It’s a subject that has been largely ignored by the public and mainstream press in the U.S.: the plight of thousands of missing and murdered Native American women across the country.
Albuquerque reporter Mary Hudetz and national enterprise journalists Sharon Cohen and David Goldman teamed up to deliver an impressive all-formats package that illuminated these tragedies, getting play as far away as New Zealand and earning praise from the industry for their efforts.
Cohen spent weeks finding victims’ relatives who would talk and agree to be photographed and go on camera. Hudetz, a member of the Crow Tribe and past president of the Native American Journalists Association, sifted through databases and reports with missing person cases and numbers to try to shed light on the volume of cases that the government knows about and has compiled. Cohen and Goldman traveled to the Blackfeet Reservation, where persistence and patience won them the access needed to intimately show and tell this story. At one point, Goldman was invited along on a BBQ and to the room where the main character in the package was staying when she disappeared. Data journalist Angel Kastanis was brought in to help with the numbers, and West region enterprise editor Katie Oyan was instrumental in guiding the project along.
Hudetz sifted through databases and missing person reports to shed light on the number of known cases. Persistence and patience won the access Cohen and Goldman needed to intimately tell this story.
A poster of Ashley HeavyRunner Loring hangs on the wall as her sister, Kimberly, walks through her room at their grandmother's home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 13, 2018. Kimberly was 8 when she made a promise to Ashley, then 5, while the girls were briefly in a foster home: “‘We have to stick together,’” she said to her little sister. “I told her I would never leave her. And if she was going to go anywhere, I would find her.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
From right, Kimberly Loring, Roxanne White, Lissa Loring and George A. Hall cross a creek in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, looking for clues during a search for the Kimberly Loring's sister, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who went missing in 2017 from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. “I’m the older sister. I need to do this,” says 24-year-old Kimberly. “I don’t want to search until I’m 80. But if I have to, I will.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
Roy Lee HeavyRunner holds a photo of his missing daughter Ashley as Roxanne White, left, yells "Say Her Name" to the crowd to raise awareness of Ashley's disappearance, as they march in the North American Indian Days parade on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 14, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kimberly Loring touches foreheads with her little sister, Jonnilyn, 17, right, as she says goodbye before heading out on a search for their missing sister Ashley with cousin, Lissa Loring, far left, outside their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 11, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kimberly Loring crosses a creek during a search for her missing sister, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018. She had logged about 40 searches, with family from afar sometimes using Google Earth to guide her around closed roads.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Randy Ortiz wears a shirt with the names of missing and murdered indigenous women as he searches for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring in the mountains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Babb, Mont., July 12, 2018. On some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average, and a third of all Native American women will be raped at some point, according to the Justice Department.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kimberly Loring, left, and fellow searchers look for clues under a trailer in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, during the search for the Loring's sister, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who went missing in 2017 from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
AP Photo / David Goldman
George A. Hall looks inside a trailer in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, during a search for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring who went missing in 2017 from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Randy Ortiz holds a bone he found in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, during a search for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring who had been missing for more than a year from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Some of the bones found during the search were tested by authorities and turned out to be animal bones.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Lissa Loring, left, is informed by Blackfeet law enforcement officers in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, that bones found during a search for her missing cousin, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, turned out to be those of an animal.
AP Photo / David Goldman
George A. Hall carries his shotgun as protection against bears while searching for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring in the mountains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Babb, Mont., July 12, 2018. No one knows how many Native American women and girls go missing, but there's often a similar pattern once they do: A community outcry, a search and the offer of a reward. There may be a quick resolution. But often, there's frustration with tribal police and federal authorities, and a feeling that many cases aren't handled urgently or thoroughly.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Roxanne White, whose aunt was murdered in 1996, cries in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, after singing and drumming a song created for missing and murdered indigenous women before a search for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who disappeared in 2017 from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kimberly Loring, left, comforts her sister Jonnilyn, 17, before they hold a traditional blanket dance for the crowd at the North American Indian Days to raise awareness and funds for the search of their missing sister Ashley, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 14, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
A missing-person flyer for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring is posted at the entrance of a grocery store on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 12, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kimberly Loring stands in her grandmother's home in Browning, Mont., July 13, 2018, holding a photo of her sister, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who went missing on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in 2017.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Destroyed homes line a street Tuesday, March 3, 2020, near Lebanon, Tenn., after tornadoes ripped across Tennessee overnight.
AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
The landscape of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation expands into the distance as Lissa Loring searches in Valier, Mont., July 11, 2018, for her cousin, Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who went missing from the reservation in 2017.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kenny Still Smoking stands in his home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 12, 2018, talking about his 7-year-old daughter, Monica, who was kidnapped in 1979 and found frozen to death on a mountain. No arrests were ever made. His daughter's death was so consuming he asked his creator “to help me forgive, to help me forget, to help me not be so hateful – help me be a better person. So far, he’s done a good job.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
A photo of Monica Still Smoking is shown on a cell phone as her father Kenny sits in the background at his home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 12, 2018. Monica disappeared in 1979 from her school at the age of 7. She was later found frozen to the mountain 20 miles away. No one has ever been arrested.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kenny Still Smoking touches a cross at the tombstone of his 7-year-old daughter, Monica, who disappeared from school in 1979 and was found frozen on a mountain, as he visits her grave on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 14, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kenny Still Smoking stands over the tombstone of his 7-year-old daughter Monica, who disappeared from school in 1979 and was found frozen on a mountain, as he visits her grave on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 14, 2018.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kenny Still Smoking stands over the tombstone of his 7-year-old daughter, Monica, who disappeared from school in 1979 and was found frozen on a mountain, as he visits her grave on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., July 14, 2018. “I talk to her, let her know I’m doing ok, that I'm still kicking,” he said. “I think about her all the time.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
The package brought readers into the heart of the Blackfeet Reservation, giving them a sense of place through images that captured poverty, despair and scenes of a thriving community set against an expansive landscape. Goldman produced a mini-documentary set to an original music score that capture the grief of these families. It closed with an array of missing and murdered posters featuring Native women and girls, hauntingly showing just how widespread this problem has become.
The package was a tremendous hit in play; we heard from customers in New Zealand who ran it. But our U.S. customers in states with reservations were especially thrilled, and featured it widely on front pages. As soon as the package was advised on the wire, we received two notes from editors at The Missoulian in Montana – one from Editor Kathy Best and the other from City Editor Gwen Florio – thanking us for taking this subject on. As Gwen wrote: “So glad y’all did it. Wish we had, but no matter what, glad it’s going to be out there in the depth it deserves.” And from Kathy: “I’m glad you made the commitment and thrilled we will get to run these pieces. Thank you for this important journalism.”
The story was by far the winner on the AP app on a crazy busy news day, with not only the Anonymous op-ed story breaking but the Kavanaugh hearings.
"A testament to the power of deep reporting and powerful images to break through the chaos."
Brian Carovillano, managing editor
As Managing Editor Brian Carovillano said: “Let’s ... pause for a moment to appreciate the fact that this excellent enterprise package rose to the top of the heap on one of the busiest and most significant news days in recent memory. A testament to the power of deep reporting and powerful images to break through the chaos.”
For their efforts, Hudetz, Goldman and Cohen win this week’s Best of the States award.