other ladies in Oklahoma that did the work that this

37:12

is why you do the work. Because if that needs to

37:14

happen, you need to get reminded often. We

37:16

helped another case with our family and it was

37:19

two babies that were, it was a parental

37:21

abduction. So we do

37:23

a lot of different things and it's not just in our

37:25

city. And that's another way that we're

37:28

connected through community. We're

37:30

here because of relocation and things like

37:33

that. But we're still connected to

37:34

our tribal communities wherever

37:36

that is.

37:37

It could be up north,

37:41

it could be out west, it could be out east, it could just be

37:43

in Oklahoma and it could be further down south.

37:45

We've helped cases in Livingston,

37:48

the Alabama Cachada reservation. Kristie

37:51

and I have been in Austin looking for somebody from

37:53

Oklahoma. She

37:55

was dealing with schizophrenia, she was trafficked

37:57

by her

37:58

mother. And we were, We

38:00

were running around a homeless camp talking

38:02

and we got so close. I

38:06

could not believe how close we were while we were there. But

38:08

she was found like two days later and

38:11

she was taken back. But

38:13

we were told how if we didn't get those flyers

38:15

everywhere in those communities, they wouldn't have been telling

38:18

the cops themselves that she's

38:21

not just homeless, she's missing and

38:23

people are looking for her. And

38:26

not just these cases, like I said, we uplift

38:30

when families need justice

38:33

and closure and healing. And

38:36

I want to make sure I give Phyllis time

38:38

to mention how we've connected

38:41

with her family

38:41

as well. So

38:44

the flyer that you see in front of us

38:46

here is, well

38:49

let me just start by saying I ended up

38:52

coming together

38:54

with MMIW and with Jodi in

38:57

January of 2020. And

39:01

I was like, okay, this is something that

39:04

I could, they could use my help because

39:06

I didn't know that at

39:08

the time there was only a handful of these

39:11

people that were doing all of

39:13

this work. And if

39:15

I could do something to offer them some

39:20

rest or something, I was

39:22

willing to step up and take that opportunity.

39:28

So in November of 2020, it

39:30

became real. I

39:36

want to bring up my auntie.

39:42

You don't have to come up here. Elisyn

39:50

was seven years old. Diana

39:53

was 10 and

39:56

their mother, Camore, was 43.

40:01

And like she said, we are still,

40:04

we help families who are still looking

40:06

for justice. This

40:11

is why it's so important to me that

40:14

we do this work for

40:16

these families, for these

40:18

people who don't have a voice. They

40:21

can't speak for themselves anymore.

40:25

She can't speak about it without

40:28

the floodgates opening. To

40:37

be a support system

40:39

for these people and these families,

40:44

because like she said, it gets so heavy. It's

40:48

what we need. This organization

40:50

was what we needed as a family. Every

40:54

family that we've ever helped needed that. They

41:01

didn't know they needed that, but they needed that because like

41:03

we said, we don't trust

41:08

the police departments. We

41:10

have to form these organizations

41:13

and do this on our own. We

41:20

have to be our own voice and

41:23

our own advocates for ourselves

41:25

and our community, our people. But

41:29

we still don't have justice from this

41:31

case. Yes,

41:35

we are fortunate that they have the

41:38

suspect in custody, but

41:41

we don't. My aunt can't even begin

41:43

to have closure until we

41:46

get a conviction. And

41:50

myself, having

41:53

grandchildren myself.

41:59

This is how heavy it gets. And

42:02

this is the real feelings that people have.

42:08

I

42:10

always want to bring

42:12

her and

42:15

welcome her whenever we come

42:17

and do anything. Because

42:21

not only, not because I'm her aunt. I mean,

42:25

she's my aunt and I'm her niece. And

42:28

she's my favorite auntie. But

42:33

she needs that support. Because

42:36

this case is all the way in Alaska. And

42:38

she's tirelessly emailing

42:41

and calling all the time and not being

42:43

heard. They pay

42:45

her no mind, like

42:48

she's nothing. Like these babies were nothing.

42:52

So

42:54

it just made it so

42:57

close to home. Although I was already

43:01

committed and dedicated to this work, it

43:04

just really made it an extra

43:08

step for me to

43:11

help another family somehow,

43:14

any way that we can offer. I

43:17

apologize. But

43:21

I never want them to be forgotten. And

43:25

when we speak these names, may

43:29

we always offer love and remembrance

43:31

and compassion to every name that

43:34

we speak in these spaces. That's

43:37

what we want. We don't ever want them to be forgotten.

43:43

So thank you for letting me share that. This

43:47

is why at the core

43:49

of our work and

43:50

how we remind ourselves is that this work

43:52

is sacred. The dead is

43:54

sacred. They're not just photos.

43:57

They're not just a missing person's fly.

44:01

It's more than that. These families sometimes

44:03

they search forever. I've

44:05

seen families lose their homes

44:08

because they put so much money into searching

44:10

for somebody and they don't have the resources.

44:15

Even if it happens on tribal lands, sometimes tribes

44:17

just don't have the infrastructure to have the resources to

44:19

help their citizens,

44:21

their tribal members. There's just

44:23

so much that goes into this. Some

44:26

of our work,

44:28

when I explain the work,

44:30

we do these flyers

44:31

and stuff and people, that's it.

44:34

But you don't understand how that's just

44:37

the first step for a family. We

44:39

have our members that create

44:41

our flyers. They can create something like this

44:44

that we have down there. That

44:46

can be just enough, just

44:49

that new little support that can help

44:51

somebody like Beverly speak, speak

44:54

about what's happening, speak about what

44:56

has happened. When I started

44:58

learning about this case, Phyllis

45:02

told me the name

45:04

of Beverly's daughter-in-law and I was like, wait,

45:07

that sounds really familiar. I

45:10

mention this because

45:12

that's that relative component

45:14

in our work. I went to Haskell

45:16

with Camora and I remember her

45:18

because she was just a really cool person.

45:21

She drove a motorcycle from Alaska to

45:23

Kansas to go to school. She

45:26

made her own clothes

45:27

and she was amazing

45:30

at this, that she did some project runway stuff.

45:32

She was just a really cool person. I

45:35

just thought, how random is that?

45:38

How random that in our small

45:41

community here, that's how connected

45:43

we are. I think that gets overlooked

45:45

when missing persons cases are discussed.

45:49

That human component, that relative component

45:51

is so special.

45:54

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50:41

that affect all of our lives, whether we know it or

50:43

not. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

50:48

After 12 years of searching for the Long

50:50

Island serial killer, a suspect was

50:52

finally arrested on July 14th, 2023

50:56

using DNA evidence and cell

50:58

phone records. And the LISC Podcast

51:00

team has been investigating these horrific murders

51:03

since 2017, diving deep

51:05

into the case while interviewing the victims'

51:07

family members, friends, and law enforcement.

51:09

LISC has been vital to raising awareness and spreading

51:12

the victims' stories. And now that an arrest

51:14

has been made, host Chris Mass is

51:16

back on the scene learning all he can

51:19

about the killer as new information is uncovered

51:21

each day. You gotta binge the whole podcast

51:23

to learn about the 10 victims and the decade-long

51:26

investigation. Or start with a newer episode,

51:29

such as the case against Rex,

51:31

that details all of the evidence against the suspect.

51:34

And dives into how this murderer evaded police

51:36

by continuing his usual routine

51:38

and suburban family man life.

51:40

Listen to LISC, that's L-I-S-K,

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51:48

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51:50

of the decade as justice is finally

51:52

served to the Long Island serial killer.

51:55

Thanks to our sponsors and now we're back to the program.

52:00

We're going to start kind of closing up before we

52:02

did. I wanted to make sure Areya had the chance

52:04

if she wants to share anything at all.

52:07

You don't have to, you don't want to. But

52:10

I'm very proud that we have a teenager

52:13

that's a member. We

52:16

hadn't even thought about that when we started

52:18

forming ourself and

52:20

rules of what we're doing. And we had little applications

52:23

because our work is confidential. We have to have people

52:25

understand that. You can't share details. It can

52:27

ruin a case. We deal with so

52:29

much. And

52:32

I know she's been exposed to a lot of adult

52:35

conversations and a lot of adult feelings and a lot

52:37

of heavy things. I'm just really

52:39

proud that Areya

52:41

is stepping up to share and

52:43

educate on her own. So if you want

52:45

to, Areya, you can share something.

52:50

Hello, I'm Areya. And

52:54

this stuff affects

52:56

my generation too. I'm

52:59

sorry, I'm washing off, sorry. This

53:03

could happen to anyone. It

53:05

could happen to me. That's

53:08

why I wanted to get involved. Because

53:13

I want to pave the way for people younger than me or

53:17

my age to start getting involved

53:19

in these topics. Start

53:21

getting introduced to these heavy,

53:23

heavy issues that are

53:25

real. And it's

53:30

a hard subject, but I'm very proud

53:33

of myself for getting

53:35

involved, because not

53:38

a lot of people would

53:41

be okay being

53:44

open to hear these conversations.

53:47

And I'm very proud to

53:51

represent MMIW as the

53:53

youngest member.

53:56

Hopefully not the last, but

53:58

definitely the first.

54:01

And I want to thank you, Jenny, for welcoming me

54:03

and my mom to the organization.

54:10

Yeah, we're really proud of her, for

54:13

everything she does.

54:14

I

54:23

think this is always something I make

54:26

sure that we share, especially when

54:29

our audience

54:30

isn't all Native and we have non-Native folks.

54:34

We always get asked how to be involved,

54:36

and we've really changed this since

54:38

we started. We have

54:43

to be very, very forward and very honest and

54:45

open with folks that want to support the

54:47

work. And we tell people

54:49

to be prepared to have uncomfortable conversations.

54:52

We are an organization where our trauma comes

54:54

into the work with us, and we remind people of

54:56

that. And you don't have

54:59

to be Native to support the work. But

55:01

there are things you need to tell yourself. You need to check your privilege.

55:04

You need to check

55:06

yourself and not center yourself and be prepared to listen

55:08

and be open.

55:11

Sometimes

55:13

you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

55:16

And I get asked all over the country

55:19

if they can donate to our work.

55:21

And every time I've asked

55:24

them if they've looked

55:25

locally for an organization. And I'd

55:28

say nine times out of ten they find one closer to

55:30

them.

55:31

And I tell them, you know,

55:33

I'm saying I don't want this money because

55:36

somebody else needs the same money. And

55:38

it can be something as simple as paying for

55:40

printing fees, giving a

55:43

family gas money, helping them

55:45

with groceries because they've spent all of their

55:47

money on gas or flyers, and it happens.

55:50

It happens all the time. Yeah,

55:52

there's just so many ways to support

55:55

your connections support if you know somebody

55:58

at a local news station. help

56:01

push that flyer beyond

56:04

the check-in desk where they get the everyday

56:06

tips, help somebody remind somebody. Yeah,

56:10

we do so much and that support goes

56:12

a long

56:12

way.

56:13

Even if there's experts

56:16

in your life, if you have a lawyer, if you know a social

56:18

worker, if you know somebody specific to a city

56:20

that does something, it's extremely important.

56:23

And that's how you can contact

56:25

us.

56:26

And I always kind of wrap up our

56:28

space with I don't want to have to help you, but

56:31

that's what we're here for. I pray

56:33

that nobody needs our help to find your loved one

56:36

or fight for justice for you because somebody

56:38

was murdered or somebody was taken to you and somebody

56:40

was trafficked. But

56:42

we're always here to help in any kind

56:44

of way. We've helped

56:47

offer assistance for non-native cases

56:49

as well.

56:50

Sometimes in communities where

56:53

there's that big distrust, we've been

56:55

asked, tell me how to make

56:57

a safe fire. You know, somebody

56:59

in Dallas, a young black lady

57:02

was missing and I literally the first

57:04

thing

57:04

out the family's mouth is I'm not calling the killer cops.

57:08

That's how deep that distrust goes. And it's

57:10

really sad that we have to do so much work and

57:12

then basically hand over all of our work

57:15

to cops to get justice.

57:16

You mentioned Two Spirit and I

57:18

just wanted to know if you could talk us through it.

57:21

Two Spirit is a way that we

57:24

include our LGBTQ

57:26

plus relatives.

57:28

Our relatives in that community face

57:31

higher rates of violence than even us as a

57:33

minority and as women. They

57:36

face the highest numbers of runaway

57:38

and living on the streets and just are

57:41

exposed to much more violence. But

57:44

that includes our non-binary relatives and it's

57:46

not just a kind of catch-all term. It

57:49

may seem like that in our

57:51

work and we've talked about relatives but a

57:53

lot of, not all,

57:55

a lot of tribes have

57:58

specific words for that. community

58:00

and how they refer to and we

58:03

uplift them because they're sacred. A lot of tribes,

58:05

our two-spirit relatives, they're

58:07

medicine keepers and holders and

58:09

know how to heal people and have

58:11

a lot of medicine in them. We

58:14

uplift them in those ways. We

58:16

have kinship gatherings, we have anti-time,

58:18

uncle time, but we have a special

58:21

two-spirit relative time. We're helping, hopefully,

58:24

create family

58:26

where our two-spirit relatives don't feel alone, feel

58:30

neglected or excluded. We

58:32

want to include them in everything and help them understand

58:34

that they have a safe space and

58:36

people to turn to.

58:39

Two-spirit encompasses that entire community,

58:43

but it also refers

58:45

to that lifestyle of

58:48

if you are two-spirit, it's a lot more

58:50

than just being your non-binary self. It

58:55

includes your way of life and the medicine

58:58

ways that go along with that. Within

59:01

our work, we use it as a

59:03

term of endearment and respect.

59:05

I just wanted to honor, that's

59:07

so loud, okay, honor the

59:09

time and emotional impact of your work

59:12

and just your presence today. I also want to honor

59:14

the fact that there are impacted people on the

59:16

stage instead of the three white men that were

59:18

listed on the flyer of this. No

59:20

offense, white men, I'm sure you're fine,

59:22

but I think it's really important that y'all are here

59:24

and we're hearing your voices today. I also

59:26

want to honor everyone that chose to come to this panel

59:29

instead of karaoke. I know this is not

59:31

the fun part, but I think

59:33

this is the noble aspect of this

59:35

true crime genre is

59:37

victims' voices, survivors' voices, and

59:40

justice. I just want to thank all

59:42

of y'all. I

59:45

guess I wanted to ask if you could just talk a

59:47

little bit about the rematriation piece and

59:50

beyond the violence against women.

59:53

Can you just give us a little bit more of an explainer

59:55

for everybody around what all that entails

59:57

and how allies can support? Yeah.

1:00:01

So rematriate

1:00:03

is a fairly newer

1:00:05

term with just in

1:00:08

language in general. One thing

1:00:10

about,

1:00:13

with me personally, different

1:00:15

times in my life, I've just been like, damn

1:00:17

what the patriarchy, damn the man kind of thing,

1:00:20

and damn colonized this and Western this

1:00:24

and that's been English too, the language

1:00:26

as well. We've lost a lot

1:00:28

of our languages or lost a

1:00:30

lot of fluent speakers and how to

1:00:32

communicate in our languages and we

1:00:34

kind of joke around like, if I can't type

1:00:37

right, if I can't spell right, if I can't say things right, because

1:00:39

it's not my language. So

1:00:42

when I became familiar with this term, it

1:00:45

just made so much sense to me. If

1:00:48

there was more normalized, feminine

1:00:51

versions of our language, things could make a lot

1:00:53

more sense. In a lot of indigenous

1:00:55

language, we have that, different

1:00:58

terms. I'm

1:01:00

Lakota and there's two different forms of

1:01:02

hello for men and women

1:01:05

and everybody. So there's so

1:01:07

much that goes into language and culture

1:01:10

and society in general. So rematriate

1:01:13

kind of came to be that I felt

1:01:15

like

1:01:16

this work, I knew this work wasn't going to

1:01:18

just be cases, that

1:01:20

it was going to grow into what it is today and

1:01:23

really invite the work

1:01:25

that helps heal our community

1:01:28

on a cultural kind of aspect. We

1:01:30

wanted to uplift the

1:01:33

feminine. People

1:01:35

talk about rematriate the land because the land is

1:01:38

so important. What happens to the land happens to

1:01:40

the women and we face tons of violence. And

1:01:42

so that helps people understand that

1:01:45

opens the door when we talk about rematriation

1:01:47

to uplift matriarchy

1:01:50

and communities where it hasn't been there in

1:01:52

a long time. There are conversations

1:01:55

around land back. When we say

1:01:57

land back, it's everything back. this

1:02:00

land so we can build something, no, it's like give us the

1:02:02

space to be ourselves and gain our language

1:02:04

back and our ceremonies back and our culture back

1:02:06

so we can be strong enough that we don't have a crisis

1:02:09

like this. So

1:02:11

you know, remagery

1:02:13

is a very loaded word for us,

1:02:16

but it helps us easily say all of

1:02:19

the things that make our work what it is.

1:02:21

Yeah,

1:02:29

so I got invited by Jim

1:02:32

and Lance here to be a part

1:02:34

of a podcast several years ago now.

1:02:37

Yeah, it was a really

1:02:39

new platform for

1:02:41

me, so I was a little reluctant,

1:02:43

but it went

1:02:44

very well.

1:02:45

I was really appreciative for, you

1:02:48

know, somebody mentioned, you know, like, oh, these white

1:02:50

men should have been a thing, but we need that

1:02:52

allyship. We need

1:02:54

those healthy relationships and that

1:02:56

healthy allyship because that was

1:02:58

new for me, but it was a very

1:03:01

welcoming, respectful space where

1:03:03

I kind of was able to understand that,

1:03:06

you know, I can say yes or no.

1:03:08

I can dictate what I share. I

1:03:10

can say how I need to

1:03:13

refer to different things. So

1:03:15

yeah, that experience really helped me. I'm really thankful

1:03:18

for that. I know it's on YouTube. I

1:03:20

know how, you know, if I need to find it, I can find

1:03:22

it. Yeah, they referred to

1:03:25

another case, you know, Ella May. She's

1:03:27

been looked for for a long time, had her

1:03:29

family on there. Yeah,

1:03:32

I've been a little more open to

1:03:34

that, this work. I know all of us

1:03:36

get very protective

1:03:37

of each other, of the

1:03:40

families we're helping.

1:03:42

Yeah, I can feel it happen when I see

1:03:44

Christy or Phyllis overwhelmed

1:03:47

or upset. I'm just like, okay, everybody's back

1:03:50

off. Stay away. Yeah,

1:03:52

yeah. Thank

1:03:53

you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:03:55

Thank you. Thank you. Thank

1:03:58

you. Thank you. I

1:04:00

was wondering what that

1:04:02

is and what is the piece

1:04:04

that you guys knew what communities were

1:04:06

brought up?

1:04:08

Yeah, so we've

1:04:11

created kinship gathering spaces.

1:04:14

Kind of our way of

1:04:17

checking in with people culturally. I

1:04:23

don't know other

1:04:24

communities that have

1:04:27

as many unhoused relatives as we do.

1:04:30

We have a lot of unhoused by choice.

1:04:34

And

1:04:36

we've had cases where people are just like, oh,

1:04:39

there's somebody missing if they're homeless.

1:04:41

But they are. And that really just

1:04:43

kind of put

1:04:46

a fire under me to help

1:04:48

our community uplift

1:04:51

your relationships and find a space where

1:04:53

they can be with family. Maybe it's not

1:04:55

their blood family.

1:04:56

It's a chosen family space. But

1:04:59

when you're in this space where you feel alone, sometimes

1:05:02

you need a Nancy. You

1:05:04

need an uncle to

1:05:05

turn to, to share.

1:05:09

I had a lot of health issues. And I was

1:05:11

asking ladies older than me

1:05:13

about these women's issues. And

1:05:16

I was thinking, how come I've never had these conversations

1:05:18

with these people in my life? And

1:05:21

I was like, I just want to sit and talk

1:05:24

to other people

1:05:26

about these things. And that was kind

1:05:28

of what kind of sparked us all. Like, let's offer

1:05:30

these

1:05:30

spaces where we're staying

1:05:32

anti-time, but everybody's an anti in some

1:05:34

kind of way. You can help a person in that relative way. And

1:05:40

our goal is to, even if we can offer

1:05:42

that space once a month, every other month, you

1:05:44

have somewhere to turn to. You're not always going to feel

1:05:46

alone. And that helps us,

1:05:48

too. We have a blast at anti-time.

1:05:51

We talk about everything. We have food. One

1:05:55

of our things was it's going to feel like when

1:05:57

you visit your auntie's house and you can sit and have coffee.

1:06:00

and a donut and just talk.

1:06:02

So we literally make sure that we have

1:06:04

brunch time. You're coming, you're gonna

1:06:06

have coffee, you're gonna sit here and feel nice,

1:06:09

feel safe. We've

1:06:12

had coloring sheets, we've had speakers,

1:06:14

we do door prizes,

1:06:16

we open and close with prayer.

1:06:19

We've had

1:06:21

times where we've had other members offer

1:06:24

our medicines like sage

1:06:26

and sweet grass and theater and things

1:06:29

like that.

1:06:29

This is our way

1:06:31

of combating issues that

1:06:34

push people away and onto the streets and it ends

1:06:36

up unsafe places.

1:06:38

Not only that, within our urban Indian

1:06:41

community here, we do have other

1:06:43

events such as our powwows

1:06:46

and our gatherings at the church and

1:06:48

arts and crafts and everything.

1:06:52

Just to stay, I mean

1:06:54

this is our family. We

1:06:56

do have a lot of other organizations

1:07:00

within the Indian community

1:07:02

here in the DFW area as well. But

1:07:07

they have the tribal center where they teach the

1:07:09

children for fancy dancing

1:07:12

and drumming. But

1:07:15

a lot of us, I mean, we are a very

1:07:18

tight-knit community. So

1:07:22

I know for myself, it's kind of a peaceful

1:07:25

time and a chance where

1:07:27

we're out of the world where we feel like we

1:07:30

have a place and we feel like we belong.

1:07:34

Which points to the reason that the decal

1:07:37

I'd like to draw, I do paint. And

1:07:39

the reason for our logo was my

1:07:42

painting which

1:07:44

reflects myself and my granddaughter praying

1:07:47

and healing together. It also has

1:07:49

the seven sacred teachings

1:07:52

of our society for the

1:07:54

women at the bottom, as far as

1:07:56

the reflection of the water for women. at

1:08:00

the water keepers of life and that's

1:08:02

where life begins, any embryo and water, as

1:08:06

well as the medicine wheel.

1:08:09

So that was a logo that I've drawn

1:08:12

and that's a lot of what I do to bring myself

1:08:14

peace and just to regroup and

1:08:16

bring myself back to who I really

1:08:18

am. Yeah, like

1:08:20

I said, we

1:08:21

try to open and close with prayer so Phyllis is gonna

1:08:23

close our space out. We

1:08:26

just thank you. We offer many thanks

1:08:29

for the space and this atmosphere

1:08:32

that you have brought us into today. We

1:08:36

just ask that, we

1:08:42

just ask for

1:08:44

continued strength and courage to do what

1:08:46

we do.

1:08:50

Maybe we always can always

1:08:56

uplift the families of these

1:08:58

victims who are voiceless. May

1:09:08

we continue to offer

1:09:10

our love and our compassion, our

1:09:13

respect and

1:09:15

remembrance to every name

1:09:18

that was spoken here

1:09:21

today in this space. We

1:09:24

ask for guidance as

1:09:28

we leave this place. May

1:09:34

we continue to seek

1:09:36

you.

1:09:39

And I ask that you please rise.

1:09:45

I'll lift the name. Thank

1:09:47

you. Hey,

1:09:51

hey, hey. Ya

1:09:56

ke yo ho. Ya

1:09:58

ke yo ho. Ya, kiyo,

1:10:01

he, he, ya,

1:10:04

kiyo Ya, kiyo,

1:10:07

he, he, he,

1:10:10

ya, y'sh,

1:10:12

y'sh, y'sh,

1:10:18

Ya, kiyo,

1:10:21

he, he, ya,

1:10:23

kiyo Ya, kiyo,

1:10:27

he, he, he,

1:10:30

ya, kiyo Ya,

1:10:33

kiyo, he,

1:10:35

he, he, ya, kiyo

1:10:38

Ya, kiyo, he,

1:10:41

he, he, ya,

1:10:44

kiyo Thank

1:10:54

you, my store.

1:11:04

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