Free fall festival aims to connect community through culture, awareness

What you need to know:

• The Knik Tribal Council is hosting its first Family Fall Festival on Saturday in Palmer to celebrate Alaska Native culture and to raise awareness about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people in Alaska.
• The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Colony High School. It will include performances, vendors, activities and door prizes.
• State public safety officials declined to release data regarding how many Alaska Native individuals are tracked as missing or murdered. The Anchorage-based nonprofit Data for Indigenous Justice has identified at least 1,000 such cases.

PALMER — A free community event scheduled for this weekend aims to connect residents with local Alaska Native culture while raising awareness about the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people across the state.

The Knik Tribal Council’s first-ever Family Fall Festival is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Colony High School in Palmer. Organizers said several hundred people are expected to attend.

The event will feature live music and cultural demonstrations and activities throughout the day, including performances by the Sleeping Lady Singers and Dancers and the Chickaloon Native Youth Olympics team, organizers said.

More than a dozen craft vendors will also be on hand to help attendees get a head start on holiday shopping and door prizes will be available, Pamela Simmons, an outreach coordinator for the Knik Tribal Council Department, who is leading the event.

Simmons said the festival is part of a new tribal council program developing a response plan for when a member is reported missing or murdered. The initiative is funded by a U.S. Department of Justice grant and includes community outreach efforts, she said.

Accurate data on how many Alaska Native individuals are tracked as missing or murdered is not available because state public safety officials declined to release the information.

The Anchorage-based nonprofit Data for Indigenous Justice has identified at least 1,000 such cases, according to its website. Violent crimes in Alaska disproportionately affect Alaska Native women, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

While the topic can be difficult to talk about, raising awareness is key to finding justice for victims and bringing missing individuals home, Simmons said.

“We’re asking people to join us for a good cause,” she said. “It’s a day of some music and some understanding of an issue that is pretty prominent here in the Valley as well as the rest of the state.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com