Missing Murdered and Indigenous Persons

84% of Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime. 

Four in Five Indigenous Women

More than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Native women experience violence in their lifetime. Many of these cases result in a missing or murdered indigenous woman. This is incredibly gut wrenching. Not only are these women going missing and are being murdered, but in some cases, these women are being ignored and forgotten. There is an extreme amount of mistrust that indigenous people have of the White Man due to the colonization and boarding school, which in turn makes it difficult for law enforcement to assist on some of these cases. Federal law enforcement has to be invited on reservation land and asked to assist in these cases. 

Need for Investigative Resources

On the Department of Interior Indian Affairs webpage, it lists the statistics for American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons who have been entered into the National Crime for Information Center (NCIC) which is approximately 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons throughout the U.S. approximately 2,700 cases of murder and non-negligent homicide offenses have been reported to the Federal Government's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimate that there are approximately 4,200 missing and murdered cases are currently open and unsolved. 

 

"These investigations remain unsolved 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."

-Department of Interior Indian Affairs. 

Jurisdictional Issues

  Unknown Jurisdiction is often an issue in Missing Murdered and Indigenous persons cases. Depending on where the victim went missing from, where the victim was found and whether or not the person of interest is indigenous all have to be considered when investigating missing/ murdered indigenous persons cases. 

  In domestic abuse situations on the reservations, the tribal police typically have jurisdiction. If an outsider came onto the reservation to kill the victim, typically the FBI becomes involved. If the crime occurs off of the reservation, but involves a registered indigenous person, the location the victim went missing from, or was killed, has to be taken into consideration. 

  That often means the Sheriff's department or state police can become involved. Each case can exchange hands in law enforcement multiple times before the real investigation properly begins. The inconsistencies with jurisdiction are a constant headache and heartache to families involved. 

  It's also frustrating for tribal police, because they have limited authority to punish criminals, regardless of indigenous status or whether they are registered with the reservation land. Reports as recent as 2010 show that the maximum sentence for members or non-member Indians is 3 years and a 15,000 fine regardless of crime. Nothing I have found mentions that tribal police are allowed to impose prison sentences on non-indigenous individuals. I imagine that it can get quite infuriating having to constantly wait on approval from the federal government as to how each case gets classified under who's jurisdiction. 

American Indian and Alaska Native people are at a disproportionate risk of experiencing violence, murder, or going missing and make up a significant portion of the missing and murdered cases.

         -U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. 

This photo includes people raising awareness of Missing indigenous men.

Indigenous men are more likely to go missing than indigenous women. 

They have a tendency to not be reported as frequently because of alcohol and drug usage.