Beyond the tragedy

 

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Clark College alumna is changing the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls

Bones were discovered on the grounds of a Yakama Nation post office. They had been there for years. Clark Outstanding Alumna and Washington state Rep. Gina Mosbrucker was motivated to act. Through legislation she co-authored, the state changed how it tracks missing and murdered Native American women and girls. This is a remarkable story about how this Clark alumna did something that no one else has been able to do in Washington—write and pass legislation to track missing and murdered Native American women and girls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Image behind the Clark story

For almost a decade, hundreds of red dresses have been hung on college campuses and outside state capitols, from freeway overpasses and in front yards, all over the United States and Canada. Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, a 1988 Clark alumna, couldn’t get the images of them out of her head. The dresses symbolize and spotlight the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Mosbrucker, R-Goldendale, did her part to help find them with two state House bills she co-sponsored and got passed in 2019. The painting below was the inspiration for the cover of Clark Partners magazine 2019 summer edition, which featured the story of Mosbrucker’s historic legislation.