Every time Cowlitz tribal citizen Rosalie Fish introduces herself in her Indigenous language, she thinks of Kaylee Mae Nelson-Jerry, who vanished from Auburn in the summer of 2019.
“I remember Kaylee and I went to powwows together and we practiced how to introduce ourselves in our language, just as I did at the very beginning,” said Fish, who is from the Muckleshoot Reservation in King County and traveled hours to speak Thursday afternoon during a gathering at Legends Casino in Toppenish.
“Kaylee was my friend. She is my friend. She is my cousin, and I believe she is still out there,” Fish said at the community listening session held by members of the new state attorney general’s task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women and people.
Fish spoke for two more women from the Muckleshoot Reservation — Misty Upham, who was found dead at the bottom of a ravine on the reservation in October 2014; and Renee Davis and her unborn son, who were fatally shot by King County sheriff’s deputies in October 2016.
In nearly five hours of often emotional testimony Thursday, Fish and several others shared the stories of their Indigenous relatives who are missing, were killed or have died mysteriously. Task force members also met for an organizational session Friday online through Zoom.
Although the task force is new and the meetings co-hosted with the Yakama Nation were the first, the crisis has continued over decades throughout Washington state, the region and the nation. It has received increasing attention in recent years as people have become more vocal in seeking accountability, answers and justice.
Of the 110 active cases involving missing Indigenous people in Washington state, 28 have connections to the Yakama reservation or Yakima County, according to the latest list from the Washington State Patrol.
“I would say respectfully that we have to do better … the work has to be better, more purposeful, more meaningful,” Roxanne White said Thursday. “Take care of the families and survivors more.”
Keeping families at the center
It was important for White, Fish and the others who traveled long distances to be at Thursday’s meeting in person, “to be seen and be heard,” White said. She came from Seattle. Others came from the Tulalip Reservation near Everett and the Umatilla Reservation in northeast Oregon.
White, who is a survivor and an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous people and their families, spoke during Friday’s meeting as well.
The state Legislature created the task force as part of the effort to coordinate a statewide response to the urgent crisis of Indigenous people who vanish, are the victims of homicide or experience other types of gender-based violence in urban and tribal communities.
Task force members will provide findings and updates to the governor and Legislature throughout the process, with a progress report due in August 2022 and a final report in June 2023.
The crisis is complex, with challenges related to law-enforcement jurisdiction, generational trauma resulting from colonization and other issues. Dozens of Indigenous people have vanished, been found killed or have mysteriously died on and around the 1.3 million-acre Yakama reservation. Many cases are unsolved.
“There are 360 runaway youths here on the Yakama reservation,” White said. “We know that if we stay silent … what happened to them or us will continue to happen. We’re breaking that silence.”
State Attorney General’s Office’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People policy analyst Annie Forsman-Adams led the meetings both days and hopes this new effort will make a difference.
“If a task force is going to move mountains, this task force would be the one,” she said.
Task force members with relatives who have vanished or have been killed are already working to keep families a high priority. They include Patricia Whitefoot, a Yakama Nation citizen and longtime educator who lives in White Swan, and Carolyn DeFord, who is the trafficking project coordinator at the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.
DeFord’s mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, vanished from La Grande, Oregon, in October 1999. Whitefoot’s sister, Daisy Mae Heath, also known as Daisy Tallman, disappeared in late summer 1987. A few of her most precious belongings were found in a closed portion of the Yakama reservation, and investigators believe she was killed.
Whitefoot spoke Friday about the fact that state Attorney General Bob Ferguson didn’t attend the community listening session Thursday in person. Ferguson apologized in his opening comments for Friday’s meeting, saying his wife was out of town and he had to stay home with their young children.
Ferguson said he hopes to attend future task-force meetings, and Whitefoot wants him to come to the Yakama reservation so he can hear from relatives and survivors in person. Not all have internet access, she said, and some can’t drive long distances.
“I just want to make certain we’re doing all we can to communicate at all levels,” Whitefoot said. “It’s important that communication be (made) a priority and also that family voices be a part of this as well. There really needs to be the voices of families and not just the government.”
DeFord stressed that in sharing their stories, family members may be traumatized over and over again. It’s difficult and emotional to talk about their missing and murdered loved ones. It doesn’t get easier despite the passage of time.
“We also have a responsibility to take care of those families. We have a huge opportunity to learn how this affects families,” DeFord said. “It’s raw and it’s real time and sometimes suppressed memories come up — things that we can’t just walk off and walk away from.”
Laying groundwork
Veronica Jimicum was another relative of missing and murdered Indigenous people who traveled longer distances to speak at the casino Thursday. She shared the story of her cousin Mary Ellen Johnson, also known as Mary Davis, who disappeared from the Tulalip Reservation in late 2020.
Johnson’s husband reported her missing nearly two weeks after she was last seen Nov. 25 walking east on Fire Trail Road to a friend’s house. Tulalip Tribal Police and the FBI’s Seattle Field Office are investigating her disappearance.
The FBI is offering up to a $10,000 reward for information, and Tulalip tribal police and officials recently announced another $50,000 for information, Jimicum said.
Jimicum shared Johnson’s story on behalf of Johnson’s sisters, Nona Blouin and Gerry Davis, who couldn’t attend the Thursday meeting but are planning a gathering on Dec. 9 on the Tulalip Reservation to raise awareness about Johnson in hopes of getting important breaks in her case.
“We miss our loved one and want her home safe and sound,” Jimicum said.
Families appreciate the support of tribal and federal authorities to find their loved one, but that’s not often the case, especially when adults disappear. The first time Nelson-Jerry’s aunt went to police to report her missing, she was turned away after being told Nelson-Jerry was old enough to go missing if she wanted to, Fish said.
“Law enforcement has not shown compassion or haste in these cases,” said Fish, who has also advocated for a relative who disappeared on the Yakama reservation and whose body was found more than a year later. Family members of Alice Ida Looney were able to bury her with proper respect and ceremony, but they still don’t know how she died, or who may have killed her.
Yakama Nation
As task force members know, “Yakama Nation has the highest number of unsolved MMIW cases,” said Athena Sanchey-Yallup, a member of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and chairwoman of the council’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women committee.
Sanchey-Yallup is executive secretary of the new state task force. Efforts to address the crisis have included ongoing improvements to internal Yakama Nation policies and the revised Yakama code, she said. Sanchey-Yallup also mentioned a new effort to develop a Yakama Nation tribal community response plan in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice MMIP coordinator.
The Yakama Nation, she said, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in April, supporting Rep. Dan Newhouse’s request that Operation Lady Justice — the Presidential task force on missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives — establish cold case office in Yakima.
“I certainly hope this comes true to assist our families and loved ones,” Sanchey-Yallup said.
The need for increased training on how to navigate sensitive issues and reporting isn’t optional, Sanchey-Yallup said. “It is critical to addressing the personal impacts of everyone affected as well as bringing justice to our loved ones.”
She suggested a more comprehensive approach to the crisis by the tribe’s federal partners. “Congress should also take steps to undo the unnecessary complicated judicial framework in Indian Country,” Sanchey-Yallup said.
The tribe appreciates the work being done by the Washington State Patrol’s tribal liaisons, Sanchey-Yallup said. That’s made a difference, and so could the task force.
“We hope this task force will build upon this group’s collective expertise in efforts to develop concrete actions that will have a meaningful impact in this important work of increasing security and safety for Native girls, women and men,” she said.