OCT 14, 2022
After a 2,400-mile trek on foot, a Navajo woman whose aunt vanished over a year ago, arrived in Washington D.C., on a mission: to call attention to the growing number of murdered and missing Indigenous women whose cases go unsolved.
people.com
After a 2,400-mile trek on foot, a Navajo woman whose aunt vanished over a year ago, arrived in Washington D.C. on a mission: to call attention to the growing number of murdered and missing Indigenous women whose cases go unsolved.
According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 63-year-old Ella Mae Begay disappeared from Sweetwater, Ariz., on June 15, 2021.
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"She never came back. She would not answer her phone calls or nothing," her niece Seraphine Warren, who started walking on the anniversary of Begay's disappearance this year, told the outlet in June. "They said it seems like she left willingly."
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With a prayer staff in hand, the four-month journey to the nation's capital, during which Warren endured an ankle injury and a dog bite, wasn't easy. She told
The Washington Post she cycled through 15 pairs of running shoes and braved the elements — both the blistering heat and the biting cold.
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Finally on Tuesday, Warren met with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, according to the outlet, who "generally listened" to her concerns.
Warren demanded lawmakers probe the tribal police's handling of missing and murdered persons cases, as well as provide support and resources to grieving families.
"We need search and rescue teams," she told
The Washington Post. "We need equipment like ATVs, drones, helicopters, sonar for water. We have families on foot searching. We need cadaver dogs. We need funding for billboards and rewards. We need our own medical examiners. Our tradition calls for burying our loved ones within four days and we can't."
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