ST. CLOUD TIMES — St. Cloud State University student BearPaw Shields is ecstatic that Minnesota is launching a task force on missing and murdered indigenous women.
“It’s something that needs attention,” Shields said.
She is a survivor of sexual violence.
And she co-chairs the All Tribes Council on the St. Cloud State campus.
On Wednesday, Shields introduced the lawmaker who championed the new task force in the Legislature this spring: Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein, D-New Brighton, who calls St. Cloud her hometown.
Kunesh-Podein, a Lakota descendant, grew up in Sartell, graduated from Cathedral High School and earned her master’s degree at St. Cloud State.
Read more: Champion of murdered, missing indigenous women task force comes home to St. Cloud
