On the heels of the “Keepers of the Fire March for Justice” in Laramie, this weekend Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon says he wants a task force focused on issues with missing and murdered indigenous women in Wyoming.
The annual event featured many Fremont County representatives, who spoke on issues that many Native American women are dealing with.
Recently, Riverton Mayor Rich Gard signed a proclamation declaring May 5th as “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Day” in Riverton. Stats provided at the meeting suggested that that 1 in 3 Native American women say they have been raped in their lifetime, and Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than other races.
One of the Fremont County representatives at the Laramie event was Riverton High School sophomore Jazmine Wildcat. She told those in attendance, “Every day, I wonder how our indigenous communities got to this point. Why is it that, rather than playing outside and having a carefree life, our families now have to teach our young girls how not to become a statistic? Sometimes, an abusive relationship is accepted as the norm. We did not survive the massacres, the boarding schools, and the relocation to fall victim to another epidemic.”
The Laramie Boomerang has more on Governor Gordon’s proposal for a task force.