The Disappeared— Murdered and Missing Native Women and Girls Immediate Community Action at the Tribal, State and Federal Levels Needed!
The Disappeared—
The ongoing need to build a national response to the reports of missing and murdered Native women and girls is a constant cry for justice as daily reports of another sister, mother, daughter, granddaughter, relative, or community member lost to violence send shock waves across Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages. A new community based effort to collect data on missing and murder Native women and girls reports 165 cases for 2016. These cases of Native women and girls include 54 murders, 67 missing, and 44 cases removed from the missing category but unclear as to whether the case was removed because it was determined to be a homicide or the woman, or girl, was located safely.
A strong national response is needed to shake elected and national policymakers out of their state of nonresponse to this national pattern of violence. How many Native women and girls must die before change will come? “We, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), are grieving the recent news of Savanna LaFontaine- Greywind’s murder and other recent murders and disappearances of Native women. This loss of life adds to the painful and increasing awareness of the countless murdered and missing Native women and girls throughout the United States,” said Cherrah Giles, Chairwoman, NIWRC Board of Directors. “We offer up prayers for little Haisley Jo and her father Ashton Matheny, the entire LaFontaine-Greywind and Matheny families, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Indian tribes, as well as the families and friends of other American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls murdered or missing.”
A Call for Safety and Justice
As a national movement, more must be done to create a response to stop these disappearances and the loss of lives. While passage of the Senate resolution proclaiming May 5, 2016, as the “National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls,” was a tremendous step forward, Congress has the responsibility and authority to do more. The national movement must channel the grief and righteous anger to this violence into action. There is so much work to be done to end this horrific violence against our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunties, relatives, and friends.
Murdered and Missing Native Women and Girls
Immediate Community Action at the Tribal, State and Federal Levels Needed!
“We at NIWRC send strength and support, and hold as relatives, the many tribal advocates and local programs, Native organizations, tribal coalitions offering direct support to the families and communities of missing or murdered Native women,” said Lucy Simpson, Executive Director, NIWRC. “We stand in solidarity with these Strong Hearts. NIWRC is committed to increasing safety and access to justice for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women and girls, to bringing awareness to this critical issue of missing and murdered Native women, and to preventing future acts of violence in our nations. Together, we will never stop fighting for justice.”
A Conversation with the Field: Understanding Missing and Murdered Native Women—Organizing a Response
To organize and respond to an injustice, it must be first be acknowledged and understood. The NIWRC is organizing dedicated discussions with advocates and tribal leaders concerning missing and murdered Native women, ways to increase national awareness, and ways to organize to end such violence. The discussions held since June 2017 have reinforced the importance of national action and immediate steps by federal government to increase the response to this issue and help for grieving families and tribal communities.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a resolution at the October 2016 annual meeting. The resolution reads in part: The NCAI does hereby resolve to advocate for changes to increase safety for Native women to address the crisis of missing and murdered Native women and girls by the federal government, with agencies including but not limited to the Departments of Justice, Interior, and Health and Human Services, including actions such as:
- To review, revise, and create law enforcement and justice protocols appropriate to the disappearance of Native women and girls, including inter-jurisdictional issues; and
- To provide increased victim services to the families and community members of the disappeared or murdered Native woman such as counseling for the children of the disappeared, burial assistance, and community walks and healing ceremonies; and
- Coordination of efforts across federal departments to increase the response to the disappearance or murder of Native women and girls; and
- Coordinate efforts in consultation with Indian tribes’ efforts to increase the response of state governments, where appropriate, to cases of disappearance or murder of Native women or girls.
The resolution provides an overview for foundational reforms at the federal level. These are basic steps that begin to address this crisis and cause everyone to question why they do not exist. Why, when the murder rate for Native women is 10 times the rate of other populations, does no protocol addressing this crisis exist for federal law enforcement? Why are efforts not being coordinated across criminal justice agencies and departments to respond to this crisis? The list of recommendations contained in the NCAI resolution and concerns of tribal leaders raised during the annual Violence Against Women consultation remain unaddressed.
We encourage everyone to take action and on social media to use the hashtag #MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) to make statements of awareness of this national crisis. The national movement must create a groundswell to focus the attention of the public on #MMIWG.
