Ak-Chin police have no updates on a woman missing for nearly a month.

Last week, Ak-Chin Police Department issued a missing persons flyer for 54-year-old Blessing Joy Antone, who was last seen Jan. 8 walking in the community.

The flyer came Jan. 26, more than two weeks after she went missing.

Ak-Chin police did not respond to a request for comment.

Antone was last seen wearing a black zip-up hoodie, black yoga capri pants, gray tennis shoes and plastic framed glasses. She measures 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighs approximately 175 pounds and has graying hair, glasses and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts should contact the Ak-Chin Police Department at 520-568-1200.

Not all like her get reported

Missing and murdered Indigenous people have made headlines in the U.S. and Canada in recent years, particularly women and girls. Some call it a crisis based on centuries of violence and disenfranchisement.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports more than 84% of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. But the numbers of those who went missing are underreported and vary widely across platforms.

BIA lists 33 Indigenous people missing across the country, including five in Arizona, on its missing and murdered cases website. However, the department also estimates there may be as many as 4,200 missing and murdered cases that have gone unsolved.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a resource center funded by the National Institute of Justice, cites 850 missing Indigenous people across the country. In Arizona, 84 went missing from 1956 to 2023.

Social media posts about missing children and adults proliferate on dedicated pages like “Indian Country’s Missing” or “MMIP in AZ & NM.” Updates on those found safe aren’t always provided.

When it comes to Antone’s case, the initial flyer has been shared at least 138 times on Facebook.

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