No More Stolen Sisters

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. This is a longstanding human rights issue. Many jurisdictional barriers, racism, sexism, and other problems mean little or no investigation into these crimes; they are rarely solved. It's not an accident; it is one facet of the continuing genocide. We can fight back; we are not alone. Mitakuye oyasin -- we are all related.




STATISTICS

Indigenous Womxn (girls +) murdered 10x higher than all other ethnicities

Murder is the 3rd leading cause of death for Indigenous Womxn (Centers for Disease Control)

More than 4 out of 5 Indigenous Womxn (American Indian & Alaskan Native AI/AN) have experienced violence (84.3%) (National Institute of Justice Report)

More than half Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn experience sexual violence (56.1%)

More than half Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn have been physically abused by their intimate partners (55.5 percent)

less than half of Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn have been stalked in their lifetime (48.8 percent).

Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn are 1.7 times more likely than Anglo-American women to experience violence.

Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn are 2xs more likely to be raped than Anglo-American white women.

Murder rate of Indigenous (AI/AN) Womxn is 3xs higher than Anglo-American women.


My Writing

I have written about this issue more than once.

Iron Horses thread in Polychrome Heroics
"Whatever You Do to the Animals"
"Reaching Out to Rescue One Another"
"To Prevent Future Tragedies"
"Ways to Make the Pain Go Away"
"Quicker Than You Can Lower Them"
"A Crazy and Drunk Life"
"Repair Just About Anything"

Blackfeet Confederacy thread in Daughters of the Apocalypse (on layaway)
"The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
"Don't Let the Grass Grow"
"On the Path to Friendship"


Learn More

Library Resources

Tribal Resources


How You Can Help

Donate to organizations working to solve this problem. Do you enjoy stories, art, or other cultural material from tribal people? Give back by helping to protect the people who make them.
Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women
Indian Law Resource Center
National Indian Women Resource Center

Follow Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA on Facebook.

MMIWG2&MMIP Organizing Toolkit

No More Stolen Sisters Campaign (Canada)

Take Action (Indian Law Resource Center)

Watch for the red hand and red dress symbols of the movement. If you see them, offer support and encouragement. Many people will be protesting or posting about this today.

Post about this issue and/or link to posts about it today, to help raise awareness and agitate for action. You may direct people to this post if you wish.

Comments

Re: I'm going to introduce

[dialecticdreamer]

That won't work because the loophole involves RESIDENCY on the reservation while having typical American (not BIA recognized) citizenship. Having the local women raise Cain against the target is simply too dangerous because the response is out of proportion. When I play my stereo at two in the morning loud enough to rattle the windows, it's a misdemeanor under local laws. But because nearly every crime on the reservation violates FEDERAL statutes, the same crime is a felony there.

There's very little being done to even teach people to NAVIGATE the gaps, and it's going to take ten years or more to repair each law that's unwieldly or leaves loopholes. Probably more.

Re: I'm going to introduce

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, like how smoking on an airplane is a federal offense.

But if Mr White Dude can break laws without being arrested bc US citizenship, why couldn't a white woman (for example) break a noise ordinance (with approval from the locals) and get away with it bc citizenship? The _only_ difference is the crime and gender...unless it's the old 'we don't want to ruin his life' cow poop they've been spouting forever?

Re: I'm going to introduce

[dialecticdreamer]

Because the way the laws are written, the Native law enforcement doesn't have the leeway to give warnings in MOST cases. So the Native women raise a ruckus and torment a jerk who deserves it, but the reservation law enforcement CANNOT let them off with a warning.

I don't know all the details, and there are variations from one area to another in HOW closely these laws are followed, but the rules themselves are so complicated that it's practically impossible to know HOW to charge a white person driving through the reservation for littering, and under whose jurisdiction.

How many American tourists would understand the problem, even? There were news articles recently about reservations setting up COVID checkpoints, with American neighbors who should KNOW BETTER whining that "they didn't have the right."

In fact, I'd bet chocolate that forty-nine out of fifty random people asked couldn't tell WHICH divisions of law enforcement have authority on the reservation, let alone be able to name one exception to the baseline.