Smoke Signals staff writer
It has been 26 years since Leona LeClair Kinsey (Puyallup) of La Grande, Oregon, joined the legions of Indigenous women who have vanished without a trace. Kinsey’s daughter, Carolyn DeFord (Puyallup), is still searching for answers, a search that has also drawn her into fighting for justice for Indigenous people.
It’s why DeFord drove to Oregon to serve as the keynote speaker at Ampkwa Advocacy’s 2025 Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Walk at Riverview Park in Independence Saturday, Aug. 30…