Sokaogon Chippewa Community News
Explosive New MMIW Documentary
By Jessica Prah, Native News Online
President Biden has said of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis, “What’s happening to Indigenous women on reservations and across the United States is unconscionable and outrageous. And it is devastating that families are conducting their own searches for missing loved ones. It must end.”
President Biden’s statement epitomizes what a new documentary film, Say Her Name, exposes in Bighorn County, Montana. The county, which includes parts of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, has been called “an epicenter of MMIWG cases” by the Sovereign Bodies Institute.
Say Her Name peels back the layers of platitudes and obfuscation that has become standard operating procedure for authorities with jurisdictional responsibility for MMIW/MMIP cases, and instead provides an insight that is both heart wrenching and inspiring, as the families of loved ones demonstrate incredible strength and spirit as they recount their experiences.
Just days after a limited public release to mark the National Day of Awareness for MMIWG, Say Her Name has already prompted one network affiliate to predict, “People across the country can expect an eye-opening experience as they watch the film.”
The film features the cases of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, Henny Scott, Selena Not Afraid and Christy Woodenthigh. Directed by Rain, the creator of the critically acclaimed Somebody’s Daughter, Say Her Name is a stunning work of equal power and beauty that is destined to make a valuable contribution to the movement for change. National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) executive director, Lucy Rain Simpson, Northern Cheyenne President Donna Fisher, veteran Montana legislature Rae Peppers, and close relatives and friends of Kaysera, Henny, Selena and Christy lead the film’s narrative.
Executively produced by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Say Her Name will be available online, free of charge. Chairman David Sickey said the film was produced to keep the MMIW/MMIP crisis “front and center” for lawmakers, and to bring increased awareness to the 86% of Montana’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s (MMIP) cases that remain unsolved and are not getting the national media attention they deserve. Chairman Sickey was at the forefront of efforts to secure the recent executive action on MMIWG in Louisiana.