FORT HALL — About 200 people gathered at Fort Hall Saturday morning for a prayer walk to bring attention to missing or murdered indigenous people on the Fort Hall Reservation and throughout Native American country, and participants say the problem is bigger than many realize.

The walk started at the Indian Health Service building and made its way along Warbonnet Road, south on Eagle Road, turning on Ross Ford Road to the old casino.

Signs, posters, and banners were shown along the way listing the names of the missing or murdered, and all along the way prayer songs were sung to the beat of drums, sprinkled with the names of the missing followed by the cries of “Say his name!” or “Say her name!”

The walk was sponsored by the family of Austin “Frost” Pevo, who’s been missing since February 2018. Roxanne White of Seattle, a leader in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women organization and a member of the Yakima and Nez Perce Tribes, said the family invited her to come and lead the walk.

White said she read off 32 names of men and women during the walk who are missing or murdered.

“Those were only the names found in a short amount of time,” White said.

The person she said who’s been missing the longest was Webster George of Blackfoot. He was reported missing Sept. 1, 1982, and his body still hasn’t been found. He was declared deceased last year.

“This is a huge problem,” White said. “It’s women, it’s men, it’s children. There are whole families missing.”

She said the causes are multi-layered, involving drugs, human trafficking, etc. She feels that much more can be done on the part of Native people to report any information they might have, but also on the part of law enforcement to pursue cases of missing or murdered people.

“The biggest thing, and this is a sore scab, is that there is a lot of systemic racism out there. We have to mobilize if we’re going to solve this problem. This gets down to law enforcement, from tribal police all the way to the FBI because so many of these cases end up with the FBI and up to the (federal) attorney general’s office.

“If we were seen as human beings, we wouldn’t see as much of the problem that we’re seeing. We need to break the silence.”

Relatives of Lionel “Hootie” Pokibro — nieces Marissa and Kiana Pokibro and cousin Yvette Tuell — held up a sign and carried a framed photograph of him during the walk to remember him.

Lionel died Jan. 11, 2016. His family said his death was determined to be a homicide but there’s been no arrest or conviction in tribal or federal court, and the U.S. attorney’s office has done nothing on the case.

They said at first it was reported that he died from exposure, but then autopsy results showed he had been severely beaten and that his death has been lied about and covered up.

Austin Pevo’s mother Susan said she is getting by “day by day.

“I’m taking things as they come. There are a lot of people out here today. At first, I thought of this more for my son. But with so many people out here, I have to think of everyone with a loved one who’s missing. I’m glad the families came forth, and I’m hoping this will bring people forward with information. If anyone knows anything about these cases, they need to say something.”

When she spoke to the crowd, Pevo said she had to overcome her fear to go out and speak, but she feels a greater need to do it now.

“It hurts the entire family,” she said. “It takes a toll on all of us.”