Dozens gathered at Cross Creek Friday afternoon to attend the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) 3rd annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Day of Awareness.
May 5 is national day of awareness for MMIP and serves as an opportunity to not only educate others, but to honor the lives that have been lost and to address the violence against indigenous communities.
GTB’s MMIP event featured a water ceremony, drumming and dancing, guest speakers, and the hanging of red garments in remembrance of those missing or murdered.
“I think we’ve always been faced with adversity, but the good thing about us is we’ve always found a way to overcome that, and that’s why we’re here today. I think it’s a testament to who we are as a people,” said David Arroyo, GTB tribal chairman. “We want the community to know, those who have lost loved ones, that we understand and we feel their pain because they’re our family members too… it’s coming together for healing and to let people know we support them and that we’ll get through the dark days together, and no matter what happens to us we’ll always stand strong as a community.”
According to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, in 2021, homicide was the eighth leading cause of death among American Indian/Alaska native females. The National Institute of Justice research indicates that more than four in five American Indian and Alaska native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including stalking, sexual violence, and physical abuse by an intimate partner.
“We have the highest rate of people who will experience a violent crime. These are all numbers, they’re all statistics, you can pull them off the internet, read them, write about them, but when it hits close to home, that’s when you know how much it affects our people,” said Cathy Crowley, a GTB member who spoke to the crowd. “Karen Petoskey, Auggie Floyd, Cecelia Schwanke, Jacob Cabinaw, Monica June — say their names, because those are real people, they’re not statistics… When you go home tonight, when you say your prayers, say their names, they deserve our tears, they deserve our broken hearts, they deserve our anger, but most all, they deserve to be remembered, they deserve to be spoken and accounted for. They deserve our love.”
Many in the MMIP crowd wore shirts with the names of GTB members that remain missing or were murdered, with the quote “you are not forgotten” printed on the design. The names on the shirt are: Augustine Floyd, Kathleen Floyd, Monica Anderson, Jacob Cabinaw, and Cecelia Schwanke.
Augustine “Auggie” Floyd, a GTB member and Leelanau County resident, went missing in the fall of 2007. He was only 18-years-old at the time he went missing, but he was last seen on the reservation of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe. Augustine had reportedly lived with his grandmother in Suttons Bay since his mother, Kathleen Floyd, was murdered in Peshawbestown.
His brother, Misheka Floyd, spoke at the MMIP event Friday to talk about his experience dealing with the tragedy, emphasizing the need for more resources and support in searching for missing and murdered indigenous people.
“I have a few family members missing or murdered. My brother Augustine, my aunt Kathleen, my cousin Monica… It’s really hard and it gets frustrating because there’s just not really a lot of help for things like this and for Native American people,” Floyd said. “When my brother Augustine went missing at 18-years-old, it was a whole week before local law enforcement even started helping us search. I never thought anything like this would ever happen… and for this stuff to continue to happen — Auggie had to deal with his mom being murdered right in front of his own eyes, his dad being murdered a couple months after that… Why are people getting away with these things? Our people’s lives matter, we’re human beings.”
Another GTB member and Leelanau County resident, Jacob Cabinaw, 31 at the time, has been reported missing since April 2010. Cabinaw was the father to two boys, was a member of the Michigan National Guard, and was due to graduate with his mechanic certification just two weeks after he went missing.
The Grand Traverse County’s Sheriff’s Office is still searching for new leads or tips in the unsolved missing person case with the goal to let the family know that they will never forget their loved one. In the last few months, the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office has connected with representatives from the Michigan State Police, Michigan State Police Crime Lab and Western Michigan University Cold Case Program to develop and implement an investigative plan. If anyone has information related to the missing person case of Cabinaw, they are encouraged to call 231995-5039, or to utilize the Sheriff’s Office Citizen On-Line Reporting link for tips: www. gtcountymi.gov/2577/Citizen-On-Line-Reporting.
To submit an anonymous tip to the FBI, people can call 1800-225-5324.
“The FBI and the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Department have been through the tribal police department speaking with our detectives and our captain talking about the situation. It’s not a cold case, it’s an ongoing investigation,” said police officer Tom George Jr. at the event. “No tip is too old, no information anyone has is too old to report.”
