Tribal license plates aim to raise awareness

Fond du Lac Band registrar Annette Himango knew the stakes.

"This is going to be big," Himango said. "The impact is going to be huge."

On Tuesday, the fruits of her labor and that of many others from the Fond du Lac and Bois Forte bands of Chippewa were revealed in the form of specialized license plates aimed at raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives.

The ceremony to unveil the plates at Black Bear Casino in Carlton featured a host of speakers, and folks in the audience, like Himango, who were able to do what the Minnesota State Legislature could not despite efforts last session.

"'We don't need state approval,'" Fond du Lac Chairman Kevin Dupuis recalled saying at the time. "'We can do this ourselves.'"

Dupuis turned to Himango to get the effort going and she never stopped until it was realized.

"It's all about the message," Himango said. "It isn't about how pretty the plates are or anything like that, it's about the message we are working on getting out there."

The issue of missing and murdered tribal members touches almost every family in Indian country, sources said. Nearly 9 percent of all women and girls murdered in the state between 2010 and 2019 were Indigenous people, despite their making up only 1 percent of the state's population, according to a report filed to the legislature in December 2020.

For Dupuis, the issue hits close to the heart. His sister, Trina Langenbrunner, was killed in 2000 - her body left on a reservation roadside in St. Louis County. A 33-year-old mother of three, she'd been beaten and stabbed, and her killer, a neighbor, Joseph John Couture, was finally brought to justice in 2013, when he was sentenced to multiple terms adding up to 39 years in prison.

"I knew his sister," Himango said. "And when I started this project, I knew how much it meant to my chairman from my reservation. So I had to do my best."

The first plates were ceremoniously issued to Dupuis, Bois Forte Chairperson Cathy Chavers and other tribal leaders in attendance. Dupuis noted other international places such as Morocco and Spain that have issued similar license plates to address their own issues with disappearing Indigenous people.

"It's in the world lens and we want to do as much as we can to push it from our end," Dupuis said.

Fond du Lac Brookston representative Roger Smith Sr. is a career law enforcement officer who encountered Himango's crime scene as well as many others through the years.

"I've seen enough in my lifetime that nobody should," Smith said. "I've seen what it does to the families."

He described escalating efforts at curbing the violence and finding closure for families. From the advent of a sex trafficking task force that started at Fond du Lac before radiating throughout the state's 11 tribes, to federal efforts to fund a nationwide task force aimed at reducing the instances of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

"I will relish the day we gather just like we are today for another event, and that event is we are no longer issuing these license plates," Smith said. "And that we are no longer receiving funding for MMIW or MMIR. Why? Because it is no longer happening to our people in Indian country."

Chavers spoke about how tribes are working to raise their own profiles, not content to be "invisible" in the eyes of the country they first inhabited.

"Today emphasizes our tribal sovereignty," Chavers said. "This is a huge accomplishment for us, because we're working together as two tribes. We're hoping other tribes will follow, and we're hoping the state will follow as well."

To that end, Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-Columbia Heights, said she's not given up on getting statewide plates resembling the state's current specialized license plates supporting causes such as wildlife conservation.

"It's not just our women and our girls who have faced extraordinary violence and persecution," said Kunesh, a founding member of the state's Indigenous caucus. "We know it's our men, our boys and our two-spirit folks as well."

It's the hope of tribal leaders that the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people will gain widespread awareness from the plates, which are now available to local tribal members.

"By putting this out there people will see that plate, then they will say, 'Hmm? What is that plate?'" Chavers said. "Then they'll ask questions."

At the end of the ceremony, Dupuis returned to the microphone and issued a personal thank-you to Himango.

"Annette, she jumped on it right away and then communication started across the board," Dupuis said. "Whatever magic you were able to do and how you did it, we appreciate it very much."