Pierce County proclaims May 5, 2025 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Awareness Day

Pierce County on May 6 adopted a proclamation recognizing May 5, 2025 as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP) Awareness Day, underscoring county-tribal collaboration and recent statewide steps to improve alerts and tracking.

The proclamation notes more than 134 missing people in Washington state as of April 23, 2024, and cites the state’s 2021 MMIWP task force and the March 31, 2022 enactment of HB 1725 establishing a statewide missing indigenous person alert system. The document also says the Washington State Patrol had issued 147 missing indigenous person alerts, with the missing person located in all but 19 cases, and that Pierce County is building an interactive website to raise public recognition and better tell the stories of missing persons in coordination with tribes and local law enforcement.

Puyallup tribal representatives Anna Bean and Carolyn DeFord addressed the council remotely. Bean, a Puyallup Tribal Council member who serves as the tribe’s MMIWP representative, thanked the county for consultation on wording and emphasized the importance of community sharing and rapid reporting. “Time is of the essence in these cases,” Bean said, and urged residents to share verified information and to contact law enforcement immediately when someone is missing.

Carolyn DeFord, who leads an anti-trafficking program affiliated with the Puyallup Tribe, emphasized the urban nature of tribal populations and said many vulnerabilities occur off-reservation where tribal members seek assistance: “This is a community issue,” she said, and urged stronger prevention alongside response efforts.

The council encouraged community members to stand in solidarity, to answer calls to action from tribal partners, and to educate themselves about reporting structures and prevention.