Indigenous people raise awareness
New commission aims to address Native Americans, allies victimized by attacks
A solemn gathering at an art studio in the city’s North Central neighborhood took place Thursday afternoon for Native Americans and their allies to mark Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day.
“We need to remember. It’s very important to think about indigenous women who’ve been murdered, stolen or kidnapped,” said Sara YawanawaBergin, a member of the Yawanawa tribe of Brazil whose native name is Nawashahu.
On Thursday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, announced the creation of the Not Invisible Act Joint Commission on Reducing Violent Crime Against Indians. The commission is to make recommendations on reducing violent crime on Native American lands.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their community, but a lack of urgency, transparency and coordination have hampered our country’s efforts to combat violence against American Indians and Alaska Natives,” Haaland said in a statement released Thursday.
Those at the gathering at 2952 Sixth Ave. in Troy said it’s important to get the general U.S. population to recognize the violence that has occurred against all indigenous peoples. Troy
was part of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians homeland and is near the lands of the Mohawks and other members of the Iroquois confederacy.
“I’m here to participate in the memorial and see the land,” said Sandra Deer Standup, a Mohawk from Kahnawake outside Montreal.
They were visiting the Second Avenue site along the Hudson River where historically there had been Native American activity. Rezoning has been proposed to build an apartment complex there.
Standup said that public awareness has to be raised for indigenous women and girls who have been killed or have disappeared.
She said, “It’s left out of the media and is overlooked.”
Sachem Hawk Storm of the Schaghticoke First Nation said people shouldn’t ignore the continuing violence against indigenous women in North America and South America. The remembrance day began several years ago to acknowledge the violence occurring against indigenous women.
“We still have people that don’t know that,” said Sachem Hawk Storm,
who is married to Sara Yawanawa-Bergin and is also known as Robert Yawanawa-Bergin. He reflected on the history that is forgotten in the Capital Region and around the Northeastern states in which indigenous people were important allies to English colonists.