The Silencing Of Wind River

Say Their Names — Jocelyn Watt, Rudy Perez, Jade Wagon

By Lorie Shaull from Washington, United States — A participant in the Greater Than Fear Rally & March in Rochester Minnesota. The rally & march were held in response to President Trump's Rally at the Mayo Civic Center in downtown Rochester., CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75303670

Her Northern Arapaho name was Cedar Tree Stands Alone but her friends knew her as Jade Wagon. She had a great sense of humor and a “cute silly laugh”, she loved to draw and write, she had a passion for music that drew her to all genres, and she loved to playfully terrorize her younger sisters. But there was a hole in her heart, a missing piece of who she had been, a loss that had changed who she was going to be.

Jade was not supposed to be the oldest sister but that was who she was after her sister, Jocelyn Watt, was murdered on January 5, 2019. Jocelyn was shot to death in her house alongside her boyfriend, Rudy Perez, on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. She was only 30 years old. Her murder remains unsolved.

Jocelyn Watt — photo by her mother, Nicole Wagon.

Wind River Reservation is the seventh-largest Indian Reservation by land area and the fifth largest by population. There are only six officers to patrol the 2.2 million acres, so when one of their own goes missing or is murdered, members of the Northern Arapaho tribe must turn to the FBI — and then wait.