Dear UAA Community,

May 5 is Red Dress Day or National Day of Awareness for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S) in the United States and Canada. Alaska Native and American Indian Women face murder rates that are more than 10 times higher than the national average. Four out of five Indigenous Women experience violence during their lives. Homicide is the third leading cause of death among Indigenous Women and Girls aged 10 to 24, and the fifth leading cause of death for Indigenous Women aged 25 to 34. These statistics come from the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

Indigenous People face disproportionate violence, trauma and exploitation. This is not an Indigenous issue; this is a community issue. We have a collective responsibility to support Indigenous Persons in reclaiming their power and place. For more information, you can go to the MMIWG2s Alaska and National Indigenous Women's Resource Center Facebook pages. More resources are available on the MMIWG2S Alaska Working Group and Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC) pages.

To help raise awareness about MMIWG2S and demonstrate support for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), UAA is hosting a Walk for MMIP on Friday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. We will gather in front of the UAA/APU Consortium Library at 3211 Providence Drive at 5 p.m., begin the walk at 5:30 p.m., and walk along Providence Drive to the ANSEP Building at 2929 Spirit Way. At 6:15 p.m., there will be a gathering at the ANSEP Building to recognize this day.

Sincerely,
Michele Yatchmeneff, Ph.D. (Unangax̂ | She/Her)
Alaska Native Education & Outreach Executive Director

"Join us for a Walk for MMIP on Friday, May 3" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.