Jhene Jackson held a poster with a photo of her grandmother, Mona Renee Vallo, as she stood with her father and aunt at a recent gathering to honor and remember missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Vallo, a Yakama Nation citizen who was born in Toppenish and grew up in the Lower Yakima Valley, died March 9, 2022, in New Mexico of injuries consistent with a hit-and-run crash, the FBI has reported. She may have been struck at approximately 7 p.m. on the date her body was found by passers-by on U.S. Route 66, New Mexico Highway 124, in Laguna Pueblo.
“It’s difficult knowing that there’s nobody willing to help us and speak up about what happened that night,” Vallo’s daughter, Josephine Jackson, said during the event Feb. 23 at Wellness House in Yakima.
Josephine Jackson and Jhene’s father, Adrian Jackson, spoke with emotion about the profound loss of their mother. And though 9-year-old Jhene didn’t talk, she was a powerful advocate for her grandmother as she held the poster with the words “Justice for Mona Vallo.”
Cissy Strong Reyes, who organized the event with Wellness House executive director Lisa Kapuza and others, presented a ribbon skirt to Jhene to recognize her for her advocacy. A group of Vallo’s family members attended the gathering.
“I hope you get the justice your family deserves,” Reyes told them.
The gathering honored the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit individuals. Reyes also wanted to continue to raise awareness of the violence disproportionately faced by Indigenous communities.
‘The pain we carry’
Reyes has organized similar gatherings and public events ever since her sister, Rosenda Strong, disappeared in fall 2018. Strong’s remains were found in an abandoned freezer just outside Toppenish, where she lived, on July 4, 2019.
Strong, who was Umatilla and Yakama, was 31 when she disappeared. She was a mother of four.
Six suspects face trial in U.S. District Court in Yakima in August in connection with Strong’s death and the death of Strong’s alleged killer, Jedidah Iesha Moreno. One man has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in May.
Strong and Vallo are among dozens of Indigenous women and men who have disappeared, have been murdered or have died mysteriously within and around the Yakama Reservation, or who have ties to the reservation and the Lower Yakima Valley. Most cases are unsolved.
“This epidemic has really, really gone through numerous families that I know,” Reyes said.
Early on, authorities seemed more concerned about Strong’s criminal history, not where she was, Reyes said. She would like to see law enforcement be more concerned and more empathetic. And families shouldn’t have to use their own money to create missing-person flyers and posters, she said, among other costs related to searches.
Reyes persisted in advocating for justice for her sister, and she doesn’t want other families to give up. She will continue to speak up and help other families, she said.
“I think the more we talk about it, the more will get done,” she said. “The pain we carry — I pray for the ones still missing. They deserve to be found. … Don’t lose hope in being the voice for your loved one.”
Updates
Some things have changed in the more than five years since Strong disappeared. The Washington State Patrol maintains a list of missing Indigenous people and issues Missing Indigenous Persons Alerts when requested by law enforcement.
And the state patrol hired two tribal liaisons, who have made a difference in working directly with families. Though one tribal liaison position — for the west side of the state — is open, authorities plan to fill it. Dawn Pullin, a Spokane tribal citizen, is the tribal liaison for Central and Eastern Washington.
There’s also a task force in the state attorney general’s office that is focused on missing and murdered Indigenous people. Lucy Smartlowit of the Yakima Valley began as a policy analyst in the state attorney general’s office last fall and focuses on missing and murdered Indigenous people. She’s a part of the task force and spoke at Wellness House on Friday.
Among other information, Smartlowit mentioned several family resources that are available through the task force. And the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Cold Case Unit is now fully staffed and includes a family coordinator, she said. Brian George, of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, is the chief investigator.
“We also received an Emmett Till grant,” Smartlowit said. The $1.5 million federal grant will enable the attorney general’s office to partner with tribes across the state to research, identify and create an inventory of cold cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people that date back more than 40 years.
And Smartlowit is part of the Washington State Truth and Reconciliation Tribal Advisory Committee, which is researching government-funded boarding schools for Indigenous children in Washington “because boarding schools have contributed to this issue historically,” she said.
Jurisdiction
But as Smartlowit said, jurisdiction in cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people will continue to be an issue. That’s been the big issue with his mother’s case, Adrian Jackson said.
“We have not gotten any answers, any leads,” he said, despite a potential reward of up to $10,000 and the fact that she was hit and killed along a busy highway near two houses.
Tribal and state law enforcement were involved, then the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Now the case is with the FBI, which investigates the most serious crimes involving Indigenous people on reservations.
“It’s very confusing,” Adrian Jackson said. “We were unsure how to do things. We went down there seeking answers for our mother. We carpooled all the way down there and went to the (Not Invisible Act Commission subcommittee) hearings in Albuquerque.”
“We still have not received any information from the FBI. What troubles me is the communication was not there for us. We have no answers, so we’re here with no closure.”
Vallo’s children and other relatives are working with Albuquerque attorney Darlene Gomez. Her law firm is involved in causes related to promoting missing and murdered Indigenous women, and they appreciate her help.
“We need justice for our mother,” Adrian Jackson said.
