'Don't forget about our people': Families and advocates call for visibility at MMIP event in Eureka

Families, tribal leaders and search‑and‑rescue volunteers filled the Adorni Center on Tuesday for a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People awareness event focused on visibility, healing and the urgent need for faster responses when community members disappear.

"Today is about remembering our relatives that are missing and murdered, and trying to bring awareness and making sure that we're putting the issue at the forefront," said Jessica Carter, director of the Yurok Tribal Court. "So people don't forget about us, and don't forget about our people that are still missing need to be found."

Carter said the event is meant to bring families together in a space where they feel supported, seen and safe. Inside the center, attendees picked up wellness bags and T‑shirts as they arrived. The room was filled with circular tables that had flower arrangements and two tiny red battery operated tea light candles flickered on every table. Outreach tables lined one side of the room, including stickers, an origami table where people could write a message to their missing or murdered loved ones, a table with red paint to use for their signs, shirts or faces and a Yurok drone operator. There was a group prayer, a song, and several speakers from different tribes spoke, followed by a walk to the courthouse.

"It can get emotional," she said. "It's very personal for families. We want to make it special for the people who show up."

Carter said the awareness walk through Eureka, along with posters of missing loved ones, is designed to make the crisis visible and spread community awareness to the issue.

"This is a memorial and awareness event," Carter said. "We bring families who have people missing or murdered, and we want to bring awareness. We want people to see us."

After the walk, families created origami hearts and flowers, writing messages or names of loved ones before pinning them to a board reading, "It takes a village to help find people and bring justice." Later in the day, there was a planned dinner and a film screening.

"Art is therapeutic," Carter said. "It helps people in crisis."

One Earring Project

A pair of dresses displayed toward the front of the room held dozens of single earrings. The One Earring Project is a symbolic installation representing missing or murdered relatives and community members.

"Everyone has one earring they've lost," Carter said. "We have missing people, and we're trying to find them. We bring the earring forward and hope we can find the match and find our relatives too."

‘Waiting years for answers'

Carter said that families continue to face long delays when reporting someone missing

"We have to be out there and follow up when somebody is missing, like people have been waiting for years for answers," said Carter. "I think that's a big gap; we did work really hard to get the Feather Alert initiated. But even with that, there are issues with trying to get one started. It takes days, and we don't have that time, we need it within hours, because that's when you're the most likely to find someone.

The Yurok Tribe has spent three years building a database of more than 200 missing and murdered Indigenous people connected to the region, a number Carter called "a small snapshot" of the true scale.

"It's primarily women, but it affects our men too," she said. "We have one missing man in Klamath who went missing just a few weeks ago."

‘When families ask, I go'

Alanna Wright, fleet commander of Tey-ge-mem Drones, who flies her drones on search-and-rescue missions for the Yurok community, said the event was a chance to show families they are not alone.

"It feels a lot like I'm working alone sometimes, if there's no official search‑and‑rescue response, I might be the only one out there," said Wright. "At times I feel like we're little islands out there, you know, not exactly coordinating, not exactly talking to each other, for families too, their feeling like they might be alone in this. I think that this is an opportunity to come all together and give a little bit of ourselves to each other and to be really visible."

Wright said families can call her directly anytime they have a missing family member without waiting for law enforcement or a formal search team.

"I'm not doing this to operate by myself, I'm doing it for them. I want them to come talk to me. I want them to know I'm here," said Wright. "As long as the airspace is open and I'm flying legally, I go. I give law enforcement a heads up, that I'm out there doing stuff, but I don't need them. I'm certified. I know what I'm doing."

Her most recent search was for Brandyone Salazar, a young man who went missing within the boundaries of Yurok land and there is an active Feather Alert for him, as he is still missing.

"I don't know why there wasn't any more of a response generated, but it doesn't matter to me. I was out there within 24 hours," Wright said. "It took several days for an official response. I'm not bound by that. I want to find someone alive."

Wright said she never questions a family's credibility when they approach her about a missing family or community member.

"When they tell me something's wrong, I believe them the first time. I assume that the family knows this person better than I do," said Wright. "So when they tell me something's wrong, I believe them the first time, without quizzing them, without grilling them, without nothing, without we gotta wait 48 hours before we can, none of that mythological wait 48 hours nonsense."

She said the region's varying temperatures and terrain makes speed essential when a community member goes missing.

"We live in some of the most challenging terrain in California," said Wright. "I have a thermal drone, so I can go out in the middle of the night. The speed at which you respond is everything."

Bringing awareness to the issue

Several attendees at the event shared their reflections on the MMIP crisis and the need for public awareness. Nicholle Boulby, who was working at a table at the event that had T-shirts, stickers and lip balms available for attendees, spoke of what the day meant for her.

"To me, it means bringing awareness to everyone about missing and murdered Indigenous people and how it's important to bring awareness to it and talk about it. So way more people know about its severity," said Boulby. "A lot of people, especially in our community, are affected by it. I love seeing everyone come and be together."

Laura White-Woods, a community outreach manager with Yurok Tribal Court, spoke to the room full of attendees about the injustices the local tribal community has dealt with since early colonization.

"What this event means to me is to keep a presence on the problems and issues that we face in getting justice for MMIP and keeping it in the forefront of the public's mind. To us, this injustice is enormous and deserves our attention, our prayers, our diligence," said White-Woods. "We need good legislation and police presence and all the help we can get to rectify this problem someday."

She said she prayed for the day the community no longer needs MMIP events.

"I prayed this morning, when I was praying about this event," said White-Woods. "I was praying about how wonderful it would be one day when we don't have to do this anymore."

Maranda Vargas can be reached at 707-441-0504.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 8:20 PM.