Missing and Murdered Indigenous People summit spotlights ongoing crisis

‘Our loved ones are more than statistics’ say family members at Bellingham gathering

It started with a song. Attendees gathered in PeaceHealth St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center on Thursday for the annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Summit as Lummi musician Antone George sang “Song of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.”

Tribal members experience violence at much higher rates than other populations. Nationally, homicide is the sixth-leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls and the third-leading cause of death for Indigenous men. A federal study reported that Native American women are murdered 10 times higher than the national average.

Overlapping law enforcement jurisdictions, mistrust of law enforcement and federal policies have contributed to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

From 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., speakers, panelists, storytellers and musicians took the stage to honor and raise awareness for missing and murdered loved ones. With standing-room only and overflow parking, hosts discussed a bigger venue for next year.

four in five Native women will experience some form of violence in their lives.

“We experience a lot of generational trauma,” Kenna Miller, a member of the Intertribal Youth Council, said in an interview. “A lot of our parents didn’t know a lot of resources that could help us as a younger generation. At the boarding schools, they stripped us of our traditional ways and our ways of life, and our parents had to grow up that way. Us youth, we try to uplift each other and use our voices as one to let other people know what is going on in our communities.”

A lot of young tribal members fear for their lives every day, Miller said.

“We’re not crazy. We’re not violent,” she said. “We just want to let other people know what our cause is and what our community is going through and how it impacts us on a daily basis. We’re afraid to go on buses, we’re afraid to be in big communities, we’re afraid that we might be raped, taken or murdered, and that’s the truth.”

According to the Washington State Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women 2026 Interim Report, from January-April of this year, the task force received 19 alerts for missing persons. To this day, two of these have yet to be found.

The number of alerts increases each year as more law enforcement agencies learn about and use the alert system, the report reads.

According to the FBI, Lummi tribal member Besalynn James went missing on Jan. 20, 2025, and was reported missing to the Lummi Nation Police department four days later. James, who would have recently passed her 64th birthday, is one of about 124 missing Indigenous people in Washington.

Friends and family comfort Ron Noland Jr. (center) at the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Summit at PeaceHealth St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center on Thursday. (Sam Fletcher / Salish Current 2026) “My mom, Besalynn James, is a respected, loved and cherished tribal elder,” said Ron Noland Jr., one of James’ five sons, at the summit. “My mom’s boyfriend reported that my mom took off at 1 a.m. after an argument and never returned.”

James’ story is not unusual, Noland’s wife, Miranda, said.

“We as women, as Native American women, deserve more,” she said. “I was in abusive relationships before my husband. I’ve seen my mother be abused. My children will never see me be abused. We will break the cycle. Our children deserve more. Why as Native American women are we targeted? What is so wrong with us? What is so broken about us that men think they can do this to us? I want answers. I will never get them. I’m afraid for my daughters to become women because I don’t want them to go through what many of us have gone through, and a lot of us have been silenced for too long. Please help our children.”

In 2012, on Indigenous leader Deborah Parker’s second day as elected vice chair of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, she was sent to Washington, D.C., for an environmental protection issue when she discovered Native women were not included on the Violence Against Women Act.

“I remember thinking, ‘no, no, no, Creator. This can’t be, because all the work that Native women have been doing as leaders, our tribal nations, this cannot happen,’ and I prayed,” she said at the summit. “I remember thinking this bill is for my family.”

In a last-minute speech, Parker stood alongside senators Patty Murray, Barbara Boxer and Amy Klobuchar in D.C. and told the story of her childhood abuse and others in her life who experienced it. How none of the perpetrators were ever convicted.

Just hours before her plane ride home, the bill passed with the inclusion of protections for Native women.

Indigenous leader Deborah Parker shares a message of hope at the M issing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Summit at PeaceHealth St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center on Thursday. (Sam Fletcher / Salish Current 2026) “At the time there wasn’t MMIWP movements,” Parker said. “There wasn’t information about protecting women out in the open.

Today, the tides are turning, she said.

“As of Tuesday, look at how many women across the country (are in leadership roles). So, to my young ladies, there is hope,” she said. “There is a brighter tomorrow. And in fact today, because we just now elected Deb Haaland as the first Native American woman to be governor of New Mexico. Mary Peltola, she will be the next senator I’m sure in Alaska.”

The Washington Attorney General’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force created a toolkit to help families navigate the search for a missing loved one. It includes checklists outlining whom to contact and how to track developments.

In 2023, the Attorney General’s Office established the first Cold Case Unit dedicated to missing and murdered Indigenous women and people as well as two tribal liaison positions at the Washington State Patrol to strengthen communication among tribes, law enforcement agencies and families.

Irene Moses’ mother, a Lummi elder named Iva Darlene Smith, went missing on May 15, 2009.

“I am my mother’s voice, and I am the shield for my children,” she said. “I cannot change what happened to my mother, but I can help break the cycle. I can speak for those who no longer have a voice, stand beside families who are hurting and teach my children the strength of where they came from. Our loved ones are more than statistics. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties and grandmothers. They deserve to be remembered, honored and loved.”

—By Sam Fletcher

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People summit spotlights ongoing crisis

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