‘My daughter wasn’t important’: Amid Gabby Petito case, Indigenous women seek justice
Global News
Several Native Americans are seeking justice for their daughters and sisters after the disappearance of another young American woman, Gabby Petito, gained global attention.
Pepita Redhair, a 27-year-old Navajo woman who dreamt of becoming an engineer and loved skateboarding, was last seen in March 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Redhair’s disappearance was not reported in local media. Detectives said they had no leads, according to her mother Anita King.
Now King, 62, is organizing an Oct. 3 rally in Albuquerque to seek justice for her daughter after the disappearance of another young American woman, Gabby Petito, gained global attention.
“I felt like my voice wasn’t important, my daughter wasn’t important because she was Native American,” King said on Friday from her home in Crownpoint, New Mexico.
She is being helped by Native American activists who note how much more media coverage was given to Petito, a 22-year-old white woman, compared with missing and murdered women of color.
“It’s systemic racism, it’s the historical and inter-generational trauma that continues to perpetuate these stigmas that black and brown people are not as important as white people,” said Jolene Holgate, a director for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women https://www.csvanw.org in Albuquerque.
“I want to extend our love and prayers to the (Petito) family and I’m very happy they could get that closure and I hope that they get justice,” Holgate said after Petito’s body was found on Sunday in Wyoming. “We really feel like our stories are not being as amplified.”
State studies show Native people, especially women and girls, represent a disproportionately large number of missing and murdered cases but do not get equal attention from media or law enforcement.