Watchlist: ‘Missing from Fire Trail Road’ trailer

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

Many Tribes across America have heard the phrase: “That’s the road we believe she was last seen.”

To the Tulalip Tribal community just outside Seattle, Fire Trail Road is the last known sighting of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis.

A new documentary called “Missing from Fire Trail Road,” available on Hulu, follows the search for Johnson-Davis and explains why Native people go missing at alarming rates.

“Native women like Mary Ellen are missing because they are easy prey,” a woman says in the documentary’s two-minute trailer.

Without definitive answers, a series of people throughout the documentary theorize what happened to Johnson-Davis and investigate her disappearance.

“Tribal governments do not possess criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians,” Indigenous Attorney Gabe Galanda says. “That rule has created havens on reservations for murderers and rapists.”

The trailer shows several flyers posted on telephone poles of missing Indigenous women from all across Washington state.

“We have a high record of non-Native men assaulting Native women,” a speaker says.

To one woman in the documentary, these cases of murdered and missing women is considered genocide and it must be acknowledged. To combat it, Native communities are seen gathering with posters of their missing relatives and marching in cities.

You can watch the “Missing from Fire Trail Road” trailer on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gr_t4glsRw. You can also watch the entire documentary on Hulu.