Window Rock Sexual Assault Walk Highlights Survivor Support and Awareness

Laurelle Sheppard said survivors in Apache County can reach Victim Witness Services of Northern Arizona for 24-hour advocacy even if no police report has been filed, a reminder that help exists beyond the courthouse and police station. That message carried through Window Rock as the Missing and Murdered Diné Relative Task Force held its annual Sexual Assault Awareness Walk on April 20, drawing survivors, families, advocates and community leaders from the Navajo Nation Museum to the Navajo Nation Council Chamber.

The walk came during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, whose 2026 theme is “25 Years Stronger: Looking Back, Moving Forward.” Participants included the Navajo Nation Youth Advisory Council, Utah Navajo Health Services, AMA Doo Ałchini Bighan, Inc., the Navajo Division for Children and Family Services, Victim Witness Services of Northern Arizona and federal partners. Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, who chairs the task force, said the gathering was meant to tell relatives they are not alone and that the community stands with them. Speaker Crystalyne Curley said the Council stands with survivors and advocates and wants no one to face these challenges alone.

The walk also highlighted the public-health burden of sexual violence on the Navajo Nation, where advocates often have to connect trauma care, victim services and prevention in the same conversation. Althea James, a victim advocate with the Division for Children and Family Services, said support for victims begins with believing them and showing empathy. Sonlatsa Jim, the division’s deputy director, tied the walk to the Diné Action Plan, which addresses four “modern-day monsters”: suicide, substance abuse, violence and missing and murdered Diné relatives.

That broader crisis has also exposed gaps in the systems families rely on. In January, the Missing and Murdered Diné Relatives Task Force said it exists to serve families first by connecting them to case information, law enforcement and victim advocates, but relatives have raised concerns about delayed communication, limited case updates and alert-system problems. The Nation is working to strengthen its Amber Alert system, a fix that matters across the vast geography of Apache County and the rest of the Navajo Nation, where slow response times can leave families waiting for answers.

The policy backdrop is already on the books. The Navajo Nation Victim’s Rights Act, approved in August 2023, was designed to expand awareness of victims’ rights and available protections for people facing sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and other violent assaults. The annual walk, which also took place in 2024, has become a public test of whether those promises are reaching families on the ground, from Window Rock to chapter communities across Apache County.