Helena walk honors missing, murdered Indigenous people at Capitol

Everett Roubideaux, a Northern Cheyenne member, stood with community members at the Montana Capitol and put the message plainly: missing Indigenous people are not an abstract issue, and people need to recognize the wrongness of someone going missing while showing more respect for one another and for their neighbors.

The Helena Indian Alliance led the second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Walk around the Capitol on May 5, turning the center of state government in Helena into a place for remembrance and testimony. Memorials were placed by tribal flags so participants could leave something behind for the people they came to honor, and attendees were invited to speak about family members and friends. The result was more than a symbolic circuit around the building. It was a public acknowledgment that many Indigenous families in Montana still live with the absence of sons, daughters, sisters and cousins.

The scale of the crisis gave the walk its urgency. Montana Office of Public Instruction materials citing state justice data say Native Americans in Montana are four times more likely to be reported missing than their counterparts. Those same materials say Indigenous people make up 6.5% of the state’s population but accounted for 24% of active missing-person reports in 2025. More than 80% of people reported missing in 2023 were under age 18. A 2021 KTVH report showed a similar imbalance, saying Indigenous people made up about 7% of Montana’s population but more than 26% of missing-person cases.

The Capitol setting added another layer of meaning. In 2019, the Montana State Legislature created a memorial and permanently displayed the flags of Montana’s eight Tribal Nations on the State Capitol grounds. KTVH later reported that the Tribal Flag Plaza represents all of Montana’s recognized tribal flags, making the walk part of a larger effort to keep Native identity visible in the state’s political heart.

State and tribal leaders have gathered at the Capitol before for MMIP awareness on the national Day of Awareness, but advocates in Helena are trying to make sure the observance does not fade into a once-a-year event. The Helena Indian Alliance said it plans to continue the walk in future years, a sign that repeated public remembrance will remain part of the response.

The Montana Department of Justice’s missing-person database, last updated on February 14, 2026, includes separate categories for missing Indigenous persons and missing children. In Helena and across Lewis and Clark County, the message from the Capitol was clear: awareness matters, but families want institutions to match that awareness with sustained attention, visible accountability and a public commitment that the names behind these statistics will not be forgotten.