Movement to highlight missing Native women expands to males

Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press
Updated 10:11 am CST, Sunday, January 26, 2020



Photo: Felicia Fonseca, AP
IMAGE 1 OF 8
In this Jan. 14, 2020, photo, Margaret Bitsue displays a flier that features her son who she reported missing more than two years ago, Tuba City, Ariz. Bitsue hasn't seen or heard from Brandon Sandoval, the youngest of her four children, in more than two years. "I spend most of my days looking down the road expecting him to come up," Bitsue says. The woman's words are soft but capture a room at a Navajo Nation government center, where people are gathered to talk not about women and girls who have disappeared or been killed, but men.

TUBA CITY, Ariz. (AP) — Margaret Bitsue's days are filled with prayer: that her son has a clear mind and that he remembers home, a traditional Navajo hogan at the end of a dirt road where a faded yellow ribbon hanging from the cedar trees points to her agony.

Bitsue hasn't seen or heard from Brandon Lee Sandoval, the youngest of her four children, in more than two years. Wearing blue jeans, a black shirt and work boots, he left the home in northeastern Arizona before sunrise Sept. 3, 2017, saying he was going to see friends in Phoenix and would be back.

“I spend most of my days looking down the road expecting him to come up,” Bitsue says.

The woman's words are soft but capture a room at a government center on the Navajo Nation where people are gathered to talk not about women and girls who have gone missing or been killed, but men and boys. It's part of a growing effort to expand a movement focused on Native American women, who face some of the nation's highest rates of homicide, sexual violence and domestic abuse.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Movement-to-highlight-missing-Native-women-15005515.php#photo-18936600