House Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Hearing: Investigating the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 (10:00 AM)
2008 RHOB
Washington, D.C.

Note: This playlist does not contain the testimony of Bryan Newland or Richard "Glen" Melville. Most of the testimony from Patrice Kunesh is not included either.

WITNESSES
Panel one
Eugenia Charles-Newton
Law and Order Committee Chair and member of the Navajo Nation

Abigail Echo-Hawk
Executive Vice President at Seattle Indian Health Board and Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and member of the Pawnee Nation

Cheryl Horn
Member of the Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task and Member of the Assiniboine Tribe of Fort Belknap

Mary Jane Miles
Member of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC) and Member of the Nez Perce Tribe

Maulian Bryant
Wabanaki Alliance Incoming Executive Director and Member of the Penobscot Nation

Panel two
Bryan Newland
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe)

Richard "Glen" Melville
Deputy Bureau Director, Office of Justice Services and member of Makah Tribe of Washington

Patrice Kunesh
Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Daron Carreiro
Acting Director of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) at the Department of Justice

Investigating the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Eugenia Charles-Newton / Navajo Nation Council

Opening Remarks

House Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Hearing: Investigating the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 (10:00 AM)
2008 RHOB
Washington, D.C.

WITNESSES
Panel one
Eugenia Charles-Newton
Law and Order Committee Chair and member of the Navajo Nation

Abigail Echo-Hawk
Executive Vice President at Seattle Indian Health Board and Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and member of the Pawnee Nation

Cheryl Horn
Member of the Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task and Member of the Assiniboine Tribe of Fort Belknap

Mary Jane Miles
Member of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC) and Member of the Nez Perce Tribe

Maulian Bryant
Wabanaki Alliance Incoming Executive Director and Member of the Penobscot Nation

Panel two
Bryan Newland
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe)

Richard "Glen" Melville
Deputy Bureau Director, Office of Justice Services and member of Makah Tribe of Washington

Patrice Kunesh
Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Daron Carreiro
Acting Director of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) at the Department of Justice

Introduction of Panel Two

Bryan Newland / Department of the Interior

Tuning: Drop B (B-F#-B-E-G#-C#)
Amp: Fender Frontman 10G (I'm unable to Record my Electric Guitar Sound with my New Marshall MG30FX Amp because it Won't accept any of my Guitars with Active Pickups. My Marshall MG30FX Amp only works on any of my Guitars with Passive Pickups.)
Pedals: MXR Fullbore Metal Distortion Pedal and MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive Pedal.
Guitar: ESP/LTD RM600 with Active 81 Covered Humbucker Bridge Pickup.
Recording: I use my Phone to Record my Guitar Track. (I tried Audacity but it Only Record Half of my Electric Guitar Sound.)

Death to Agenda 47 [Guitar Track]

I'm Scared of Pierre PoiLIEvre [Guitar Track]

The interview with today’s guest, Laura Shamas (Chickasaw Nation) on her world premiere play Four Women in Red happened several days before the Los Angeles Fires (i.e., Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, Kenneth Fire, and the Hurst Fire). The play was originally scheduled to premiere on January 17th, 2025, at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank, California where performances were supposed to continue through February 23. 

As of January 11th, 2025, the Victory Theater Center announced that “With members of the cast, creative team and audience impacted by the wildfires, The Victory Theatre Center has canceled the previously announced January 17 opening of Four Women in Red, a new play by Laura Shamas about the current crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. A revised performance schedule will be announced at a later date.”
 
Four Women in Red is about four resilient Native American women searching for missing friends and relatives in the face of apathetic sheriffs and dwindling clues. Touching on variety if critically important issues such as MMIW, settler colonial violence, and this moving new play celebrates the power of community as the women seek answers against all odds.

While the interview references the January and February theater dates for the play, American Indian Airwaves is releasing the program because the fires are profoundly impacting all living relations (human and non-human), including Indigenous peoples involved with Four Women in Red and Indigenous throughout the region. The following are some support organizations providing relief and support for Indigenous peoples impacted by the fires. 
•	UAII headquarters, 1453 W Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026, is asking for the following items to be donated: Water, diapers, Snacks, N95 masks, Zip ties, Gauze, Saline flushers & Syringes for insulin, Band aids, Sharps containers, Tampons & pads, batteries, flashlights, Pet food, Jackets & Blankets, Hygiene products, and First Aid Supplies.
•	Spoon Fed Company, owned by Jacob Spoonhunter, is “making small food care packages (on Friday, Jan. 10) to those who were effected [sic] by the fires as well as the first responders,” according to the company’s Instagram. Spoonhunter is Northern Arapaho, Navajo, and Seminole. Go to the Instagram page for any donations or email: spoonfedco@gmail.com.
•	Chef Stephanie Pyet DeSpain, Prairie Band Potawatomi and winner of “Next Level Chef,” told her Instagram followers that she and other chefs will be doing a pop-up to feed community members. A plan will come out in the next few days, she said. Pyet announced on Jan. 10 on Instagram that she is teaming with Island Smoke N Grill through Go Fund Me to distribute meals for first responders and displaced families. If anyone wants to donate, volunteer, or needs some food to eat, direct message her on Instagram or email: info@pyetsplate.com. 
•	Meal + Donations for Our Indian Firefighter Crews. Suggested Donation Items: Chapstick, Body Wipes, Tylenol, Liquid in Powers, Protein Shakes or Bars, Nutritional Bars, Meat Sticks, Nuts (Trail Mix), and other nutritional snack items easily portable. Contact: Tencha (626) 409-7895 or Cheryl (562) 229-2005.

Guest:
Laura Shamas (Chickasaw Nations), is an accomplished Native American author, essayist, poet, journalist, playwright, and the recent recipient of the Los Angeles New Play Project (LANPP) grant for the play Four Women in Red which was first developed by Native Voices, the only Actors’ Equity theater company in the country dedicated to developing and producing new plays by Native artists.

Archived programs can be heard on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp

American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.

Sacred Stage: Talks with Native Playwrights and Artist with Laura Shamas

A cover of "No Where to Run" by Adrian Sutherland in dedication to my cousin Autumn Shaganash, missing since June 10 2023.

Nowhere to Run

This piece is a cry of love, rage, and remembrance for our missing and murdered Indigenous women, daughters, and sisters. It stands as both a ritual and a protest, a refusal to let silence bury the truth.

Infused with cinematic weight, guttural Inupiaq chanting, and Cherokee verse, Our Daughters carries grief and fire, woven with haunting drums and rock undertones. It’s not only a song, but a call to remember, to speak their names, and to demand justice.

Symbolism woven into this piece: 
🌿 Raven & snow: Inupiaq connection to land and spirit.
🌊 River & flame: Resilience and memory.
🌸 Cherokee verse: A blessing of love, endurance, and kinship.
🪶 Inupiaq women’s voices: Grounding the song in truth, ancestry, and living strength. 

This song is for Florence Okpealuk. For Mingnuna Pootoogooluk.
For all our daughters. For those taken, silenced, and forgotten.
We carry you. We will never stop speaking your names.

ᎢᎦ ᎦᎵᏉᎩ ᏗᎦᏓᏟᏴᏗ
"We are carrying our daughters with love"


LYRICS:

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Intro]

Our daughters… taken from us, but never forgotten.
Siku uqaqtuq, it calls your names.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 1]

Daughters of the North, walking with the snow,
The tundra your mother, the sea’s steady glow.
The raven was watching, the mountains stood near,
Your laughter was fire in the cold, sharp air.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 2]

One night grew silent, your footsteps erased,
The shoreline unanswered, no justice embraced.
The calls went unheard, the cries pushed aside,
Our daughters forgotten while the system hides.

Your badges are hollow, your courts turn away,
The papers fall silent, the headlines decay.
You bury the cases, you silence the cries,
A system of power built on our daughters’ lives.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Chorus]

Our daughters, we carry you,
In the fire, in the storm, in the songs we renew.
Our daughters, we’ll speak your names,
Never forgotten, the world feels the flame.
Tavva unalu!

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 3] 

Nakuuruŋa, uvagut aŋayuqaqput!
Inuuŋnaqtuq! Tavva itpich!
Qanuqtuurunniqsiaq! Nalunaiqsijugut!
Suliqatigiiktugut! Uqaqtugut!

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 4]

Florence, Mingnuna, your names we cry,
But you are not alone, we will not deny.
Our daughters are rivers, our daughters are breath,
Inuuŋnaqtuq (they live), stronger than death.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Final Chorus]

Our daughters, we carry you,
In the fire, in the storm, in the songs we renew.
Our daughters, we’ll speak your names,
Never forgotten, the world feels the flame.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Outro – Vigil Chant]

Our daughters… never forgotten.
Tavva! Tavva!
Our daughters… never forgotten.
Inuuŋnaqtuq! They live on.

Our Daughters

“The Lost Land” is a haunting ceremonial protest song rooted in grief, memory, and survival.
Blending deep heartbeat drums, raw female vocals, and Cherokee phonetic chants, the track paints the story of a land scorched by fire, loss, and history, and the small spark of life that rises from the ash.

The lyrics move through ancestral memory, devastation, and rebirth, confronting themes of cultural erasure, generational trauma, and the beauty of resilience. The Cherokee language becomes the backbone of the song, honoring the land and the people who still stand on it.

Dark, cinematic, and spiritual, The Lost Land feels like a prayer, a warning, and a battle cry all at once. The sound echoes ancient fires, heavy skies, and the quiet strength of a single green sprout fighting through charred soil.

A song for those who survived.
A song for those we lost.
A song for the land that remembers...


LYRICS:

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Intro]
The fire gutted the valley.
The mountains learned to scream.
Ash choked out every heartbeat
even the roots stopped their dream.

Tsisqua do not cry here now.
Their shadows fled the blaze.
This land does not forget its dead.
It calls me by my name.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 1]
The sky went black with mourning.
The wind dragged off the slain.
The trees bent low in witness
their leaves a prayer of pain.

I walk through bones of memory.
I breathe what once was light.
The ground is shaking under me
it still recalls the night.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Chorus]
The Lost Land…
shattered by a silent hand.
I walk through ruined beauty
a world that couldn’t stand.

Oo-yuh-wee…
["the people"]
Oo-dah-nuh-huh-ee…
["the burning"]
Eh-loh-hee…
["the land"]

Eh-loh-hee - Eh-loh-hee - Oo-yoo-tuh-dee…
["the grief"]
Doo-lees-dah!
["the pain"]
Oo-dah-nuh-hee-dah!
["the burning again"]
EH-LOH-HEE!!!

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 2]
I hear my elders calling
their footsteps shaken loose.
Their voices split the silence.
Their sorrow becomes my truth.

The riverbed is emptied out.
Its pulse is just a thread.
But under all this ruin,
the land refuses dead.

The smoke is thick with memory.
The soil splits with fear.
But still the heartbeat answers
“I am here. I am here.”

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Final Chorus]
The Lost Land…
crying underneath my feet.
I carry every memory
the wounds, the fire, the heat.

Oo-yuh-wee!
["the people"]
Oo-dah-nuh-huh-ee!
["the burning"]
Eh-loh-hee!
["the land"]

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Outro]
Eh-loh-hee… Eh-loh-hee…
I walk where the living cannot stand.
But my heart stays here
in the lost land.

The Lost Land

“We’re Still Here” is a raw, modern Native protest anthem blending cinematic dark folk with Cherokee phonetic chants and heavy, heartbeat-driven percussion.
The song confronts today’s Indigenous struggles head-on: generational trauma, addiction, mental health battles, land loss, MMIW, cultural erasure, and the silence of systems meant to protect us. We’re Still Here is both a warning and a promise-a voice for those ignored, strength for those who remain, and a reminder that no matter what was taken…
we are not gone. We're still here.

LYRICS:

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Intro]
They buried our voices.
We dug them back out.
We’re still here
and we’re done being quiet.

Eh-loh-hee gah-woh-nee-hee.
["The land is speaking"]
Oo-yuh-wee dah-gwah-doh-huh-vee.
["Our people are rising"]

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 1]
They say “just move,” like we’re a stain
but where do you run from generational pain?
This land is the one thing left that stayed,
the only promise this country never made.

They say “move on” like the past is gone,
but the past keeps walking with its boots still on.
Kids go hungry, mothers pray,
another body taken away.

Addiction grows where hope runs thin,
not weakness, just what trauma’s in.
Needles glitter where the light won’t reach,
and silence swallows what we can’t teach.

Mental health stays on the shelf,
’cause help costs more than life itself.
We lose our men to quiet fights;
we lose our women to stolen nights.

Red dresses don’t “symbolize”
they scream a truth they can’t disguise.
Law looks past us like smoke and air;
they only show when it’s easy to care.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Chorus]
We bleed, but we stand.
Every heartbreak, every hand.
We break, but we rise.
Every tear beneath these skies.

Oo-yuh-wee!
["The people!"]
Eh-loh-hee ah-nuhv!
["For the land!"]
Oo-dah-nuh-huh-ee!
["Through the burning!"]

We’re here, and we’ll stay
they didn’t make us, they can’t take us away.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Verse 2]
Pipelines slice where rivers heal;
rez houses rot with blackened steel.
Kids drop out just to survive,
older ones tired of staying alive.

Healing costs what we don’t earn;
suffering’s free at every turn.
They film our dances, steal our art
but never hold our grieving heart.

We bury young in open rain,
too much loss for one soul’s frame.
The country shrugs like it’s routine
another life lost, another unseen.

They love our stories but fear our truth,
teach our culture but erase our youth.
Want our rhythm, want our sound
but not our feet on sacred ground.

Still we pray, with smoke and flame,
say our language like reclaiming names.
Even as the world looks through
the land still whispers, “I see you.”

Chee-geh-sv-ee.
["I am strong."]
Tlah yah nee-gah-dah ee-yoo-s-dee.
["We are not small."]
Tlah ohs-dah dee-goh-hwel-vee geh-s-vee.
["Our voices will never fade."]

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Bridge]
Oo-yuh-wee — we’re still standing.
["The people — standing strong."]
Eh-loh-hee — still demanding.
["The land — calling us back."]
Oo-yoo-tuh-dee — grief commanding.
["Our grief — speaking truth."]

We’re still here, we’re still here.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Final Chorus]
We bleed, but we stand.
We’re the memory of this land.
We break, but we rise.
Thunder lives behind our eyes.

Oo-yuh-wee!
["The people!"]
Oo-dah-nuh-huh-ee!
["The burning!"]
Eh-loh-hee gah-lee-joe-day!
["The land forever!"]

We’re here, and we’ll stay
no matter what they steal,
we’re not the ones who fade away.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

[Outro]
Eh-loh-hee… Eh-loh-hee…
["Land… land…"]
Oo-yuh-wee noh-gwoo.
["Our people remain."]
Still here… still here…
and louder every year.

We're Still Here

 My name is Jeremy Moore, I am from Timmins, ON, Canada. Here I post recordings my wife and I do, as well as, stuff I record with my friends, enjoy! 

American Indian Airwaves (AIA), an Indigenous public affairs radio porgram and, perhaps, the longest running Native American radio program within both Indigenous and the United States broadcast communication histories. Also, AIA broadcast weekly every Thursday from 7pm to 8pm (PCT) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles (http://www.kpfk.org).  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aiacr


American Indian Airwaves is produced in Burntswamp Studios and started broadcasting on March 1st, 1973 on KPFK in order to give Indigenous peoples and their respective First Nations a voice about the continuous struggles against Settler Colonialism and imperialism by the occupying and settler societies often referred to as the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Latin and South America countries located therein.

American Indian Airwaves operates as an all-volunteer collective with no corporate sponsorship and no underwriters.

Tayohi Storm is a Cherokee folk project born from river and sky, where ancestral echoes meet the pulse of modern storytelling. Rooted in the name Tayohi: the beaver, a builder and shaper of rivers, this music carries both legacy and resilience, weaving Cherokee traditions with raw, cinematic folk.

With a sound that drifts between intimate acoustic ballads, thunderous drumscapes, and ethereal, ritual-like chants, Tayohi Storm creates a space where nature, spirit, and storm converge. Each song is both a reflection and a call, songs of water shaping stone, of survival and memory, of voices that refuse to be silenced.

For listeners, Tayohi Storm is not just music, it’s an experience of grounding and transcendence, balancing stillness and power.

News, information and entertainment for Indian Country. Brought to you by Indianz.Com, a subsidiary of Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development corporation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Phone: 202 630 8439

English: 4-Piece Bisexual Millennial Mixed-Gender Nu Metalcore Band with 2 Long-Haired Men & 2 Women. Emperor Inferno (He/They) = Lead Electric Guitars & Co-Lead Vocals, Miztress of Metal (She/They) = Rhythm Electric Guitars & Co-Lead Vocals, Kurrupter (He/They) = 5-String Bass Guitars & Co-Lead Vocals, and BlazedKekies (She/They) = Drums. Former Band Names: Blue Fire (January 1, 2004 - June 20, 2004), GUN.45 (June 21, 2004 - March 21, 2005), Vredesbyrd (2007 - February 1, 2012, October 16, 2024 - August 13, 2025 (A.K.A. The New September 11, 2001)), Am I Evil (March 12, 2013 - November 8, 2016), & Seven Nation Army 785 (November 9, 2016 - October 16, 2024). P.S. UPDATE FROM THE LONG-HAIRED MALE LEAD GUITARIST: I'm still using the Name 'Am I Evil' for my Industrial Metal Project & I'm also recently Change the Band Name Back to 'Vredesbyrd' for Time Travel Purpose (So I can Re-Live my (January 1, 2006 - March 20, 2011) Emo/Scene Days). Both of my Long-Haired Male 5-String Bass Guitarist & my Female Rhythm Guitarists are Canadians and my Female Drummer is both Brazilian & Older than me (Born between 1981 to 1991). My Year Birth is 1992. And Vredesbyrd will NOT Sign to any Record Labels from United States. Elbows Up!

French-Canadian: Groupe de Nu Metalcore Mixte Millennial Bisexuel de 4 Musiciens avec 2 Hommes et 2 Femmes aux Cheveux Longs. Emperor Inferno (He/They) = guitares électriques principales et co-voix principales, Miztress of Metal (She/They) = guitares électriques rythmiques et co-voix principales, Kurrupter (He/They) = guitares basses à 5 cordes et co-voix principales, et BlazedKekies (She/They) = batterie. Noms d'anciens groupes : Blue Fire (1er janvier 2004 - 20 juin 2004), GUN.45 (21 juin 2004 - 21 mars 2005), Vredesbyrd (2007 - 1er février 2012, 16 octobre 2024 - Le 13 août 2025 (alias Le nouveau 11 septembre 2001)), Am I Evil (12 mars 2013 - 8 novembre 2016) et Seven Nation Army 785 (9 novembre 2016 - 16 octobre 2024). P.S. MISE À JOUR DU GUITARISTE PRINCIPAL MASCULIN AUX CHEVEUX LONGS: J'utilise toujours le nom 'Am I Evil' pour mon projet de métal industriel et j'ai aussi récemment changé le nom du groupe en 'Vredesbyrd' pour Time Travel Purpose (So I can Re-Live my (1er janvier 2006 - 20 mars 2011) Emo/Scene Days). Mon bassiste à 5 cordes et mes guitaristes rythmiques sont tous deux canadiens et ma batteuse est brésilienne et plus âgée que moi (née entre 1981 et 1991). Mon année de naissance est 1992. Et Vredesbyrd ne signera PAS avec des maisons de disques des États-Unis. Coudes en l'air!

New tracks tagged #MMIW