Amid the chilling snows in Minnesota, warmth was found in the collective determination of a community seeking justice. Senator Mary Kunesh, a Standing Rock Lakota descendant, and a multitude of Indigenous leaders gathered for the annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives March in Mni Sóta Makoce. The march underscores a harrowing reality: Native women, girls, and two-spirit individuals face a disproportionately high threat of violence on these unceded lands. In a movement charged with a plea for action, Kunesh ardently voiced the community’s struggles. "The historic and ongoing violence contributes to barriers to education, employment, housing security, healthcare, and cultural support, and these forces have left Native relatives vulnerable to violence for too long," Kunesh said in a statement obtained by the Senate DFL website.
Statistics paint a grim portrait of injustice, with Indigenous people comprising one percent of Minnesota's population, yet, between 2010 and 2019, they accounted for nine percent of all murdered girls and women in the state. With Minnesota's darker history that includes Indian boarding schools and forced family separations, Kunesh, who marched beside leaders who fought the same battles as their ancestors, emphasized the need for systemic change in a fight against racism, colonialism, and misogyny. She expressed her sustained commitment to empowering Native communities and championing tribal sovereignty within Minnesota.
At the legislative front, having addressed the disproportionate terror inflicted upon Indigenous communities, Kunesh has notably shepherded measures intended to confront these injustices. In 2019, during her time as a Representative, Kunesh was instrumental in enacting the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Task Force. The commitment realized further progress in 2021, as the legislator witnessed Governor Tim Walz signing the law establishing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, a pioneering institution dedicated to this cause. Kunesh didn't halt her endeavors there. According to the legislation she authored, in the 2023 session that saw the birth of MMIR special license plates, providing a financial stream for the initiative, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office found new sustenance. This was in tandem with her efforts to strengthen the state's Indian Family Preservation Act.
Senator Kunesh's advocacy sheds light on a cycle of violence too often shrouded in the shadows. Native women, girls, and two-spirit community members are seven times more likely to meet a violent end than their white women counterparts. The annual march stands not solely as a remembrance but as a clarion call for justice, stirring the consciousness of a nation. With actions like Senator Kunesh's at the forefront, and the hope for change in the wind, the healing can perhaps begin for Minnesota's First Nations.
