.png)
Alaskans march to honor, call for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous peoples
- Alaska Beacon
- 51 minutes ago
- 7 min read
State and federal officials say addressing the crisis is a top priority, but advocates, families and supporters say more resources and attention to current and cold cases are needed
By Corinne Smith
Alaska Beacon
A group of Juneau residents linked arms around a small fire pit outside Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Tuesday evening, concluding a ceremony to honor lost loved ones and hold space for grief and healing. At the center, the fire burned cedar chips with dozens of names of those lost.
May 5 is recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, recognizing the disproportionate rates of violence, murder and disappearance among Alaska Native and American Indian communities nationwide and globally.
The day highlights Alaska’s high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people, particularly Alaska Native women and girls, the ongoing efforts and gaps in law enforcement response, and efforts to address violence prevention and justice for families.
Marches and events were held in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, Juneau and across the country on Tuesday.
In Juneau, the day was marked with dozens gathering for a rally and march through downtown, a dinner and panel discussion with community leaders, and a space for grieving for those who’ve lost loved ones or are still seeking answers from law enforcement on open investigations.
A mother and daughter, Lyric and Melody Ashenfelter of Juneau, took a moment to rest on the curb after the march. They said it felt empowering to be a part of the demonstration, and want to see more events and public attention paid to the crisis of violence and missing Alaska Native people, especially Alaska Native women.
“It was good to see the amount of people that showed up. It was powerful,” Melody Ashenfelter said. They both said they are always thinking of Lyric, who is 20, and her safety. “It’s on my mind, always being careful,” she said.
During the march, demonstrators held signs to commemorate missing or murdered people, including Tracy Day, who went missing in 2019 in Juneau whose family is still searching for answers, and Benjamin “Benny” Stepetin, who went missing last June. At a dinner and panel discussion at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, a table displayed photos of more than a dozen people killed or missing going back to 1993.
According to new FBI data released Tuesday, rates of Alaska Native or American Indian people reported missing declined slightly to 9,687 people nationwide in 2025. The majority were minors. Roughly 55% of the total were women, and 45% were men.
In Alaska, the Department of Public Safety releases quarterly reports of missing people, but not annual reports. Numbers fluctuate as cases are resolved and people are found, officials said, but approximately one third of cases in 2025 involved Alaska Native people missing, while Alaska Native people represent roughly 16% of the state’s population.
The non-profit Data for Indigenous Justice has established an independent database to provide updated case numbers and resources for family members. In 2025, the group reported adding 170 new names and counted the total number of documented MMIP cases in Alaska at more than 1,250 people.
Alaska ranks fourth in the nation with the highest number of cases, and Anchorage has the third highest of all cities in the nation, according to a 2018 report.
Paulette M. Moreno, vice president of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which helped organize the Juneau event, said each data point represents a life and someone’s family and community affected.
“These are relatives, our sisters, our daughters, our aunties and our family members. So this issue is not abstract. It’s not something that’s happening elsewhere, it’s something that’s happening in Alaska, in our communities,” she said.
Alaska Native and American Indian women and girls experience disproportionately higher rates of violence, and are murdered at rates ten times the national average, according to federal data.
Federal and state officials say addressing MMIP is a top priority
Also on Tuesday in Anchorage, federal officials and advocates gathered for a roundtable focused on MMIP hosted by Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Participants represented tribes, law enforcement agencies and the state and federal government. U.S. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, as well as two Department of the Interior officials, Bryan Mercier, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Billy Kirkland, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, attended.
“We can’t lose momentum,” Murkowski said, and applauded the announcement of a new national Task Force to Combat Violent Crime in Indian Country.
“We are here to work with the administration, hand in glove, on these initiatives to ensure that women in this state, women across the country, do not fear in their own homes,” Murkowski said. “So we have work to do, but we have many, many good and willing partners.”
Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said the biggest barrier for state law enforcement response is timing, particularly in rural Alaska. “Getting to a place in time to either save the person or be able to do a good investigation, to hold the person accountable for their actions,” he said.
“So we need to continue to focus on prevention and really timing investigation, and we need people to help us,” he added. “We need people to step up and say, ‘this is what happened.’"
Cockrell said growing the Village Public Safety Officer program has been an ongoing priority of the department, and he sees those officers as essential to be on the frontlines in responding to incidents. “Our goal is to have a VPSO in any village that wants a VPSO. Currently, we have VPSOs in 57 villages, and again, they’re the boots on the ground,” he said.
Cockrell emphasized that investigations for missing people are most successful when launched quickly. “If you know somebody’s missing, tell somebody right away. Don’t wait 24 hours. Don’t wait 48 hours. We have to have information as quickly as possible. The more information we get, the better chances are we’ll find this person.”
Austin McDaniel, communications director with the department, said in an interview Wednesday that the department responds to missing persons investigations as homicides until they are proven otherwise. “So that’s certainly our priority, is aggressively and quickly investigating new homicides that come in regardless of the area of the state or the race or gender of the person involved,” he said.
McDaniel said the state is focused on investigating both new cases and unresolved cases, or cold cases. He said the state has five investigators, including four focused on MMIP cases. He said those investigations include new uses of forensic science, like DNA testing, and also rely on new information or witnesses coming forward.
Following legislative action in 2025, Alaska established a new nine-member MMIP Review Commission to review unsolved cases and submit a report to the Legislature every three years with its recommendations and findings. McDaniel said the commission began meeting last year and is continuing to prioritize cases to review.
But the state does not respond to cases in local law enforcement jurisdictions, unless called upon to assist, McDaniel said.
Advocates, families and supporters have raised concerns and criticisms at local police departments they say have failed to respond in a timely manner, lack communication with families and lack transparency in the process of investigations.
McDaniel said families can’t petition the state directly, but can urge their local police department to request assistance with investigations. “We recognize and understand that some, especially small police departments, don’t have the resources, training or equipment to do highly complex technical investigations, and we always will come in, and whether it’s providing maybe some crime scene response or specialized forensics or digital forensics, we do that,” he said.
Isolation, lack of trust and support services driving factors
Moreno echoed the issue of isolation as one of the biggest driving forces behind the extent of missing and murdered people in Alaska, which she called a human rights crisis.
“I think that one of the things that really, really makes this such a high number in Alaska is that there are patterns that then have been able to develop. And these patterns have set up systems, unhealthy systems, to allow there to be the ongoing cases, the ongoing people and families that go missing,” she said.
She said the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes is working with community partners and other tribal governments and organizations to raise awareness and support for resources and community support services for people experiencing violence, or for situations that may make them vulnerable to going missing, as well as for grieving families.
“And some of the reason for that, may be that there hasn’t been an establishment of trust or awareness that these services exist,” she said.
Moreno said that more public awareness, law enforcement and media attention is important. “A lot of times they either go undetected, unreported or unresolved, and the treatment of that has caused, I think, a higher number of cases,” she said.
“Our people, Alaska Native people from all the different tribes, are the original inhabitants of this land, and we need to be treated with the respect that that brings forward on our own ancestral homeland,” she added.
Moreno said the Central Council is planning to hold future events to support grieving families of those missing or murdered.
“Space where families can come together and talk with each other and have that safe space that’s uniquely created, even though it’s your tragedy, that’s created to help each other, the person right next to you, with healing.”
• Yereth Rosen contributed reporting to this story from Anchorage. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
