Director Sabrina Van Tassel powerful documentary, Missing From Fire Trail Road, examines the devastating case of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis, an Indigenous woman who disappeared from the Tulalip Reservation of Tulalip, Washington in 2020. Johnson-Davis is far from the only case of this nature, as Van Tassel’s film sheds a much-needed light on the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the United States.
Told through the perspective of those involved (the families and local law enforcement officers), the documentary aligns itself with the families and community, all of whom are in continuous pain. Mary Ellen’s sisters (Nona Blouin and Gerry Davis), agreed to participate in the documentary hoping to (as Davis states), “put her story out there and keep her alive.”
Missing From Fire Trail Road premieres tonight (June 8) at the Tribeca festival and will be shown in many tribal lands across the country. Mary Ellen’s sisters and director Van Tassel want to go beyond awareness. The director, and the activists helping her, have committed to use their work to keep the spotlight on the unsolved and ignored cases of Indigenous women who have gone missing.
The film shines a light on the hypocrisy of the media when it comes to missing Native American women. When the victims are White, their stories almost always become nationwide news. Rivers are dragged. The entire state is searched. All resources are used to their full potential. When the victims are Native American, there is rarely (if any) coverage and even less help.
Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis’ family justifiably hounds local authorities for answers, but their pleas too often fall on deaf ears; a fate that befalls almost all families of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Arrests in these cases are rare, and convictions are virtually nonexistent. Quite simply, the F.B.I. and the United States Government are not interested. The heartbreaking link between the Johnson-Davis’ family and all the Native American families who are affected by these tragedies is a sentence too often repeated, “I don’t know who to ask. I don’t know where to turn.”
There is a significant lack of response from law enforcement. Even with the victims who are found (always dead), the police do nothing to investigate. The families and friends of the missing and murdered are forced to stand alone in their fight for justice.
Make no mistake, Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis’s unsolved disappearance is not a ‘True Crime’’ case. She was a daughter, a sister, and (by all accounts) a troubled soul who became a light to her community. As the film follows many of her family members retracing the areas where she was last seen, they speak to her spirit in the face of a hard life. Each remembrance paints a picture of a young girl who was torn from her mother, grew up with drug issues and a bad husband, yet did her best to overcome the darkness in her life; being the best sister and auntie she could be. Mary Ellen was a light in her own darkness.
Sabrina Van Tassel expertly humanizes Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis and her family and friends, giving them all a voice. Her subject’s life (and the lives of every missing Indigenous woman) meant something and this is the power that comes through so strongly by Van Tassel’s intimate direction.
It is tragic to know we live in a country where violence against the Native American people is an accepted occurrence. As the film shows, it is (and always has been) racism that fuels the authorities’ indifference to these crimes. This detachment allows for open season on the Indigenous women of America; a sickening reality that has plagued this bigoted nation since colonization.
The film traces the history of abuse and racism back to the Catholic boarding schools that tried to erase the Native American culture. When the U.S. Army unlawfully put the Indigenous people on reservations, it wasn’t for their safety. It was to keep them down and to break their spirit. The director examines how these historical horrors are the essence of the trauma that was born into future generations of this country’s Indigenous people; a history that has long been buried and a cycle that needs to be broken.
The Native American culture has only its youth to carry on their traditions and do their best to overcome centuries of oppression. The essence of their way of life must be taught and it must endure. Truly, the purposeful lack of concern from law enforcement is the beast that is killing the beauty.
The state of Washington lists 122 active missing person cases of Indigenous people, with most missing for over two years. This is an urgent and ongoing crisis and its effects on Native communities needs to be addressed. Van Tassel’s documentary argues for mainstream attention to Mary Ellen’s case and on all the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Everyone, especially the police and the F.B.I. should be on the frontlines. It is revealed that the F.B.I. does not even keep files on these cases.
As the American government continues to neglect and suppress the Native American people, Missing From Fire Trail Road uses the voices of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis’ family and friends to keep her spirit alive. While their stories are tragic and the mysteries behind her fate are heartbreaking, something beautiful can be found in the selfless dedication to their fallen sister.
Missing From Fire Trail Road
Directed by Sabrina Van Tassel
NR, 101 Minutes, Canal+, FilmRise