RUNNING
At 2019 Washington state track and field championship,
she is running for Muckleshoot Tribal School which
during home sporting event rival school racists
had earlier written on their restroom stalls
graffiti slur “Indian savage.”
She was laughed at in elementary school for wearing moccasins.
At 14 she was sexually harassed by older boys
who catcalled and groped her.
Feeling life was no longer worth living, she
attempted to end it.
At 15th birthday party she celebrated
partial recovery with her family.
She then enrolled at Muckleshoot Tribal School where
running became part of her recovery.
She was inspired by Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota athlete
who won an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 meters
and once said, “Your life is a gift from the Creator.
Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life.”
Because murder is the third leading cause of death
in native women, she paints for the four races
she’s running a red handprint over her mouth
to represent the Indigenous women silenced
by violence along with the letters MMIW
down her right leg.
She wins the 1600 meters race for her aunt,
Alice Looney who went missing in 2004
and was found deceased 15 months later.
The police had no answers for her family.
She wins the 800 meters race for Jackie Salyers
from the Puyallup tribe.
She was pregnant at the time of her death.
Tacoma police shot her as they were attempting
to arrest her boy friend.
She was a mother of four
The officer was never held accountable after being
cleared by a review board of his own peers.
She wins the 3200 meters for Renee Davis, a member
of her Muckleshoot community and her unborn son, Masi
Molina, who were shot and killed by Auburn police during
a welfare check with her other two children present.
She places second in the 400 for Misty Upham,
a member of the Blackfeet nation and a successful
actress who was invited to the Golden Globes
for her performance in Frozen River.
Misty was found deceased in the bottom of a ravine
Auburn Police who did not look for her mislabeled
her murder as a suicide.
She dedicates her sportsmanship award to Renee’s
murdered unborn son, Masi.
At TEDX talk, Rosalie Fish speaks on “Running
for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.”
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