We've been following the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement at Bluestem for a number of years, as it isn't an abstract issue for our loved ones and neighbors.
At the Worthington Globe, David Olson reports in Minnesota task force offers plan to curb threat facing Indigenous women, girls:
American Indian women and girls represent 1% of Minnesota's population, but they make up 8% of murdered women and girls in the state.
Also, from 2012 to 2020, approximately seven to 54 American Indian women and girls were missing in any given month.
Those disturbing statistics are among the findings of a new report issued Tuesday, Dec. 15, by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force created by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law last year by Gov. Tim Walz.
"With better data and increased awareness, we can move forward with effective and targeted strategies to support, protect, and heal Native communities," Walz said in announcing the report's findings.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, echoed Walz's sentiments.
"For far too long, Native women have been, at best, invisible, and at worst, disposable. As Native women and girls experienced violence, went missing, or were murdered at disproportionate rates, too often, the cases and root causes went unexamined," Flanagan said.
The task force included representatives from 11 tribal nations, members of community and advocacy organizations, law enforcement officials, legal experts and lawmakers.
The report describes the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls as a crisis that permeates the criminal justice system, including systems that interact with victims, survivors and their families.
Task force findings include:
- The root cause of injustices are based in colonization and historical trauma, racism, and sexism and sexual objectification of Indigenous women and girls.
- Victims are not at increased risk of violence because of individual risky behaviors or poor choices, but rather systemic risk factors such as poverty and homelessness, child welfare involvement, domestic violence, sex trafficking and prostitution.
- Once an Indigenous woman or girl goes missing or dies under suspicious circumstances, the investigation, prosecution and sentencing processes that are supposed to serve justice often fail to provide equal and fair treatment for victims.
Read the rest at the Globe.
The Department of Public Safety Office of Justice Programs' post Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force Releases Findings notes:
The Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) was created through unanimous bipartisan support from the Minnesota Legislature, and was coordinated by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. On behalf of the Task Force, Wilder Research conducted extensive research, including reviewing published articles, summarizing laws and policies, accessing relevant data points from state data systems, interviewing 32 experts, and hearing public feedback during several open public comment sessions.
The findings from the MMIW Task Force are now available here.
Image: The red hand has become a symbol for the MMIW movement.
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