Remembering missing and murdered loved ones on Red Dress Day

Published 9:48 am Tuesday, May 12, 2026

May 5 is recognized as the official Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Day, and in Seattle, Indigenous folks came from all over the South Sound to remember family members and friends who were taken too soon.

While this day of remembrance has included a walk and rally in Seattle in the past, one of this year’s prominent events took place at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, which has been described as “an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area.”

Attended by members of local tribes like Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie and Tulalip, along with tribes from across the Pacific Northwest, the MMIP remembrance day event opened with a prayer by Tony Monroe (Yakama) and a performance by Jobey Williams (Tulalip and Yakama) and his 7-year-old son, Dahnahai Williams, who told the crowd he was Tulalip and Muckleshoot.

Following the opening ceremony, guests to the cultural center were served a Hatch green chili stew and fry bread meal prepared by Nikki Demmert (Tlingit and Haida).

MMIP Awareness Day is also referred to as Red Dress Day, which started out in remembrance of the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) across Canada. Throughout the 2010s, grassroots organizations helped spread awareness of the missing and murdered.

Scott Pinkham (Nez Perce) is the program director at Daybreak Star and was a featured speaker at the event. After the food was finished, everyone walked to Picnic Pond where a red dress was carried and set up on a pole, where the names of missing and murdered loved ones were then written.

“Today is kind of the national day of action and awareness for the missing and murdered Indigenous women, and that’s what really did start it was our missing Indigenous women,” said Pinkham in an interview. “But as it since expanded to include all missing Indigenous peoples and relatives, so you see there are a lot of different acronyms — MMIW and now, MMIWP or R. So, it’ll change and try to just remember that it’s more than just the women, but it’s also the men. But initially, it started with acknowledging that it’s our women who are missing at alarming rates. Unfortunately, some of the men saw them as targets, easy prey for them to either abuse or take advantage of.”

Everyone then gathered around a large outdoor fire where community members shared their experiences, struggles and grief — some spoke of a loved one dying to medical neglect, others spoke of having left an abusive relationship. A healing space, the fire was near the site of Daybreak Star’s new women’s sweat lodge and after sharing, community members were encouraged to plant roses and medicinal herbs in honor of their loved ones.

To learn more about Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, visit unitedindians.org/daybreak-star-center.