This week, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Charlaine Tso joined community members and over 50 motorcycle riders for a march to find Ella Mae Begay, who went missing this summer from the community of Tółikan, Arizona, and has
yet to be located.
“Ella Mae is a grandmother, mother, sister, and aunty whose life matters. We will continue to fight for her family and those she loved,” said Delegate Charlaine Tso. “Our missing women need to be found and those who were victims of murder deserve justice under federal law. The Navajo people have felt the trauma of our own going missing. We will never stop searching for our sisters, our matriarchs.”
Master rug weaver Ella Mae Begay, age 62, went missing from her home on June 15.
According to the Navajo Times, search teams were dispatched across northern Arizona and into San Juan County, Utah, in an attempt to locate her.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported in August that Begay’s case is now in the hands of the FBI and the Navajo Nation’s Criminal Investigations team. Navajo Nation Police Chief Philip Francisco, Begay’s confirmed for the Tribune that Begay’s case changed from missing to foul play, which enlisted the help from the FBI because it is crime listed under the Major Crimes Act.
“We believe that through the information the FBI has received, it is more than likely that [the case] is foul play rather than being missing,” Francisco said.
Last year, the 24th Navajo National Council launched a task force to support the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement to seek further justice for victims and their families.
“Our women are sacred and through their leadership, our families thrive. We will invest into the programs that will protect our young women, mothers, aunties and grandmas from violence. There is a real problem of our relatives going missing and it must end now,” said Speaker Seth Damon.