From left are Ampkwa Advocacy co-founders Amanda Freeman (Grand Ronde) and Kola Shippentower (Confederated Tribes of Umatilla) prepare to start their second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People walk in Independence, Ore. August 31.
INDEPENDENCE, Ore. – Hundreds of community members gathered in Independence’s city park for the second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP) Walk, featuring keynote speaker Che Jim, a Navajo comedian and advocate whose social media platforms reach more than 3.5 million followers worldwide.
Che Jim, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, speaks about his advocacy work and comedic online presence. Jim discussed his recent work in Arizona’s mental health and addiction treatment services, where he said he learned that struggles faced by Indigenous people span the continent and are largely interconnected.
Jim, who flew in from Arizona specifically for the event, brought his unique blend of humor and serious advocacy to the stage, addressing a crisis that affects Indigenous communities across North America. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Congress of American Indians, on some reservations, Native women face murder rates more than ten times the national average, with disappearances and murders often directly linked to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and sex trafficking.
“I think the purpose of the event was served. We came to raise awareness and begin to lift the whole veil of invisibility with this issue,” Jim said in an interview after the event. “When you have that invisibility, those who have been touched by it feel alone or unheard. This event shows Native people affected by MMIWP that they’re not alone. There are resources and people, and there’s a healing space that can be very powerful.”
The event, organized by Ampkwa Advocacy, a nonprofit founded less than two years ago by co-founders Amanda Freeman and Kola Shippentower, has grown significantly since its inception. What began as conversations between Freeman and Shippentower about the need for MMIWP advocacy quickly materialized into official nonprofit status after filing just 48 hours after the idea came to light.
Shippentower emphasized how the MMIWP crisis transcends typical tribal politics and territorial disputes. “There’s too much division within the tribes, but this ties us together as Indigenous people,” she explained. “Through MMIWP, all the differences we have are pushed aside. This is something we can’t fight over. We have to come together.”
The sentiment, she said, was demonstrated during a recent pow wow hosted by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. When the men’s ‘Redgalia’ special began, dancers from local tribes, including the Umatilla and Yakama Nations, participated together in red regalia specifically honoring missing and murdered Indigenous people.
“There were moments when it felt awkward,” Shippentower recalled, “but when all those men came out in red, it didn’t matter where they come from. It was all for a collective cause. We’re all fighting this together. Our men are held accountable; we have nephews, grandpas, uncles. This is what we have to do.”
Rebecca Kirk, Klamath and Yakama, speaks during the second annual MMIWP walk. Kirk is the Miss Indian North West Pageant Executive Director and advocate for Indigenous women.
The decision to hold the event in Independence, rather than larger cities like Portland or Salem, was deliberate. Event organizers wanted to highlight that MMIWP impacts even small, rural communities where many tribal members are “white-passing” and don’t receive recognition as Indigenous people.
“Even in a small rural town in Oregon, there is a Native population there, and it’s impacting the area severely,” Shippentower noted. “It’s really unfortunate that a lot of tribal members in that area don’t get recognition as being tribal people, but they do need more media coverage.”
Jim’s presence brought significant attention to the cause, leveraging his massive social media following built on content that combines comedy with serious advocacy for water rights, land rights, and Indigenous issues. As founder and former executive director of Healing Arrows Indigenous Social Justice and Wellness Initiative and former president of the American Indian Movement’s Indiana and Kentucky Grand Governing Council, Jim brings both entertainment value and substantial credibility to Indigenous causes.
The event featured traditional Aztec dancers and performances by women in ermine bonnets. According to Shippentower, women wearing the bonnets is a rarely seen ceremonial presentation that she described as particularly meaningful for the healing process.
“The ermine bonnets and having us perform, personally, for me that’s been a culmination of different things,” Shippentower reflected. “Women are showing up in different ways as warriors for their communities and healers for their people.”
A group of Indigenous Aztec Dancers attended the annual walk in solidarity as well as to spread awareness of their work to help protect Indigenous women in their communities who face the same struggles and dangers as North American Native American women.
Fabian Quenelle (Grand Ronde) leads the second annual MMIWP awareness walk hosted by Ampkwa Advocacy in Independence, Ore. August 30.
According to recent research, the average age of a missing or murdered Indigenous person in America is 19.1 years old, with cases spanning across gender lines and including at least 25 transgender and two-spirit Indigenous people killed or missing since 1990.
Ampkwa Advocacy plans to expand its reach, with discussions underway about hosting future events in Portland and on reservations throughout Oregon. The organization’s goal is to connect all nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon through MMIW advocacy work.
“My hopes are that we can bridge this gap between the coast and eastern Oregon, and some of the Washington and Oregon tribes,” said Shippentower, who represents eastern Oregon as a minority voice on the board. “This is one of those areas where everyone has to say ‘yes we have to be together, we need to solve this and stop what’s taking our people’.”
Freeman emphasized the broader vision beyond awareness: “We need more than awareness. We need action. We need our leaders and elected officials to prioritize the safety of Indigenous people. We need resources for investigations,
prevention programs, and support for families.”
The event concluded with resource sharing and community connections, fulfilling organizers’ primary goal of ensuring that those affected by MMIWP know they are not alone. Freeman’s closing words captured the resilience that drives their work: “We carry generations of resilience. Our people have survived every attempt to erase us. We have survived loss after loss, and we are still here. We will not stop. We will not be silent. We will not accept a world where our people vanish without answers.”
Ampkwa Advocacy continues to seek tribal leadership participation and broader community engagement for future MMIWP awareness events. For more information about their work, community members can reach out through their official channels.
