Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirits
By: Ela Mody
Do you know about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirits (or MMIWG2)? I didn’t for most of my life. This issue receives little attention from the government and media. But this issue hugely impacts Indigenous communities. Indigenous peoples in North America (and across the world but this article is about North America) have faced genocide, displacement, and violence at the hands of white colonist-settlers. The conditions under which many Indigenous people have been forced to live have long contributed to this problem. Colonist-settlers, since the beginning have raped, kidnapped, and murdered Indingeous women in the name of conquest. The violence was intended as a way to dominate and repress Indigenous populations. This violence is ingrained in the systems of the United States where Indigenous peoples still have no power and continue to face exploitation. This is a powerful quote written by M. Tiahui (https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2018/12/08/missing-murdered-indigenous-women-girls-two-spirit-people/): “They do not respect the sovereignty of Indigenous nations or lands, and they do not respect the sovereignty of Indigenous bodies that by their very existence stand in the way of the settlers.”
Though this issue started with the colonization of North America, it still exists today. It is difficult to understand the scale of the problem, especially since the statistics don’t account for every MMIWG2. Many times these acts of violence go unreported/uncounted and the United States government doesn’t have a database for this information. But even without comprehensive data, from what we have, 4 out of 5 Native American women face violence. Their murder rates are 10 times the national average. This doesn’t happen just to Indigneous women, girls and Two Spirits on reservations, it happens in cities as well. They are always targets.
One cause of violence is the pipelines and plants that are always placed near Indigenous communities. These pipelines and plants mean that there are white workers and businessmen in these communities. They traffic Native women. In 1978 there was a Supreme Court case called Oilphant vs Suquamish. This case decided that Indigenous Tribes cannot prosecute non-Natives for committing crimes on their reservations. This left their communities even more vulnerable and powerless. These men who traffic/assault Native women face no consequences because they have power. Police (who are supposed to protect) contribute to the trafficking of Native women and when asked to investigate these cases, they don’t. So the tribes themselves cannot prosecute non-Natives for these crimes but the Police won’t either… How can they protect themselves?
Indigenous communities have come up with ideas for how to end this issue. They propose creating a national database to record MMIWG2, and ask for more resources put into their communities. The biggest thing they ask is that nothing is built in their communities (like pipelines) without consent. The United States has yet to listen to any of these.
We live on stolen land. I live on stolen Erie Territory. On this stolen land, Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirits are being stolen. Indigenous communities have been fighting against this issue for a long time but who is listening? They have to fight for themselves. They have been marching and mourning while many of us had no idea. I wrote this article because I believe we must counter the erasure MMIWG2 face and make sure that we all continue to raise awareness. Whose land are you on? Who will you share this issue with? What more will you learn about this issue?
P.S The picture is an Indigneous woman wearing red, the color to honor MMIWG2. The black handprint on her face is to show how her community is silenced and has been treated with violence for generations.