To help me better understand the politics and people of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla I subscribe to their newspaper . When I received this month’s issue, I was happy to see there was an event being held at the Tamástslikt Cultural Center that resonated with me and my writing.

If you have read my books or even follow this blog you know that I am a supporter of the MMIP movement. The title of the event was “Murdered and Missing Indigenous Persons and the Umatilla Reservation.” It was to be a panel of family members of victims, an MMIP advocate, CTUIR Tribal Director and Judicial Assistant, and representatives from the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center.

Because my Spotted Pony Casino mystery series is set on the Umatilla Reservation and I have and continue to write about the MMIP problem in my books, I thought it would be a worthwhile event for me to attend and hear all sides. I’ve had two people tell me about losing family members and not knowing what happened to them or still not knowing where they are.

Anyone who reads my books, knows that the core of every book is justice or injustice, however you want to look at it. And MMIP fits well into the theme I have in my books. I also like when a reader will say, I didn’t know about the movement or that it was such a problem until I read your book. That makes me happy. It means I am doing a small part to educate more people about the problem.

I wanted to have a powerful blog about the event, but when I arrived, they told me that the event had been postponed due to a death in one of the speakers family. While I was bummed because I was looking forward to learning more and I had driven 5 hours to attend, I was able to see the Portraits in Red exhibit which is powerful.

Artist Nayana LaFond was stuck at home in 2020 and decided to paint “Lauraina in RED” for the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls on May 5th. She asked people for a photos of missing or murdered relatives and she would paint a few more. She received 25 photos the first day along with the story of how the loved one went missing or was murdered.

The Portraits in Red are of missing or murdered family members or friends and one wall has portraits of activists and survivors.

I, of course, being backwards, started on the side of the activists and survivors and ended with the murdered victims. Which in a way, I think, made it all the more compelling as I saw people fighting for the cause and then saw why they were fighting.

These aren’t only half of the portraits that were hanging on the walls. There is also a display that the Assitant Director Randall J. Melton told me had surprised him. They asked people from the community to put up a hand with a name of a family member or friend who had been found murdered or was missing. This is the wall.

Even though I write murder mystery, I can’t fathom the horrendous things people do to one another. MMIP be talked about in my books so that I can continue to raise awareness about this issue.

I will be at a mystery conference on the date they rescheduled the panel. But it can be listened to through the Tamástslikt Cultural Center Facebook page.

I will be in Bellevue, WA at the Left Coast Crime conference April11th-14th. If you’re in the area contact me and I can try and meet up with you.