Longtime Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke has released a solo single to raise awareness of the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Portions of the money raised by sales of Never Run Out Of Road will be donated to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), which campaigns to end the trafficking of Native American women.
According to the NIWRC, Native Americans are one of the most heavily affected demographics for both sex and labour trafficking, with 40% of women involved in sex trafficking overall identified as Native American or First Nations.
Human Trafficking Search, which works to eliminate human trafficking worldwide, reveals that Native women are murdered at more than ten times the national average, while Non-Indians commit 88% of violent crimes against Native women. "Native women have been fetishised, bought, sold, and traded since the initial European colonisation of the American continent," say the organisation.
“I want to give back to my native community through Never Run Out Of Road," says Medlocke, "and I want to educate others on the MMIW crisis and empower people to get involved."
"Music has taken me from playing with my Granddad Shorty Medlocke to the early days of Lynyrd Skynyrd to Blackfoot and back to Skynyrd now for the last 28 years!”, he continues. “Writing and recording is always a part of this. The song Never Run Out Of Road includes lyrics relating to my past and ongoing life of touring."
Medlocke is of Lakota Sioux and Cherokee ancestry, and was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
The plight of MMIW north of the border has previously been raised by Canadian prog duo Crown Lands, whose End Of The Road shone a light on the many indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits who’ve gone missing or been murdered on the so-called Highway Of Tears, a 450-mile stretch of road between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia.
