Navajo Nation hosts Human Trafficking Awareness Walk

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona — On Monday, the Navajo Nation Council hosted a  ‘Human Trafficking Awareness Walk.’ The walk was intended to bring awareness to human trafficking, and the search for missing or murdered Navajo people across the United States. 

A press release from the Navajo Nation described the walk on Monday.

Thirty people joined Councilmembers; Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, Madam Chair Eugenia Charles-Newton, Council Delegate Charlaine Tso, and Council Delegate Nathaniel Brown. 

The walk spanned two miles from the Navajo Nation Museum to the Council Chambers. It concluded with a press conference where the hosts of the march spoke.

Speakers noted the high numbers of Native American people, and especially women, who go missing and who are trafficked.

Native Americans disproportionately effected by human trafficking

The United States Justice Department shared that an average of 40% of women involved in sex trafficking identified as Native American from the US or Canada, despite representing 10% or less of the population in the areas surveyed.

Council Delegate Crotty explained the purpose of the walk.

This walk allows us to talk about human trafficking, women trapped in man camps, and the violence that comes with it. We need to break the silence of the victims and uplift the voices of our survivors.

Council Delegate Brown was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey to Arizona’s Human Trafficking Council.

Brown said on Monday, “In the Navajo language, there is no word for human trafficking. Our communities are trying to understand what it is, so we must continue to have conversations about how global problems impact us at home on the Navajo Nation.”

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