North Carolina Awards Committee LOR Jason

North Carolina Awards Committee
N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
4601 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, N.C. 27699-4600

Dear North Carolina Awards Committee,

I am writing in regard to the nomination of Ms. Crystal Cavalier to the awards committee. With unyielding support, I will emphatically nominate and proudly endorse Crystal Cavalier for the 2020 North Carolina Awards for Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, and Public Service.

Mrs. Cavalier is working on a project bringing attention to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The goal of the project is to seek government assistance in re-opening and solving cold criminal cases involving the murder or abduction of Indigenous women.

When I met Mrs. Cavalier, she was very clear in her requests and had planned a march on Raleigh, North Carolina to bring attention to the issue in 2019. Mrs. Cavalier correctly identified the need to provide closure for Indigenous families and to be able to put a name to missing and murdered Indigenous women. North Carolina has a statutory process that allows victims an opportunity to participate in the criminal justice system. Without resolution to cold cases, victims’ family members (who are also victims) feel neglected, unheard, and more vulnerable.

In 1701 when John Lawson surveyed the North Carolina colony he identified numerous bands of American Indians. Most people are unaware that descendants of these bands remain in the area surviving eighteenth and nineteenth century federal and state mandates requiring Indigenous communities to sacrifice their land, culture, and identity. Continued efforts to deny the existence of Indigenous people resulted in disfranchisement presenting itself as lower standards for education and public safety.

Should Mrs. Cavalier win the award for public service, she will bring attention to disparities in treatment of the descendants of North Carolina’s first inhabitants. Safety is the foundation of a successful community. Knowing and understanding their lives have worth will empower Indigenous women to respond and alert law enforcement to criminality while assisting Indigenous women in enhancing self-protection, community safety, and advocating for themselves.

I highly recommend Crystal Cavalier to be chosen as a recipient of the I enthusiastically recommend her for 2020 North Carolina Awards for Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, and Public Service. Her goal comports with the ideal of your foundation and will bring equity to a segment of our population that has been largely ignored.

Jason Keck
3^rd Vice President, Native American Democratic Caucus