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Local indigenous group gathers in Phoenix to honor missing and murdered Native American women

A memorial was held on Sunday for Selena Not Afraid, who was found dead in Montana after her car broke down.

PHOENIX — Another Native American woman gone too soon. 

Selena Not Afraid and other missing and murdered indigenous women were honored during a memorial ride and ceremony in Phoenix on Saturday. 

“I came out to support,” Darrah Blackwater, a law student at the University of Arizona who studies federal Indian law, said.

"The effort of missing and murdered indigenous women to raise awareness about it.”

Arizona has the third-highest number of known missing and murdered indigenous women nationwide. 

Last summer, the Arizona House unanimously passed a bill establishing a study committee to gather more data. Attorney General William Barr announced in the fall that the Justice Department would invest $1.5 million to better protect Native American women.

Selena went missing on New Year's Day. According to CNN, she was returning to her home in Hardin, Montana, from a holiday party in Billings with friends when the car they were traveling in broke down at a rest stop. 

Credit: Courtesy of Selena Not Afraid's friends
Selena Not Afraid

After the car broke down, four of her friends left the vehicle for help, leaving her and another person in the car. That person told authorities that Selena left the car and climbed over a fence. 

Selena's body was found less than a mile from where she was last seen. Foul play was not suspected, authorities said. She was 16 years old. 

But Blackwater said her understanding was that Selina Not Afraid was hanging out with friends around New Year’s Eve. The car the teen was in pulled over. And she was never seen alive again.

“The thing that shocked me was when I first heard the report about it,” Blackwater said.

"They said that they didn’t suspect foul play. And that just seemed really strange. I think everyone in these indigenous communities … called bull crap on that," she continued.

"You don’t just disappear. There were people looking for her. There were people who cared about her. And she didn’t just disappear.”

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