Elbia Colindres, center, mother of Lively Crüe Colindres, is shown at the MMIW Awareness Walk in Cherokee, N.C. on May 5, 2024. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – From January 2024 to January 2025, with help from a year-long grant awarded by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T), the Cherokee One Feather has worked to cover as many of the 35+ documented Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases as possible with articles and graphics. With the grant year complete, we have compiled an overview of the coverage and developments.
Myra Calhoun, center, mother and grandmother of Jessica “Jet” Calhoun and Ah-Yo-Ka “Yoki Bear” Calhoun, is shown at the MMIW Awareness Walk in Cherokee, N.C. on May 5, 2024.
This is an ongoing project. If you or someone you know would like to be interviewed for an article and/or graphic about the case of your EBCI missing or murdered loved one (of any gender), please reach out at broobrow@ebci-nsn.gov.
The first article covered the case of 16-year-old Ruby Sky Montelongo, who was found beaten to death in Mendocino Co., Calif. in April 2023: MMIW: Ruby Sky Montelongo – The Cherokee One Feather
The next article also covered the murder of a child, 8-month-old baby girl, Lively Crüe Colindres, who was murdered in Feb. 2022: MMIW: Lively Crüe Colindres – The Cherokee One Feather
The oldest known case on the list, 24-year-old mother of two, Dora Owl, who died by gun violence in April 1947: MMIW Profile: Dora Owl – The Cherokee One Feather
The tragic deaths of a mother and daughter, Jessica “Jet” Calhoun, 29, and her daughter, Ah-Yo-Ka “Yoki Bear” Calhoun, 5, who were killed in Jan. 2021: MMIW Profile: Jessica “Jet” Calhoun and Ah-Yo-Ka “Yoki Bear” Calhoun – The Cherokee One Feather
The unsolved case of Magdalene “Maggie” Calhoun-Bowman, 48, whose remains were found in the winter of 2006: MMIW: Magdalene “Maggie” Calhoun-Bowman – The Cherokee One Feather
The case of a young mother, Tamara Seay, 18, who died by gun violence Jan. 2006: MMIW: Tamara Seay – The Cherokee One Feather
Other articles covered under the grant included a two-part series on the issue of sex trafficking on the Qualla Boundary: FBI, CIPD discuss human trafficking – The Cherokee One Feather, “Bring it into the light”; Human Trafficking on the Qualla Boundary – The Cherokee One Feather
And a commentary about the Trail of Tears as one of the oldest and most well-documented cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP): COMMENTARY – MMIW Profile: The Trail of Tears – The Cherokee One Feather
Cherokee One Feather subscription clerk Indica Climbingbear played an integral part in the research of cases and coordination of interviews for the grant project. Climbingbear said her passion for MMIP activism was strengthened by her time with the EBCI Domestic Violence – Sexual Assault program and personal loss. “I lost a friend, Marie Walkingstick, to a murder. She had come to me October of the year before she died, asking how to do a [Domestic Violence Protective Order] and child custody because she knew that I had been through that also. So, I kind of told her what to do and pointed her in that direction, but I didn’t make sure she followed through. So, whenever I found out she had been murdered, that really hit home. That was really hard. I also had a relative that was murdered, Danielle Brady.”
Climbingbear volunteered her time to help with specifics for the grant project. “It was really important to me to help because we didn’t know the whole story of many of these cases. And so, I got to digging into it and realizing that a lot of it was domestic violence or dating violence.”
In noticing a pattern of domestic violence among the case reporting, Climbingbear suggests preventative measures, “There’s not enough focus on the domestic violence aspect. I think that whenever it comes to domestic violence and dating violence, instead of charging people over and over and over, it should be considered habitual. I think it should be a three-strike kind of rule just like with DUIs,”
Climbingbear even suggested an interdepartmental taskforce. “I really think that there could be a MMIW crisis board or a task force for collaborating between tribal entities and activists. I hope there is more connections built for the people in the community who will come forward and want to speak and want to put information out there that may be helpful in the paper—hotlines, whatever it is, because on average when it’s a domestic violence situation, it takes 7 times to leave before they actually leave,”
“The more we speak about it, the more we share, the better chance we have at prevention, leads on cases, and at being able to give the families justice.”
This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T).
