Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two-Spirit Peoples

Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands still need electricity hook-ups. A majority of them are spread across the Navajo Nation, where climate change is making it harder for families to keep cool. In recent years, however, a mutual aid program has been helping change lives.

This guide provides curated manuscript resources at the Library of Congress for researching Native American history and cultures, including personal papers and organizational records in addition to related resources and discovery tools.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples : Perspectives of Indigenous Students and the Faculty and Staff Who Serve Them-book

Reducing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls : Arizona's Statewide Study in Partnership with the HB2570 Legislative Study Committee-book

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica are investigating sexual violence in Alaska, and why the situation isn’t getting better.

Who is killing the indigenous women of Alaska? Spoiler alert, it is not that hard to figure out if proper investigations had been done, yet time and time again, these victims’ deaths are ignored, suspects are not questioned, evidence is not collected, autopsy reports are glossed over, known repeat offenders are not prosecuted, and on the rare occasions when they are prosecuted, judges are letting them go with less than a slap on the wrist. Joining us to discuss two such cases is victims’ advocate Antonia Unaqsiq Commack of Missing and Murdered In Alaska, a group that often focuses on violence against Alaska Natives. Antonia is Inupiaq from the Native Village of Shungnak. Antonia herself has had two close friends murdered by their intimate partners and since 2017 has devoted herself to shouting loudly to make the public aware of the injustices going on in her community. Antonia takes us through the deaths of two women in Kotzebue, Alaska - Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton -- who died under extremely suspicious circumstances and who need to get much more attention from those in power to deliver justice. Their stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Please go to the Lawless website to find out more. https://www.propublica.org/series/lawless

Trigger Warning This website contains stories about the ongoing genocide against Indigenous women, girls, transgender, gender-diverse, and Two-Spirit

UIHI is leading the way in research and data for urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

Adding new narrations to historical films, Tribesourcing brings untold or suppressed stories to Native communities. Diné Librarian Rhiannon Sorrell shares how inaccurate or culturally uninformed films are a way to reclaim indigenous voice.

As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path for Indigenous women, girls, and survivors. In her brilliant debut, Sterritt shares her memoir alongside investigative reporting into cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive as a young person, and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued. 'She could have been me,' Sterritt acknowledges today, and her empathy for victims, survivors, and families drives her present-day investigations into the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. In the end, Sterritt steps into a place of power, demanding accountability from the media and the public, exposing racism, and showing that there is much work to do on the path towards understanding the truth. But most importantly, she proves that the strength and brilliance of Indigenous women is unbroken, and that together, they can build lives of joy and abundance." -Inside front cover.

Listen to this episode from Stolen on Spotify. In 2018, a young Indigenous mother left a bar in downtown Missoula, Montana, and was never seen again. After two years and thousands of hours of investigative work, the case remains open, and police believe they are close to solving the mystery of what happened to Jermain Charlo. On this season of Stolen, we go inside the investigation, tracking down leads and joining search parties for Jermain through the dense mountains of the Flathead Reservation. As we unravel this mystery, the show examines what it means to be an Indigenous person in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We speak with the parents of Mika Westwolf, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman struck and killed in March by a driver as she was walking home along the highway in the early morning hours. The parents and allies are on a “Justice to Be Seen” march to call for justice and an investigation. Westwolf was a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and was also Diné, Cree and Klamath. The driver has been identified as Sunny White, a suspected white nationalist whose children are reportedly named “Aryan” and “Nation” and were in the car at the time of the crash. White has not been charged in connection with Westwolf’s death, but it’s part of an apparent pattern in which many Indigenous people are killed or hit by vehicles along Highway 93. “They need to hear us and see us,” says Westwolf’s mother, Carissa Heavy Runner. “Listen to our stories and feel our pain and see our pain.” Erica Shelby, a tribal legal advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, discusses the details of the case and how she is in Washington, D.C., to demand action from lawmakers. “Everybody has the same story about the same players, the same agencies, the same police, the same attorneys,” says Shelby. “Enough is enough.”

"In the summer of 2017, twenty-two-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind vanished. A week after she disappeared, police arrested the white couple who lived upstairs from Savanna and emerged from their apartment carrying an infant girl. The baby was Savanna's, but Savanna's body would not be found for days. The horrifying crime sent shock waves far beyond Fargo, North Dakota, where it occurred, and helped expose the sexual and physical violence Native American women and girls have endured since the country's colonization. With pathos and compassion, Searching for Savanna confronts this history of dehumanization toward Indigenous women and the government's complicity in the crisis. Featuring in-depth interviews, personal accounts, and trial analysis, Searching for Savanna investigates these injustices and the decades-long struggle by Native American advocates for meaningful change."--Amazon.com

PHOENIX (AP) — Human remains that had been buried for decades in a California gravesite and marked as “Jane Doe" have been identified as a Navajo woman who went missing from northern Arizona, authorities said.

This note examines the prevalence of sex trafficking of Native women and children, and the correlation those rates have with large extraction projects, such as the Bakken Oil Fields in North Dakota, and the camps (“man camps”) that employees live in. In order to fully flesh out the phenomenon accurately, this note walks through pertinent history and the Truth of the Native experience of colonization and genocide in the United States. Further, this note also examines the current laws and policies in the United States that perpetuate and exacerbate the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls phenomenon. Finally, it compares those laws and policies to international human rights standards, speaks to how the United States consistently falls short of international human rights standards, and how the issue can be remedied.

‎Show The Red Nation Podcast, Ep MMIWG2S+: No more red hand prints! - May 9, 2021

"Despite what major media sources say, violence against Native women is not an epidemic. An epidemic is biological and blameless. Violence against Native women is historical and political, bounded by oppression and colonial violence. This book, like all of Sarah Deer's work, is aimed at engaging the problem head-on--and ending it. The Beginning and End of Rape collects and expands the powerful writings in which Deer, who played a crucial role in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, has advocated for cultural and legal reforms to protect Native women from endemic sexual violence and abuse. Deer provides a clear historical overview of rape and sex trafficking in North America, paying particular attention to the gendered legacy of colonialism in tribal nations--a truth largely overlooked or minimized by Native and non-Native observers. She faces this legacy directly, articulating strategies for Native communities and tribal nations seeking redress. In a damning critique of federal law that has accommodated rape by destroying tribal legal systems, she describes how tribal self-determination efforts of the twenty-first century can be leveraged to eradicate violence against women. Her work bridges the gap between Indian law and feminist thinking by explaining how intersectional approaches are vital to addressing the rape of Native women. Grounded in historical, cultural, and legal realities, both Native and non-Native, these essays point to the possibility of actual and positive change in a world where Native women are systematically undervalued, left unprotected, and hurt. Deer draws on her extensive experiences in advocacy and activism to present specific, practical recommendations and plans of action for making the world safer for all."--

Disproportionate violence against Indigenous persons in Canada includes uncounted disappearances of Indigenous children, women, and men. Canada’s decades of failure to prevent and halt disappearances forms part of a long litany of grave international human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples. Continued reports of officially hushed-up violence lead to increasingly clarion allegations of genocide. An unknown […]

By Katarina Ziervogel Tamara Chipman, a 22-year-old woman from Moricetown First Nations in British Columbia first went missing on September 21, 2005 near Prince Rupert. Tamara was last seen hitchhiking from Prince Rupert to Terrace in British Columbia, on Highway 16, best known as the Highway of Tears, where several other women have gone missing or have been found murdered. The name “Highway of Tears” gives Highway 16 an ominous energy. It’s a long route for hitchhikers who once thought it was safe to travel the highway in beautiful British Columbia. Chipman’s aunt Gladys Radek did not foresee that the time she spent with Tamara in 2001 would be the last time she saw her. All families of missing and murdered Indigenous women unfortunately share that in common with Gladys, which led her to create a non-profit organization called “Walk4Justice”...

A collective voice for the victims who have been silenced

BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER, STEPHANIE BENALLY, AND SANDY WHITE HAWK, ET. AL. IN SUPPORT OF THE FEDERAL PARTIES AND TRIBAL DEFENDANTS

Activists tell of how extractive industries are intertwined with violence against women and girls

Native American women have been targeted with high rates of violence, murder, rape and disappearance for centuries. This ongoing series explores how MMIW activists, communities, lawmakers and law enforcement are raising awareness about missing and murdered indigenous women and working for change.

WHAT IS THE MMIW MOVEMENT? The MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) movement is an activist effort in response to the pervasive issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women across North America (Turtle Island). This movement brings awareness to an issue which did not previously receive mainstream attention. MMIW activism is made up of art, protest, pushing for legislation, and building accurate databases and stronger communities. This movement is taking place across Canada, the continental US, and Alaska. In this exhibit we will be primarily focusing on the US.

Missing and murdered Indigenous women' has become a well-known phrase in recent years as the crisis of violence against Native American women has gotten more attention. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office shows we don’t actually know the extent of the problem.

Research shows that violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women in the U.S. is a crisis. Cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women persist nationwide, but without more comprehensive case data in federal databases, the full extent of the problem is unknown.

In 2019, more than a dozen members of Congress — including Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Ruben Gallego — asked the Government Accountability Office to gather more information on the issue of missing or murdered Indigenous women. The GAO has now released its findings on the crisis.