OKMULGEE, Okla.- On May 5 the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Center for Victim Services held the third annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s (MMIP) Honor Walk at the Mvskoke Dome Pavilion. This year the MCN CVS is proud that 251 citizens participated in the walk, the biggest group so far.
The MCN CVS Outreach Coordinator MaCaylin Autaubo (Wichita) spoke about the importance of the honor walk in bringing awareness to MMIP. “It’s such a powerful event that we like to put on for the community for everybody to come out and support, and also advocate for their lost loved ones as well,” Autaubo said.
This year’s slogan was “Estofis Vnokeckv. Svnvcomv Ehosetcv,” which translates to “Forever Cherished. Never Forgotten.” A difference from past years, Autuabo explains, “We wanted to change it up a little bit, before we had a slogan that we did for the last two years and this year we wanted something different and something more meaningful. We wanted to add a little bit more culture to this event too.”
The Mvskoke Lady Legends, an nonprofit community organization for Mvskoke women 60 years and older, attended the walk. This event also brought in different speakers, including MCN Principal Chief David Hill, MCN Second Chief Del Beaver, MCN Speaker Randall Hicks, MCN Representative Galen Cloud, College of the Muscogee Nation President Dr. Randall, MCN Lighthorse and CVS staff.
MMIP have a deep impact on families and communities
“A lot of barriers that we’ve seen are just the advocacy of it. You don’t really see any of our peoples cases in the media so that was a big thing that we wanted to touch on was just advocating for those people, for the families, putting their names and their faces out there so people know who they are and to keep an eye out for them,” Autaubo said.
Autaubo pointed out that anyone can reach out to Lighthorse, and she knows that Lighthorse is a great response team for CVS. For example, if Lighthorse has any questions for CVS they reach out and create a connection. “Just that connection, breaks that barrier. At least we are kind of slowly breaking down those barriers,” Autaubo said.
“This epidemic isn’t something that only impacts the Muscogee reservation, it’s not even something that impacts Oklahoma but all of Indian country. I believe that everybody should be aware of and everybody should know something about, not just Native people but everybody of all ethnicities should be aware of that,” Autaubo said.
“Then working together to create some kind of force that brings us more awareness to this epidemic. Be on the lookout for our lost loved ones and advocate for them, reporting them when they are missing and making sure that you hit all of the steps necessary and also like I said, just the advocacy is the big part for them.”
CVS is notified of cases and sometimes families may reach out to their program. A large portion of their cases pertain to previous relationships that involve domestic violence and sexual assault, according to Autaubo. CVS not only advocates for MMIP but also provides awareness on the signs of intimate partner violence.
“Oklahoma is ranked 2nd in the nation for MMIP cases. This is a critical issue for our state and currently we have 29 active MMIP cases on the Mvskoke reservation. We would like to encourage everyone to learn more about the laws in place for the state of Oklahoma that address MMIP cases, as well as continue to advocate for laws to improve when reporting loved ones,” Autaubo said.
In the future Autaubo and her team have been working on a special project, they will have MMIP billboards over at the Beggs exit and in Glenpool. They will have all of their active missing cases of everyone on the Muscogee reservation. She wants to bring the advocacy of advertising everybody to make sure their names and their faces are never forgotten.
For any missing loved ones or you would like to report a case you can reach out to MCN Lighthorse at 918-732-7800.
If you are experiencing any domestic or sexual violence or help with assisting with stalking and teen dating violence you can contact MCN Center for Victim Services at 918-732-7979.
