Over the weekend, a crowd of people gathered at the Norton house on Third in Kotzebue. From there, they walked toward Rainbow Park, turned right and continued on to Front Street.
As they walked, drivers stopped their cars to watch the people pass, many of whom had red handprints across their mouths, and carried signs and photos of a young woman.
"It was very emotional once we started to walk and once we started to see more people out on the road pulling over, pulling out their phones for video and pictures," Roberta Sampson said. "It kind of just hit you a little harder."
"Sue Sue was a very loving, kind, caring and energetic person," Sampson said. "It don't matter who you were, she'd always say, 'Hi.' She'd always go for a hug and ask you how you're doing."
"She was a very outgoing person," said her childhood friend, Ilaippak Allen. "She pushed me to play hard in basketball and volleyball. She was strong and beautiful. Although we grew apart as time went on and becoming adults and having kids, she always told all her friends she loved them."
It's been nearly two months since Norton's body was found and her family and friends are calling for answers about the circumstances of her death. They believe she was murdered, though there has been no official confirmation of that.
"Sue Sue's mother hasn't seen justice for her daughter's death and it is taking a toll on people who knew her," said local resident Stephanie Howarth, who helped organize the walk. "We want our community safe from seeing things like this. We are a small town and we know what happened to Sue Sue and there is nothing being done about her murder. We don't want this being swept under the rug."
"It really meant a lot to walk for her because she is not here," Phyllis Norman said.
Norton's mother, who shares her name, was surrounded by loved ones as she walked Kotzebue's streets with the crowd. At her hip were Norton's children. One of her boys wore a sign that called for justice for his mother.
"She had kids who love her and she was just taken way too soon. And it's very heartbreaking," said Sampson. "I just hope that they could find some justice for her family, but also give closure to her kids, you know, later on down the road, that they at least know that there was some justice served for her."
Norton was the first of two women to go missing and later be found dead in Kotzebue during the coronavirus pandemic. A second woman died at the end of March, her body found later on Caribou Drive.
"We aren't going to be silent anymore," said Allen. "Too many indigenous sisters are being taken far too soon, and without stepping up to fight. Maybe that's why monsters think they can keep taking them from family and friends. Shining a light on this large issue shows that we care enough to put a stop to it."
"No more," she said. "If no one wants to bring justice, then we have to take it into our own hands, to seek justice so it is served."
Sue Sue was her best friend in middle school, Allen said. She thinks back to when Sue Sue taught her how to Eskimo dance. Allen had stage fright; she didn't want to get up and perform in front of tourists at the old museum. It was Sue Sue, the outgoing girl, who helped her face her fear to get on stage and dance, and dance.
"Knowing the person who did this is still walking free puts a different kind of pain on the heart," Allen said. "Knowing a mother has to think about what happened to her daughter is another kind of pain on the heart that no one should have to feel."
Kotzebue is a community heavy with the weight of what it's lost with these women this year.
"A lot of women around the world are hidden and buried and never ever found," said resident Kookie Ito. "And the ones who were lucky to be found need justice."
In each of these women, there's a mother, a daughter, an auntie, a cousin. With every woman, there are years of teaching how to work on ugruk, years of passing down what she's learned. There are years of living a subsistence life, Sampson said.
"It's not just one person," she said. "It takes from the whole family. It takes from the whole family and it takes from the community and it's so heartbreaking. It's not just one."
In her hometown of Noorvik, people walked, too. Out in Noatak, where Sue Sue's family has roots, Mary Adams marched through the thawing streets.
"We are a blessed community," she said. "We love our people, we care for our people."
Sue Sue was her cousin. She was young and beautiful, Adams remembered.
"We pray the truth comes forward," she said. "We are a community that works together, we were taught the Inupiaq values, that is what we live by. If anyone knows anything, come forward. We cannot continue to go through the hurt of lives being taken away."
"Why aren't serious murders like this being taken seriously in small communities?" Allen asked. "What more do we have to do for them to be taken seriously enough to get justice?"
"People shouldn't be able to get away with murder," Howarth said.
And so, in Noatak and in Kotzebue, the walk continued through the streets. In the village, people put "Justice for Sue Sue" bumper stickers on their four-wheelers that shine in the midday sun. In the city, they carried their signs and photographs back up Third to her mother's house. They'd come full circle.
Back at home, they posted photos of the procession on social media. Several men and women shared photos of themselves, bearing the red paint that this region has come to know so well. "No more stolen sisters," one wrote.
"The walk was to show we still care," said Howarth. "We want to see justice for our lost and loved ones."
Allen echoed her words. They want answers and they don't want to lose another woman here.
"No one should have to feel this pain," she said.
