[ Young Indigenous mother Bessie Walker went missing, then was
found dead in California. Her case got only a fraction of the
attention that Gabby Petito’s did.] [[link removed]]

GRIEVING FAMILY OF 27-YEAR-OLD MOM CALL ATTENTION TO MISSING
INDIGENOUS WOMEN  
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Sarah Ruiz-Grossman
October 12, 2021
HuffPost
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_ Young Indigenous mother Bessie Walker went missing, then was found
dead in California. Her case got only a fraction of the attention that
Gabby Petito’s did. _

Bessie Walker, 27 — a mother of three kids ages 12, 7 and 4, and a
member of the Big Sandy Rancheria tribe — was reported missing from
her hometown in Auberry, California, on Aug. 8. She was found dead two
weeks later., (Photo: Fresno County Sheriff Office)

 

OAKLAND, Calif. — The family of Bessie Walker — a 27-year-old
mother who went missing for weeks before being found dead in August
— held a rally Tuesday, calling attention to missing and murdered
Indigenous women, who don’t garner nearly the same news coverage or
police response that missing white women do.

“We spent hours and nights without sleeping looking for her,” Ruby
Rodriguez, Walker’s older sister, said at a protest and press
conference in Oakland. “We don’t have peace.”

“My family just wants answers. They want justice,” Rodriguez said,
crying. “How come no arrests have been made?”

Rodriguez was surrounded by around two dozen family and friends of
Walker’s, as well as Indigenous organizers and allies who wore
bandanas with the letters MMIW — for Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women — and T-shirts that said, “No more stolen sisters.”
Rodriguez’s two young children held a pink sign with yellow glued-on
letters that read, “Justice for Bessie.”

Walker — a mother of three kids ages 12, 7 and 4, and a member of
the Big Sandy Rancheria tribe — was reported missing
[[link removed]] from
her hometown in Auberry, California, on Aug. 8. Two weeks later,
her family found her dead about 100 yards from a family member’s
home, according to the sheriff’s office.

At the rally, Walker’s sister condemned the Fresno County
Sheriff’s Office for not doing more to find Walker while she was
missing. “Nobody talks about it anymore. The sheriffs don’t tell
us nothing. Why wasn’t there more done?” Rodriguez said through
tears.

The sheriff’s office told HuffPost that detectives spent “hundreds
of hours” searching for Walker, calling the family’s criticisms
“unwarranted.” Walker’s cause of death remains
“undetermined.” The sheriff’s office hasn’t posted publicly
about the investigation since August.

Rodriguez said her family’s next step will be to file a lawsuit
against the sheriff’s office.

[Bessie Walker's sister Ruby Rodriguez (right) speaks at a rally for
missing and murdered Indigenous women.]

Bessie Walker's sister Ruby Rodriguez (right) speaks at a rally for
missing and murdered Indigenous women. HUFFPOST / SARAH
RUIZ-GROSSMAN  

At the rally, local organizers with social justice group CURYJ
condemned the outsize attention paid to Gabby Petito’s case
[[link removed]] —
also a woman in her 20s who went missing before being found dead, but
who was white. Petito, reported missing Sept. 11, was found dead less
than 10 days later
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While Petito’s case got wall-to-wall national news
[[link removed]] coverage
on every development in her case (including from HuffPost
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Walker’s case was only covered locally
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not in nearly as much detail.

“We’re here to denounce the racism and erasure of Black,
Indigenous and people of color,” said George Galvis, co-founder of
CURYJ. “We’re not saying it’s not good to investigate Gabby
Petito. What we’re saying is Black and Indigenous women deserve the
same level of investigation and they deserve the same attention from
the media.”

Thousands of women and girls of color disappear each year
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the country, many garnering little to no public attention.

One report looked at 247 missing teens in New York and California and
found 34% of cases involving white teens were covered by media,
versus just 7% of cases involving Black
[[link removed]] teens
and 14% involving Latinx kids, The Associated Press reported.

A recent report on missing or murdered Indigenous women by the
nonprofit Sovereign Bodies Institute found that in California, just 9%
of murder cases involving Indigenous women and girls were solved,
compared to a statewide rate of over 60% for solving murders, per
CalMatters
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Walker’s family held Tuesday’s rally outside local Fox TV station
KTVU, which suspended anchor Frank Somerville
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month, reportedly over disagreements with his superiors about his
wanting to add a note to a segment on Gabby Petito to highlight how
Black women are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and
get less attention than white women gone missing — or what late
journalist Gwen Ifill dubbed “missing white woman syndrome.”

KTVU did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.

“May the words we speak today help someone somewhere,” Indigenous
organizer Lyla June Johnston said in a prayer at the start of the
rally, as sage burned. “We ask you to protect our women.”

“Bless our enemies, bless the people in the news studio behind
us,” Johnston added. “Bless those who don’t see us as human and
help them understand they are our family.”

_Sarah Ruiz-Grossman is a reporter based in the San Francisco Bay
Area, covering news and politics, including poverty, immigration and
racial justice. Interviews in Spanish, French or English._

 

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