Sage Chief (she/her) is Oglala Lakota and Diné. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she now lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and has experienced first-hand the devastation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) epidemic. At just 19 years old, Sage is a student at Oglala Lakota College, an ambassador for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute and a passionate advocate for the MMIP movement.
Trigger warning: child abuse and violent crime.
The United States was built on an ideal of equality: “liberty and justice for all.” Yet just beneath the facade of progress and accomplishment lingers an excruciating truth felt by tribal communities nationwide as we stand together to demand justice for 14-year-old San Carlos Apache girl, Emily Pike. Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people experience violence, sexual assault, go missing and are murdered at the highest rates of any ethnic group in the country. On May 5, we come together to fight against this epidemic of injustice for the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP).
Emily’s case is a painful example of one of the most prominent, yet underreported, issues affecting Indian Country today. Ever since European settlers arrived in the Americas, Indigenous people have been the unjust targets of colonial violence. As time goes on, we continue to see little to no response to a crisis that destroys our families and communities.
On January 27, Emily Pike was reported missing from her group home in Mesa, AZ. On February 14, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office found trash bags containing dismembered remains on a dirt road near Globe, AZ. Officials identified the remains as Emily Pike, whose case is being investigated as a homicide.
When I think about what happened to Emily as a young Native woman myself, it is a disheartening reminder of the danger we face every day. Native women experience higher rates of violence than anyone else in this country, a fact seldom acknowledged by the mainstream media. Our traditional teachings tell us that children are our future, and women are our backbone. So, when a story like Emily’s comes to light, heartbreak is felt by every single Native person. We understand how deeply these traumas impact our communities, and feel for her as though she were our own daughter, sister, mother or auntie.
One of the biggest factors that contributes to MMIP is lack of data. As reported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, out of 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons filed in 2016, only 116 were logged into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). The wide gap between these two numbers represents the severity of our people being unaccounted for. Due to this lack of data, Native families and communities often have no clue who or when somebody is missing, nor do they have access to the resources needed to find out what happened. We are given so many excuses as to why MMIP cases are not handled correctly – it’s time somebody starts giving us solutions.
We demand Department of Justice implement a national missing persons database for AI/AN, or improve upon the NamUs system to ensure MMIP cases are not overlooked; authorities in both foster care systems and law enforcement be properly trained on how to identify and solve a MMIP case; and more funding be made available to search for our relatives and investigate these unsolved or unreported cases.
During the National Week of Action (May 5-9, 2025), we call for visibility, support and positive change to protect our relatives and ensure that Emily Pike’s name will never be forgotten. Her family and friends deserve closure and justice. If you have any information regarding Emily’s case, please contact the Gila County Sheriff’s Office at (928-200-2352), Bureau of Indian Affairs at (505-917-7830) or San Carlos Apache Tribal Police (928-475-1755).
For more information about the MMIP crisis and how you can be an ally to Indigenous communities, follow the Center for Native American Youth on Instagram or Facebook.
