FSIN gets missing person info on Web

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In response to the growing concern about the number of Aboriginal missing women in the province, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) has added a new page to its Web site.

The page , Missing Brothers and Sisters, was started at the end of August and is a listing for missing First Nation persons in Saskatchewan.

The FSIN Web site gets a lot of visits in Saskatchewan and across Canada-more than 1,000 a day. It is the FSIN's goal to help find missing people, especially women. said FSIN Web master Mason Medynsk.

The page was created because many people visit the site who do not visit sites such as Child Find and Crime Stoppers, and they may recognize a missing person, said Medynski.

"It is another avenue to get the information out to people."

The Missing Brothers and Sisters page can be found at www.fsin.com/missing.

The page has already proven to be successful. Seventeen-year-old Jesse Kytwayhat was listed as missing on the site. Someone saw the posting and told Kytwayhat about it, and he reported back to his family, Medynski said.

Erica Beaudin, executive director of the FSIN Women's Commission, said the FSIN is getting more involved in the issue of missing persons.

"We have just recently developed an action plan to start addressing the missing women and children that are in our community, whether they are on reserve or off reserve," she said. "Our women seem to be vulnerable regardless of their situation."

Beaudin stressed that the issue of missing persons is not related to factors such as urban residence or poverty or lack of education. Missing persons come from all walks of life.

Four people are currently listed on the site-Tamra Jewel Keepness, who was five-years old when she went missing from her family home in Regina on July 5, 2004, Daleen Kay Bosse (Muskego), 26, who went missing in Saskatoon on May 18, 2004, Amber Tara-Lynn Redman,19, who went missing in Fort Qu'Appelle on July 15 and Melanie Dawn Geddes, 24, who was last seen on Aug. 13 in Regina.

More and more people are reported missing every year, Beaudin said. The Web site is now part of an ongoing campaign to help find them.

"We feel that it is very important to keep their images present and to state that, until we hear otherwise, we are going to consider them alive and will continue to work on this issue."

To have a missing person added to the site, fax a poster 244-4413 or send an e-mail to mason.medynski@fsin.com.