Hundreds gathered Saturday in downtown Reno to celebrate women. Led by women from area Native American tribes, the annual Reno Women’s March began at the downtown federal courthouse and headed north on Virginia Street to City Plaza.
Many of the marchers highlighted the epidemic of murdered and missing indigenous women, or MMIW as it has become known.
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto gave the opening remarks. She said she is working in Congress to codify Roe v. Wade and the right to an abortion into federal law, noting that young people have fewer rights than their grandparents.
“I trust women,” she said. “I trust women to make these decisions that are very personal, critical decisions about their reproductive health. We cannot stand by and watch these extremists strip away our rights.”
The event this year was focused on three women who recently died: Evelyn Mount, Mylan Hawkins and Amanda Davis.
Davis, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, was murdered by her boyfriend in late 2020. She was pregnant at the time.
“We need to do better and provide ways for Native voices to be heard,” organizers said. “We need to let predators and perpetrators know that women will no longer tolerate trafficking sexual assault, harm, kidnapping, stalking and violence.”
Cortez Masto also recognized each woman. She said Mount touched many lives running, for 40 years, a food donation program for those in need in the Reno area.
She said Hawkins’ work helped codify abortion protections into the Nevada Constitution.
“Not only was I proud to call her a friend, I was so proud to see so many of us working with her and standing with her,” Cortez Masto said.
Laura Martin, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, also spoke at the event. She blasted Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
“We’ve heard the governor talk about ‘the Nevada way,’” she said, “but we know his Nevada way has not worked for many of us.
“I am not willing to accept Joe Lombardo’s way that sees the rising tides lift the ships that are already at the top while drowning us out at the bottom,” Martin added, taking swipes at Elon Musk and Tesla’s latest tax abatements and the mining companies setting up shop on historically Indigenous lands.
While the event was peaceful, a small group of anti-abortionists stood at the back of the crowd until a speaker from Planned Parenthood started talking.
They then approached the stage with signs reading, “The future is anti-abortion.”
They were quickly surrounded by march attendees who covered the anti-abortion signs with women’s march signs.
“This is our event,” one person shouted at the small group. The small group was drowned out by chants of, “My body, my choice!”
