Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer says. “The president of the United States and first lady, Lennix Moon Hunter Cade.”
The applause beyond the curtain where we’ve been waiting backstage is deafening. When we step onto the stage, the lights temporarily blind me, and I tighten my hand around Lennix’s. This moment feels fantastical, and it’s the strong grip of her fingers that grounds me in reality. This is actually happening. Long months, countless speeches and campaign stops, millions of votes and innumerable sacrifices have led to this historic night.
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MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN
As I interviewed Native American women for this story, an issue kept rising to the surface of our conversations: the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Reportedly, in some tribal communities in the United States, Native women are ten times more likely to be murdered than the national average.
Ten times.
This is devastating and unbelievable. It’s a complicated issue, and information here (uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf) may help explain just how convoluted our systems make finding justice for these women.
As I approached Lennix’s story, I knew many readers would see never finding her mother Liana or knowing what happened to her as a loose end.
It is intentional.
I wanted us as readers to have just the tiniest glimpse of how the hundreds of thousands of families feel who lose their mothers, sisters, friends this way. They, like Lennix, never know what happened. They only know she’s gone.
Thank you for taking this journey with me.