The state’s new Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force is moving forward. The task force had planned a set of state-wide listening sessions where people could come and share their stories. Those are cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but there are other ways for the public to impact the work of the task force. Reporter Melissa Townsend explains.
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The state’s new Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force is moving forward.
The group will create a list of recommendations on how the state can better handle the crisis.
Those recommendations are due in December.
The task force had planned a set of state-wide listening sessions where people could come and share their stories.
The first listening session was at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center in Minneapolis last month.
State Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein, a Dakota descendent, is on the task force steering committee.
KUNESH-PODEIN:There are plenty more stories to be heard if folks want to share them and it does help us when we go forward with recommendations with real life experiences.
But the task force has cancelled the remaining listening session because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, people can still share their stories on-line, over email or on the phone.
You can search for M-M-I-W on the Minnesota Department of Public Safety website.
Or you can call this number: 651-280-2661 and leave a message with your story.
That’s 651-280-2661.
Kunesh-Poein says you can opt to keep your story anonymous if you’d like.
KUNESH-PODEIN: We won’t publicize names, we won’t take these stories public, unless the person wanted to. But these are precious stories and we will treat them with the utmost respect.
There is no word yet if deadlines for the task force recommendations will be extended due to the Covid-19 outbreak.