The Women’s March began four years ago as an international effort to draw attention to inequality as President Donald Trump took office. Annual marches still take place all over the country and some are evolving. This year, Native women lead hundreds of protesters in Rapid City.
Small children with plastic noisemakers and red handprints painted over their mouth lead more than 200 people through memorial park. The handprint is a sign for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two Spirit, or LGBT, people. Women with the same paint lead chants close behind them.
Indigenous women go missing or are found murdered at high rates and federal action has been taken recently to help locate these women. That was a major topic at the Women’s March.
Cante Heart is with an advocacy group called NDN Collective.
“And Cante means heart in Lakota so it’s Heart Heart.”
She helped organize the march.
“Native women are silenced the most and we have a lot of missing and murdered Indigenous women who don’t get justice. And who get swept under the rug and we don’t get as much would if they were non-native. And so we felt like this was a place that as a platform to use our voices and to stand strong for those who are missing and have gone too soon.”
The South Dakota National Organization for Women hosted the event. Callan Baxter is the President.
“The first was directly in relation to the election of Donald Trump and now we’re much more focused on just fighting for women’s rights, especially with eventualities that we have found with this administration.”
Baxter says the annual event will continue to evolve and invites people from all backgrounds to join.