Advocates for missing and murdered indigenous women will walk the length of the Flathead Reservation starting Thursday, March 28.
It’s the third year of the walk and this time it’s in honor of Jermain Charlo, who’s been missing for more than nine months.
"We’re walking for her, and for CSKT women," says Marita Growing Thunder, an organizer of the event.
She says the event is about raising awareness and speaking up for those unable to speak for themselves. She encourages people to come no matter how far they’d like to walk.
More than a dozen indigenous women went missing in Montana in 2018. Monday, a state Senate panel stalled Hanna’s Act, a bill that would have created a specialist within the Department of Justice to oversee cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and children.
The 80-mile, north-to-south walk will start at 8 a.m. Thursday at the reservation sign near Rollins. Growing Thunder expects to cross the southern border of the reservation on Sunday.