Preventing and Resisting the
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Crisis
Understanding the Crisis
Given the long history of structural racism and underinvestment in Native communities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that rates of violence on reservations may be up to 10 times higher than the country-wide average.
In 2018, the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) published a report documenting data on MMIWG2S in 71 urban areas throughout the U.S. In addition to acknowledging the unique risks faced by Indigenous girls and women, a major theme of this report was data incompleteness due to poor record-keeping, information inaccessibility, and misclassification of race. In what is recognized as an undercount, the report sheds light on the unique risks that Indigenous girls face as they enter adolescence and adulthood and come face-to-face with historical institutional legacies of violence and neglect. Similarly, cases affecting 2SLGBTQ+ people have been severely undercounted.
Header credit: Jennifer Marquez
Art Credit: Alicia de la Cruz, IYL Cohort Member
Check out an interactive story map created by our team member, Stephanie Martinez.
Mapping out the intersections of violence against Indigenous girls, women, and Two-Spirit people with extractive and colonial systems allows us to better understand the complexities of the MMIWG2S crisis. It also highlights the importance of creating solutions that work outside of these systems and that build upon the traditions of our ancestors.
Combatting the Crisis
Group mentoring to increase girls’ safety and protection
Through the Indigenous Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Network (IMAGEN), we help Native communities make female inter-generational mentorship more reliably and systematically available, thus increasing access among the most marginalized and least connected.
Photo credit: 100 Horses Society
Girl societies provide MMIP early warning systems
To increase their safety and sense of support, we help establish Girl Societies where girls are invited to attend a weekly talking circle in a reclaimed safe space. If a girl is missing, the group facilitators can check on her.
Photo credit: Thunder Valley CDC
Self-defense training and resilience skills strenghtening
Our partners and Native Girl Society fellows work to strengthen protective socio-cultural systems for Native girls through intergenerational mentoring and the reclamation of matrilineal traditions. In many cases, they incorporate self-defense lessons into their curricula.
Photo credit: MLBO
The Economic Case for Preventing MMIWG2S
Financial costs are an additional burden for survivors, victims, and their families. The economic impact of MMIWG2S cannot be understated. Additionally, it is costly for law enforcement to simply react when a person goes missing. Violence against women can cost the government billions of dollars per year, money that would make more of a difference when invested in nurturing the communities and networks that prevent violence against vulnerable communities. For this reason, the IJC believes in the power of investing in sensitive and age-appropriate self-defense lessons for participants of Girl Societies. Through our grants and programs, our partners have been able to provide these opportunities for their communities. You can help bring self-defense classes to others too!
Photo credit: MLBO