Say Her Name: Hanna Harris’ Murder is Why We Remember Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous People on May 5

Hanna Harris, a tribal citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, would have turned 30 on Thursday, May 5, 2022, had she lived. Instead, thousands of Native Americans and supporters observed Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day across America. May 5, Harris’ birthday, was set as a day of observance to those who go missing and murdered in Indian Country.

Harris was only 21 on July 4, 2013, when she left the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation to go into nearby Lame Deer, Montana, to watch the Independence Day fireworks. She never returned home. When her immediate family reported her missing, local law enforcement downplayed her disappearance. Four days later a volunteer search team found her badly decomposed body in the summer heat of the Great Plains. It was so decomposed, forensic technicians could not ascertain if she had been sexually assaulted or the cause of death.

Testimony from those responsible for her death confirmed Harris was raped and bludgeoned to death.

Read more of her life here.