Zonta Hears about Murdered and Missing Indigenous Persons

The first official meeting of the new Sheridan Zonta International Club was held on Tuesday, October 11 at Sheridan’s Rib and Chop House.

Around 14 people attended to hear the talk from featured speaker Jean Bearcrane of the Crow Tribe, and executive director of the Montana Native Women’s Coalition which partners with Zonta 12 in Billings. The Native Women’s Coalition is a non-profit organization that receives funding for five different purpose areas that interact with Murdered and Missing Indigenous Peoples.

She said there is not data about how many people are affected. She said she found it very cool that the meeting was held the day after many towns observe Columbus Day, and at the same time they have Native American Heritage Day in Montana. She read a short piece written by a ship mate of Columbus on the second voyage, they landed in the Caribbean Island. It was one of the first exploitative interactions between the Europeans and the Native women. The shipmate wrote:

Bearcrane added that due to the mindset of the time, the admiral could just give the girl away. The girl was not willing, and she attacked the sailor with her fingernails, but the sailor tied her up so she couldn’t fight back and continued to abuse her.

Bearcrane said that they can tell since the beginning of colonial interactions that native peoples have been taken. There are several accounts from the offenders, so this girl was not the only one who suffered in the hands of an offender.

We will never know how many people are killed or missing due to this mindset. She said that anyone who has murdered or taken someone, should be held accountable, and often they are not.

She talked about how the missing or murdered women take the cohesion from the community.

Bearcrane talked about domestic and dating violence and sex trafficking. She said it was important to bring awareness to these problems. She added that there needs to be more help from law enforcement to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The next Zonta meeting will be Nov 8, 5:30 at the Rib and Chop House. Speaker to be announced,