BILLINGS — According to the Department of Justice, 31% of missing individuals last year in Montana were Indigenous, while Indigenous people make up less than 7% of the population. Although most of those are women, at 68%, Indigenous males will likely face violence during their lifetime.
That's why a vigil was held Friday in downtown Billings to remember and honor both missing and murdered indigenous men and women.
It's an epidemic impacting reservations across Montana: missing and murdered indigenous people.
"I would probably say that every single Native American in this country, and in Canada as well, has somebody directly - probably within their immediate family - that impacted by this," said Nicci Wagy, one of the vigil organizers.
Wagy and fellow organizer Lita Pepion spent weeks gathering names of missing and murdered Indigenous people to read on the Yellowstone County courthouse lawn. That list has over 140 names, including confirmed and reported cases.
One of those names is Wagy's brother.
"They stopped counting his wounds at 57, and that wasn't near as many times he had been stabbed," she said.
The murder of her brother, Gary Lasley Jr., in Nebraska fueled her passion behind Friday's call for help.
"That's why I've been active ever since. Because, if I can prevent anyone else from feeling that hurt, and that rage - it's not even anger, it's rage - I'm gonna do everything I can," Wagy says.
The organizers' latest effort is a petition to convince the city of Billings to fund a new low-barrier shelter. A low-barrier shelter has fewer restrictions and questions when it comes to accepting residents. Organizer Lita Peppion says that many Indigenous people encounter alcoholism and drug-addiction, so a low-restricted housing unit would be beneficial to their community.
"Enough of this band-aid stuff. We need quality. We're tired of waiting for it. We want it," Peppion said.
Peppion says violence heavily impacts Indigenous communities as well.
"Eighty-two percent of Native Indigenous men have experienced violence in their lifetime. That's a huge, huge, number. Violence creates trauma. So many of our people are traumatized, and it's unhealed, and untreated, and unrecognized," she said.
However, that trauma and pain was recognized through each of the guest speakers.
Wagy and Peppion organized the vigil out of the kindness of their own hearts, with no organization attached. They plan to work until those 140+ names receive justice, or make their way back home.
"A lot of people would say we've lost community, and I look around here and say 'no, we haven't,'" Peppion said.
