How Can Colorado Tackle the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People?

“There is no accurate picture” of how many indigenous people have been murdered or gone missing in Colorado, according to our guest today, Raven Payment. Amid a growing, international movement to address the crisis of MMIR — Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives — she helped form a task force to take on the issue locally. Step one? Push for legislation to create a state office that can figure out exactly how big this problem even is. Today on the show, Host Bree Davies talks with Payment, who identifies as Kanien'kehá:ka and Anishinaabe, about her work on the task force and how the creation of this office could help Indigenous people all across Colorado. 

Our guest Raven Payment mentions a couple of times how the Urban Indian Health Institute’s 2017 report on MMRI was a catalyst for organizing around this issue. If you’re interested, here’s a link to that report: https://www.uihi.org/resources/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-girls/

30,000 hippies are descending on an as-yet-undisclosed location in Colorado this summer. It’s an annual event called the Rainbow Gathering, and it’s got lots of folks really worried. Catch up on the whole backstory in today’s newsletter: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/

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