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LAKEPORT, Calif. — The expanding effort to end the high number of Indigenous people becoming crime victims was celebrated in a special Friday event.
The Lake County Tribal Health Consortium hosted its annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day event on Friday afternoon in Lakeport’s Xabatin Park.
The movement to raise awareness of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, or MMIP, epidemic has grown stronger in recent years, thanks in part to events like the one Tribal Health hosts annually.
This year’s gathering had an attendance of 1,655 people, said Darnell Aparicio, Tribal Health’s public health outreach manager.
They came to watch Pomo dancers performing with Clear Lake and Mount Konocti in the background, enjoy lunch and tour 78 booths hosted by nonprofit service organizations and agencies such as Behavioral Health, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol and many others.
Visitors were greeted with a display of red dresses, fluttering in the wind, representing the thousands of individuals whose stories have been added to the evidence of the crisis’ toll on Indian Country.
Those who attended also were given a black ink stamp of a hand, which is another symbol of MMIP.
Studies highlighted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs have found that the rates of murder, rape and other violent crimes are higher for Indigenous people than the national average.
Aparicio said Tribal Health placed the event’s focus on resilience, titling it, “Resilient Spirits Healing Together.”
“It really boils down to the fact that we experience a trickle-down effect — when a loved one goes missing or is taken by violence, our children lose out on a vital part of their culture,” Aparicio said. “The grief and loss ripple through generations, deeply impacting our families’ sense of identity, safety, and community belonging.”
He said Friday’s MMIP event and those like it “are essential steps in addressing the trauma and beginning the process of healing.”
Aparicio thanked the county’s agencies and leadership for their cooperation and collaboration, including the city of Lakeport allowing them to use Xabatin Park.
“This growing alliance represents a positive and necessary step forward in addressing and helping to combat the devastating plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People,” he said.
He added that they’re also deeply thankful to the community and its overwhelming support, not only regarding recognition “but to the urgent need for sustained awareness around this epidemic of epic proportions.”
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