Back in October, I was working on a production crew for a TV movie called Badwater, about a young Native American girl who had been raped and murdered. During the filming of a protest scene, I met Michela Fay Alire (Ute Mountain Tribe), who was working as an extra and came dressed in a colorful ribbon skirt — a traditional symbol of strength and resilience worn by Native women throughout North America. 

I was so struck by the design that I asked to photograph her and several friends — members of her all-female Native military veterans group – near Ute Mountain Casino, in Chimney Rock, Colorado. That session inspired me, and I began traveling widely, photographing women on different tribal lands. Many of the photos were related to tragedies involving missing and murdered Native women in or around the Navajo Nation.

There is no reliable database that tracks how many Indigenous women go missing or are killed each year. But a 2016 National Institute of Justice report found that four in five Indigenous women will experience violence in their lifetimes. 

Over and over, as I shot these photos, I found myself drawn to the color red, the official color of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women awareness campaign. According to some tribes, red is the only color the spirits see. By wearing red, it is our collective hope that we can call back the missing spirits of our Indigenous sisters and daughters and lay them to rest.

These photos have been collected for Native American Heritage Month. 

Photos by Curtis Ray Benally

Michela Fay Alire (Ute Mountain Tribe) displaying her ribbon skirt, which details the story of the murder of Eleanor Laney Ewenin, a twenty-three-year-old Tsuut’ina First Nation woman, on the outskirts of Calgary, Alberta, Feb. 4, 1982. Sleeping Ute Mountain, Sat., Oct. 31, 2020.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women awareness campaign participants Madeline Lamb (Muscogee Creek & Mojave), Kia Whiteskunk (Ute Mountain Tribe), Maryann Bullhead (Diné & Lakota), Belinda Running Wolf-Metteba (Cheyenne River Sioux), Michela Fay Alire (Ute Mountain Tribe), Gracious Jacket (Ute Mountain Tribe), Kirsten Langmade (Organized Village of Kwethluk/Yup’ik Alaska Native), Cindy Littlefeather (Diné) and Shasta Hampton (White Mountain Apache) at Sleeping Ute Mountain, Towac, Colo., Sat., Nov. 7, 2020.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women awareness campaign participants Shirleen Phillips-Benally (Navajo) and Shantana Varela (Navajo & Mexican) at Dinétah Main Panel, Crow Canyon, N.M., Sun., Nov. 8, 2020.
Navajo female veterans, from left: Tasha Soce-Cloyd (U.S. Marine Corps), Katera Kellywood (U.S. Army), Clarissa Wisnoski (U.S. Navy), Glendora Guillen (U.S. Navy active duty) and Dawn D. Lewis (U.S. Navy veteran) stand in prayer behind Irene Shorthair and Marietta Barber holding the vinyl banner for their missing sister Cecelia Barber Finona on Sat., Nov. 14, 2020. Cecelia was last seen here at her residence in Farmington, N.M., May 2019.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) awareness campaign photo session at Cove, Ariz., Navajo Nation, on Sun., Nov. 15, 2020. Participants, from left: Hailey Robinson, Hayden Robinson, Valeria Robinson, Mariangela Henderson, Marjorie Ann Benally, Deloria Rose Benally, Karri Kellywood, Katera Kellywood and Katalina Kellywood.
Amara Cervantes, Tunte Baca, Paisley Pike, Pearl Pike, Ember Cervantes, Samantha Kazhe, Alyn Kirgan, Angel Blake and Ramona Fossum at White Sands National Park, Friday, November 20, 2020.
Amara Cervantes, Tunte Baca, Ramona Fossum, Ember Cervantes, Alyn Kirgan, Pearl Pike, Samantha Kazhe and Angel Blake at White Sands National Park on Fri., Nov. 20, 2020.
Ariana R. Young, Katalina Kellywood, Constance Torres, Rose Therese Benally, Natalia Hobson, Marjorie A. Benally, Deloria Rose Benally, Gloria Hosteen, Aliana R. Begaii, Destenie J. Nakai, Ashley Tsosie, Kaylyn Bunion, Racquel Bunion, Arianna Yazzie and Katrina Tsosie at Tsé-Bi-Taí (Rock with Wings), Shiprock, N.M., Sat., Nov. 21, 2020.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women photo campaign participants paused in a moment of silence in the memory of Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Navajo girl killed on May 2, 2016, near the Shiprock pinnacle. Taken on Sat., Nov. 21, 2020. Left side: Aliana R. Begaii and Kaylyn Bunion. Right side, front row, from left: Constance Torres, Rose Therese Benally, Destenie J. Nakai, Ashley Tsosie and Natalia Hobson. Back row, from left: Racquel Bunion, Ariana R. Young, Katrina Tsosie, Gloria Hosteen, Deloria Rose Benally, Arianna Yazzie, Katalina Kellywood and Marjorie A. Benally.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women photo shoot session north of Shiprock, N.M.,. Sun., Nov. 22, 2020: Verna Howe, Wendy Toledo, Jo Ann Draper, Leonina Washee, Leonona Cowboy, Laurinda Warren, Sylvia Clifford, Phyllis ByJoe, Karri Kellywood and Varlena Castiana.

Curtis Ray Benally is a fine artist, actor and photographer and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. He has provided photos to the Farmington Daily Times, Navajo Times, Albuquerque Journal and Santa...