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Afro-Indigenous professional boxer-turned-actress Kali Mequinonoag Reis and professional long-distance runner and Indigenous activist, Jordan Marie Whetstone are raising awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP) during this Sunday’s TCS New York City Marathon. Founded by Jordan, Rising Hearts is an Indigenous-led grassroots organization that works to elevate Indigenous voices, promote justice and dismantle racism and violence.
Kali and Jordan are running the 2024 race to bring more visibility to MMIWP and raise at least $100,000 to launch the organization’s ‘You Are Loved’ grant program. The community grant was created to help provide financial resources to the families and communities within the MMIWP space that need support in fighting for justice, accountability, healing and a safer future.
Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are victims of violence at a much higher rate than other populations. Native women continue to go missing and are murdered at alarming rates. In 2016, The National Crime Information Center reported there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. Only 116 of those cases ever made it into the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, NamUs.
Native women make up a significant proportion of missing and murder cases. Not only is the murder rate ten times higher than the national average for women living on reservations but murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women. This is startling as Native people only make up 2% of the US overall population. Additionally, Indigenous women are more likely to experience physical and sexual assault than non-Indigenous women.
Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone is a citizen of Kul Wičasa Oyaté (Lower Brule Sioux Tribe), while Native rights advocate Kali ‘KO’ Reis is of Seaconke Wampanoag and Cape Verdean decent. The two are running for justice and with purpose to raise funds for the grant which Rising Hearts created with the Urban Indigenous Collective (UIC). As shared on Instagram, “The financial stress can be a lot when a loved one is missing or found not alive. Most of the time, it’s the families that are fundraising immediately, survivors of violence needing resources and community advocacy organizations needing continuous funding to keep supporting the families, communities, survivors, advocacy, events and legislative efforts.”
Their 2024 TCS NYC Marathon fundraising goal is to initiate the grant program, with a long-term vision of securing sustained funding from both community sources and external agencies. Rising Hearts will donate $20K to directly support UIC’s MMIP Taskforce and the individuals they help. The organization states that it needs more resources to support court costs, search and rescue operations, data collection, travel for hearings, legal fees and mental health and wellness services. Applications for the grant program will go live January 1, 2025.
Jordan dedicated her 2019 Boston Marathon to 26 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Since then, she has been on a mission to bring more visibility to the movement. Since 2020, Rising Hearts has helped raise over $200,000 through its virtual wellness campaigns for families of missing and murdered loved ones, advocates and survivors. Jordan will also run the California International Marathon on December 8 to continue fundraising for ‘You Are Loved.’
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