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your homegrown newspaper June 21, 2023
Vol. 19, No. 40
Scholarship pg. 13
SUMMER GODDARD / VALLEY JOURNAL
Lakers pg. 14
MMIR walk raises awareness, remembers victims By Taylor Davison / Valley Journal
MME pg. 16
FLATHEAD RESERVATION — From June 13 to June 16, families and members of the community marched to remember lives lost along U.S. Highway 93. The 2023 Justice to be Seen Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Walk took place through the Flathead Reservation. Starting out in Arlee and ending in Polson, each day of
the march remembered a life lost: Mika Westwolf, Maureena “Mena” Twoteeth, Aiden Finley, and Sonia Spotted Bear. The march culminated at the Lake County Courthouse with speeches from families impacted by Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) and included honor and healing songs. In each these cases where lives were lost alongside Highway 93, the families shared a common
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frustration: the feeling of a lack of communication with officials. Finley, 20, lost his life in Pablo in late 2018. The family believes the driver never stopped, leaving Finley to die. The hit and run driver has not been found. The family has marched for him in the years since with the rallying cry “someone knows.” Spotted Blanket, 31, lost her life in April near St. Ignatius. Little has been released about her death so far. Westwolf, 22,
lost her life in March to a driver who allegedly left the scene. The woman being investigated on suspicion of hitting her, Sunny White, is a suspected white nationalist based on her children’s names released in a Missing Endangered Person Advisory from Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement, “Aryan” and “Nation.” White is currently being prosecuted through the Butte court system accused of
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