“It was finally recognized that missing Native American people were not getting attention. There were poor investigations or no investigations. They got set aside and didn’t really get much attention at all, so what they did is brought that out and established that day so people then started paying a little bit of attention to it,” said Lisa Redford of the Four Bears Segment outreach office.

“My first cousin had some harm done to her in Seattle. Her own son took her life. They sent him to prison because of what he did to his own mother, and I know the pain. I seen my father cry many, many nights because his niece was taken. So, it’s OK to shed those tears. Those tears bring light. The ancestors from the heavens are so happy that we’re doing this. They’re all probably up there dancing and playing bingo,” special speaker Duane McGillis said. “But it’s a great deal that we all can come here and be one. We’re all related as we stand here. There’s nobody better, nobody less, doesn’t matter what color. We have the hearts, we have the same blood and we’ve been given that gift of freedom, so this is what we chose to do on a Saturday morning is to bring comfort to each other through song and prayer.”

Following the opening remarks, McGillis recited an old prayer in Ojibwe and performed a song with his drum prior to the walk.

Hank Richardson, Underage Drinking Prevention coordinator for MHA Nation (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara), also spoke to the crowd.

Angie Reinoehl/MDN Harmony YoungBird, left, and Pipar YoungBird, right, attend the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day walk in Minot Saturday.

“I’m currently celebrating my 14th year in recovery and there’s power in that – sharing our stories. Peer support, we didn’t know what that was five years ago, and the main basis of that is understanding that we can reach out and help people with our own life stories of what we’ve been through. We can connect more with our people that way versus trying to sit in a room with a doctor that maybe has never been to a reservation. I know what our people’s been through, so I’m really thankful in that regard,” he said. “Every time I talk to the youth I always talk about unity. That’s one thing that I want to try to bring to our tribe is to have more unity within our segments.”

The crowd gathered with signs to walk through downtown Minot.

The walk was part of the nationwide Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day that occurred Sunday.