Airway Heights, WA (April 28, 2023) – The Kalispel Tribe of Indians and Northern Quest Resort & Casino are proud to help raise awareness for the 134 Indigenous persons currently missing in Washington state. Of those, 72 are missing Indigenous women. On May 1, the Kalispel Tribe will pay tribute to the missing with a short ceremony, including a Red Dress Dance and honor song performance, to go along with a moving display of red dresses that represent the missing women starting at 11 a.m. in the Southeast entrance of the resort (near Windfall). As part of recognizing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Day on May 5, the Kalispel Tribe Charitable Fund will be matching any donations made to the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition between May 1-31, up to $5,000. Donations can be made at www.endtheviolencespokane.org.
According to a 2016 National Institute of Justice report, more than four out of five American Indian and Native Alaskan men and women experience violence in their lifetime. In addition, Native American women are murdered at more than ten times the national average. These Native men and women deserve to have a voice and to have their stories heard.
The red dresses displayed at Northern Quest will hang empty, symbolizing the missing women who should be wearing them and living full and happy lives. Of the 72 dresses, one is a custom-made Native American jingle dress crafted by a Kalispel Tribal member.
In many tribal cultures, red is a color that transcends the physical world and calls to the ancestors in the spiritual world. With this installation, the Kalispel Tribe and Northern Quest bring attention to our missing mothers, sisters, and daughters, in an effort to help break the silence around this horrible epidemic. Additional displays will help bring awareness to all 134 missing Native American people in the state of Washington, with nearly half of those originating from Eastern Washington. Several organizations will be present on May 5 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., helping to educate those in attendance about MMIW, including the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition, Kalispel Tribal Court Victims of Crimes Advocates, and Camas Path.
“We are proud to work with our local community to raise awareness about the plight of murdered and missing Indigenous people in Washington state and around the country,” says Northern Quest General Manager and Kalispel Tribal Council Member Nick Pierre. “These men and women are valued and missed. Many of our Team Members will be wearing red handprint T-shirts around the resort from May 1 to 15, as a symbolic representation of those who have been silenced. We want to do our part to ensure the violence and silence end, and hope for the future is restored.”
The ceremony on May 1 is open to the public and we encourage all to attend. If you can’t attend, please join us in wearing red to honor the missing.