LAKEPORT, Calif. — A special Friday event put the spotlight on the effort to stop the alarming rate of Indigenous people who are victims of crime each year across the nation.

Lake County Tribal Health held the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Day event on Friday afternoon at Xabatin Park in Lakeport to bring awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, or MMIP, epidemic.

There was a remarkable outpouring of emotional support for the event, with the estimated number of attendees — who came both from Lake and Mendocino counties — at just over 1,400, Tribal Health reported.

Tribal Health officials reported that the Friday gathering was fun and filled with many activities for families.

Many community agencies participated. There were nearly 50 booths hosted by organizations in health, government, law enforcement, education and recovery, along with numerous tribal groups and a booth for children.

The day began with a 20-minute opening ceremony from the Native Resistance Drum Group performing prayer songs and a woman's welcoming song.

Shortly after the opening ceremony, the community welcomed the Pomo Nation Dance group, established in 2012 by the late Thomas Brown.

This was followed by a 30-minute raffle prize and giveaway featuring over 100 items.

After the raffle, four additional dance groups performed: the Xabenapo of Big Valley Rancheria, Xabatin Feather Dancers, Patwin Dance Group and the Round Valley Feather Dancers, which Tribal Health said comprise a large number of the MMIP population.

Each group brought a unique form of the Shake Head/Feather Dance with unique songs from their ancestors who sang before them.

In Indigenous communities, dancers will dance to heal and the singers will provide the songs and pray through each song. Each song has a specific meaning and is a prayer.

The event put the focus on “Healing Together.”

On display promimently throughout the day were red shirts and dresses. Red has historically been a color of great importance to Indigenous people, and now it’s being used to call attention to missing and murdered members of the Indigenous community.

The MMIP event is held in May in memory of Hanna Harris, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe who was murdered in July 2013 in Montana. Her birthday is May 5.

Grassroots efforts to raise awareness of MMIP have gained traction over the last decade, and have been aided by Deb Haaland, the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, who created the MMIP Unit in 2021.

Statistics show that American Indians are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault crimes compared to all other races, and one in three Indian women reports having been raped during her lifetime. Thirty-four percent of native women are raped in their lifetimes.

The Urban Indian Health Institute reported that there are 5,712 MMIP cases involving women. At the same time, the National Crime Information Center said that, in 2020, 4,276 reports involving American Indian and Alaska Native males were logged into its database.

The institute also lists California as No. 6 nationwide for its number of MMIP cases.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that homicide is the No. 3 leading cause of death among Indigenous people up to 19 years old and the No. 6 leading cause of death among those who are 20 to 44 years of age.

According to the National Criminal Justice Training Center, 40% of victims of sex trafficking are identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native women.

In the summer of 2022, the State Legislature passed the Feather Alert bill authored by Assemblyman James Ramos. It was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom shortly afterward and went into effect in January of 2023.

The Feather Alert is meant to provide for a quicker response to help with finding missing Indigenous people who are believed to be in danger. However, Ramos is working to make updates to the bill to make it more responsive.