Portlanders hold vigil for Dane Paulsen, other missing and murdered Indigenous kids [Video]

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – A Native American-led organization held a vigil in southeast Portland on Saturday to honor and grieve missing and murdered Indigenous children.

The vigil celebrated the lives of 2-year-old Dane Paulsen and 14-year-old Emily Pike, and allowed tribal members to say goodbye to both young lives cut short by tragedy.

“When you hear that drum, that’s the heartbeat, that’s the soul of Native people, and that these kid’s lives and their souls aren’t forgotten,” Kimberly Lining says.

Lining is the founder of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Search and Hope Alliance, also known as MMIW, and said her heart broke after learning about Dane and Emily.

“Their deaths have been heard around the nation, so I thought, let’s make an example,” Lining said.

Dane was reported missing from his Oregon home earlier this month, and after a more than week-long search, officials confirmed the toddler died by drowning. Emily, an Arizona teen, was reported missing in …