Duluth Rally Remembers Missing, Murdered, and Trafficked Indigenous Women

Dozens gather in Canal Park to bring awareness to the issue.

DULUTH, Minn.- On this Mayday, members of the indigenous community in Duluth gathered in Canal Park to raise awareness about indigenous women who have gone missing, been murdered, or have been victims of human trafficking.

Ralliers said they were obligated to come out and stand in the cold, rain, and wind.

Because while it wasn’t easy, what the women in their community go through is even harder.

Wrapped in red shawls, a symbol for their missing, murdered, and trafficked sisters, the group said a prayer and sang traditional native songs, honoring their lost loved ones.

“We don’t feel it gets enough attention and native women are disproportionately victims of these kinda issues,” said Shawn Carr, organizer with the group Idle No More. “So we want to bring attention to that but we also want to honor the ones that are not with us anymore.”

The number of missing or murdered indigenous women is hard to pinpoint, as many cases go unreported.

Following the rally outside the Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace, the group walked down and put flowers in the lake, in memory of the women taken from their lives.

“They’re remembered, they’re not forgotten,” Carr said.

Those women include Chere Morgan, who was stabbed by a 15-year-old boy in Grand Rapids in April.

Her grandmother was at the rally in Canal Park.

She said she’s there to try to keep what happened to her granddaughter from happening to others.

“I’m here because I’m here for my grandmother. We’re here representing for them,” Lisa Ronnquist said. “I’m being a voice for her today because she was taken from us so tragically.”

“It’s gotta stop somewhere, somethings gotta be done.”