What is Red Dress Day? [Video]

DENVER — On May 5 every year, people display red dresses on hangers without women to wear them – a visual reminder of the thousands of missing Indigenous people in the United States. 

May 5 is National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people — two-spirit people in the Native community who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

The first Red Dress Day was observed in 2010. It began after artist Jaime Black launched her REDress art installation. Since then, the dresses have come to symbolize the thousands of people who are impacted by violence and as a result, are missing or have been murdered. 

Statistics show that Indigenous women face disproportionate violence compared to their white counterparts. More than four out of five have experienced violence and over …