MMIW – Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Children’s Day Pt.1 of 2

Intro

In a few days, the Native Communities of the US and Canada will honor women who have been least recognized; women who’s stories can’t always be told, because they can’t always be found to tell them. The stories of missing and murdered indigenous women.

The National Day of Awareness for MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and Two-Spirit individuals (also known as Red Dress Day), is observed on May 5th, recognized by the American and Canadian governments on behalf of tribal nation advocacy groups.

Stats & Stories

The numbers of MMIW is grievous to report, and while the movement is gaining attention, the road ahead will still be long and hard fought as the barriers to justice are not easy to overcome. Still, the Native community and partnered advocates push on to speak out and find solutions to this ongoing crisis.

According to the National Crime Information Center, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, though the US Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, but the national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States, called the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) only logged 116 of those cases.¹

A 2021 study found homicide to be the third-leading cause of death among American Indian women and girls between ages 10 to 24 and the fifth leading cause for ages 25 to 34. ² Research has indicated that indigenous women are 10 to 12 times more susceptible to murder threats than the national average and that over 80% of indigenous people have experienced violence in their lifetime.³

Current News

“Violence against Indigenous peoples is a crisis that has been underfunded for decades. Far too often, murders and missing persons cases in Indian country go unsolved and unaddressed, leaving families and communities devastated,” -Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, 2019 statement related to Operation Lady Justice⁴ ⁵

On April 2nd, 2025, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA) updated the public on Operation Not Forgotten by announcing it’s new dedication to tackling the issues of violent crimes in Indian county and crimes related to missing and murdered indigenous persons. The initiative began in 2023 and continues to prioritize the mission in 2025.⁶

“FBI will send 60 personnel, rotating in 90-day temporary duty assignments over a six-month period. This operation is the longest and most intense national deployment of FBI resources to address Indian Country crime to date. FBI personnel will support field offices in Albuquerque; Denver; Detroit; Jackson, Miss.; Minneapolis; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Portland, Oreg.; Seattle; and Salt Lake City. The FBI will work in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions.” – FBI.gov, Operation Not Forgotten⁷

History

“Until there is cooperation and better tracking systems at all government levels, the data on missing and murdered Indigenous women will never be 100 percent accurate, which is what we need to strive for in order to protect our mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunties.” -Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), Director, Urban Indian Health Institute

Historically, one of the largest barriers to justice for MMIW has been a lack of cooperation from governing bodies. “often due to a lack of investigative resources available to identify new information from witness testimony, re-examine new or retained material evidence, as well as reviewing fresh activities of suspects.”⁸

Members of the native community have voiced that they don’t feel they are taken seriously, appropriate action is not taken by law enforcement in a timely manner or sometimes they are simply not available.⁹

Generational trauma within native communities comes from a complicated history of displacement, past generations in boarding schools, alcohol abuse in attempt to cope, intertribal abuse, failings in the foster care systems, racial profiling, discrimination, poverty, lack of resources, and the list goes on.¹⁰

An entirely different subject, but worth noting, that suicide has also taken a devastating toll on Native American communities.¹¹

The national emergency call number for both US and Canada is 9-1-1. The suicide hotline for both US and Canada is 9-8-8. Please use these resources if you or a loved one is in immediate need of help. You deserve to be heard and helped.

-National Emergency 9-1-1
-Suicide Hotline 9-8-8

-US https://988lifeline.org/ CA https://988.ca/

-TransLifeLine 877-565-8860 (https://translifeline.org/)

-List of crisis hotlines by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

-Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Crisis Line (CA) 1-844-413-6649

-More resources (CA) https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1548700698392/1548701361628

Running away is one of the common ways that indigenous women become victims of violence, abduction or go missing. In attempting to leave and escape their situations, they can become vulnerable prey to predators or simply fall into worse circumstances through hitch-hiking and homelessness/displacement.

“So, project E-Pana is an investigation that focused on the missing and murdered women and girls along major highways throughout British Columbia to look for commonalities. To see whether a serial killer was preying on these women or looking for a pattern in their murders or disappearances. The commonality appeared to be a lot of them were either walking or hitch-hiking or engaged in a high risk activity such as that along the highway, and that was a commonality of cases, or at least one of the commonality of cases that was examined.” -Special Task Force Officer for Highway of Tears¹²

New Hope

Despite the bleakness of the situation, New Hope is arising in the hearts of Native Peoples across the US and Canada. Believing that change is possible, they continue to hope for a better future built on justice, equality and quality of life.

Many tribal and government initiatives have been created and established to bring resources together. Native communities are advocating for their loved ones. Media is increasing coverage, documentaries are being made. Action plans, patrol forces, education and awareness programs; health programs, including mental health education and awareness and many more organization efforts are inspiring hope and resilience.

Native lives matter!

It’s a huge topic that can’t fit into one article, so I hope to do more in the future as well to continue bringing education and awareness to the public.