By Denise Gee Peacock

May 5 is designated as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP)/Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). The day serves as a national call to action to end violence against Indigenous communities and to support families and communities impacted by the MMIP/MMIWG crisis.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice in support of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian County Act, the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) initiative is committed to helping American Indian and Alaska Native Villages (AI/AN communities) combat the crisis by providing no-cost training, technology assistance, and numerous resources.

AIIC Program Manager Tyesha Wood

AMBER Alert in Indian Country Program Manager Tyesha Wood, and Project Coordinators Dave Chewiwie, Amy Hood-Schwindt, and Alica Murphy Wildcatt—are continually on the road meeting with federally recognized Tribes throughout the nation.

Their Indigenous heritage and law enforcement experience help them connect on multiple levels with AI/AN law enforcement and community leaders during AMBER Alert implementation meetings and child abduction tabletop exercises (CATEs). They also assist with specialized and/or customized training, partner outreach, and more.

“While our team proudly supports MMIP/MMIWG Awareness Day, our commitment extends beyond May 5,” says Program Manager Wood, a member of the Navajo Nation. “Every day we stand with the families of missing and murdered Indigenous people who are still seeking answers. We encourage everyone to listen and help people with cases that are unreported or under-investigated. Every voice matters—and every story deserves to be heard.”

AIIC Project Coordinator Alica Murphy Wildcatt

Behind every missing or murdered Indigenous relative “is a family waiting, a community grieving, and a life full of potential that deserves to be seen and protected,” says  Wildcatt, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Much like her AIIC colleagues, “I see firsthand how our systems have the potential to fall short. Delayed responses, jurisdictional barriers, and a lack of urgency can put Native lives at risk. We can’t let our relatives become statistics. The MMIP/MMIWG movement matters because it is about justice, yes, but it’s also about love, dignity, and the right to be safe in our own homeland.”

AIIC Project Coordinator Dave Chewiwie

Children are precious in Native communities, but they also are vulnerable to “those who may be looking to abduct them, to exploit them,” says Project Coordinator Dave Chewiwie, a Pueblo of Isleta member. “We have to have effective programs and plans in place to safely recover them if they go missing. We are all stakeholders in the security of our children in Indian Country.”

Project Coordinator Hood-Schwindt, a Yavapai-Apache member, believes “an ongoing lack of thorough investigations into MMIP cases, combined with the impunity of perpetrators, has fueled a vicious cycle, one we need to break. We have to provide comprehensive investigations, meaningful prosecutions, and ensure there is justice for every stolen Indigenous life.”

AIIC Project Coordinator Amy Hood-Schwindt

While significant progress has been made in the last five years, much still needs to be done, Wood says. “We must work in unity, share resources and coordinate efforts, and carry hope that we will find, or find answers for, our missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.”

Wildcatt believes that “working together, we can confront this epidemic. We can invest in community-driven solutions, and build systems that ensure safety, accountability, and justice.”

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The disproportionately high rate of violence experienced by Native American families is unacceptable. Through continued collaboration with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, we are dedicated to alleviating this crisis in a meaningful—and lasting—way.

JANELL RASMUSSEN Director, National Criminal Justice Training Center
Administrator, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program/AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiative

‘Not Afraid’

AIIC Associate Jen Murphy helped produce an award-winning short film that turns a lens on the MMIP/MMIW crisis.

Jen Murphy is a photographer, artist, member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Montana, an AATTAP-AIIC Associate, and one of the more prominent faces of MMIP/MMIW awareness work. The above photograph of her with a red handprint over her mouth—symbolizing the silencing of voices—spans billboards across the Great Plains “to bring attention to issues that need to be talked about,” Murphy says.

Central among those issues is the disproportionate rate of violence, abduction, and murder experienced by women and people in the U.S. and Canada.

Another way Murphy aims to turn people’s attention to the MMIP/MMIW crisis is through a new short film, for which she served as executive producer: “Not Afraid,” now streaming on Omeleto.

At just under 10 minutes, the film provides an intimate and powerful portrait of a young Native American woman navigating the grief of losing a loved one to the MMIW crisis. It captures both personal heartbreak and the deep resilience within Indigenous communities, and aims to be a stirring call to remembrance, justice, and healing.

Starring JaShaun St. John (“Songs My Brothers Taught Me”), the film offers a powerful, intimate look at a growing injustice impacting Indigenous families across North America.

“Not Afraid” was awarded the Indigenous Film and Culture Award from Windrider Film Showcase that runs with the Sundance Film Festival.

The film’s director, Michaela Bruce, says of Murphy—and their storytelling mission—“I feel on the deepest level that we have a responsibility to support vulnerable women through all means available to us, including the arts.”

“When we have the ability and resources to support an important work,” Murphy adds, “it is always the right thing to do.”

“The red hand over the mouth stands for all of our missing sisters who are not heard.”
JEN MURPHY
AMBER Alert in Indian Country Associate / artist and filmmaker

Indigenous people—especially women and girls—experience significantly higher rates of violence, murder, and being reported missing compared to other groups.

  • Find the latest statistics from the FBI here and view the National Criminal Justice Training center infographic (shown below right; click photo to enlarge).
  • Learn more about national MMIP/MMIWG efforts here and here.
  • Access the DOJ resource When a Loved One Goes Missing: Resources for Families of Missing American Indian and Alaska Native Adults (shown below left) here.

 

Moved to action: AATTAP/AIIC members are participating in numerous events this week in support of MMIP/MMIWG awareness and in tribute to 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike, who was abducted and murdered on the Navajo Nation on May 2, 2016. Watch for related updates on our social media channels and AMBERAdvocate.org.

A new measure will require law enforcement authorities in California to collect and provide information on crimes that occur on Native American lands. Under the mandate signedby Governor Gavin Newsom, the data must be provided to the California Department of Justice to help better address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis and collaboratively work toward improving public safety and justice in Indian Country. California is home to the second-highest number of federally recognized Native American Tribes in the United States and ranks fifth in the nation in unresolved MMIP cases.

Tribal courts could soon have easier access to electronic evidence such as emails and social media messages in criminal cases—a move that would be beneficial, among other things, in Internet crimes against children investigations. U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced the bipartisan Tribal Access to Electronic Evidence Act as a way to give Tribal courts equitable access and better equip them to deliver justice for victims. “We know that criminals are using online tools to traffic drugs and commit other crimes in Indian Country,” Cortez Masto said. “What we also know is that Tribal courts struggle to get electronic evidence because tech companies won’t honor those Tribal warrants.” Rounds added that it’s important that Tribal law enforcement is able to do its job “without the federal government getting in the way.”

Indigenous female motorcyclists continue to rev up their engines—as well as their messaging—to raise awareness about the high rate of missing and murdered girls and women in Native American communities. This past July, the Medicine Wheel Ride motorcycle group from Phoenix partnered with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Santa Barbara County, California, for a “We Ride for Her” event. Organized through the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic, the event featured a screening of the “We Ride for Her” documentary highlighting the motorcycle group’s work, which includes fundraising, assisting advocates searching for missing Native American girls and women, and raising awareness through annual rallies and rides. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians remains the only federally recognized Chumash Tribe in the nation.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a proposal for an emergency alert that could help save the lives of missing and endangered Indigenous people. The new alert code would make it easier for public safety officials to use TV, radio, and cell phones to notify the public about missing Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The proposal was led by Native Public Media, a national organization supporting Indigenous radio and television broadcasters. The Indigenous groups comprise a significant portion of the missing and murdered cases in the United States, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In May, the FCC sought public comment on the proposal, and a final vote to create the new alert code within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is pending.

Is there hope for the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women? An article by Rachel Monroe in The New Yorker begs this question, and the answer may lie in the strength of other Indigenous women. Lela Mailman became an advocate for the voiceless after her 21-year-old daughter, Melanie James, vanished in 2014 in Farmington, New Mexico, a city bordering the Navajo Nation. Local police and media outlets seemed indifferent; Melanie’s name was misspelled in reports, and wasn’t entered in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) until three years later. Mailman sought strength in numbers, joining with mothers of other missing children at marches, protests, and prayer gatherings. The #MMIW social media movement traces back to 2012 when Canadian journalist Sheila North, a member of the Cree Nation, began using the hashtag to raise awareness and spark action in Canada and the United States. “North was particularly struck by how many cases went unsolved—evidence, to her, that society regarded Native women as essentially disposable,” Monroe notes. Melanie James’ case is one of more than 4,000 unsolved cases of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Natives, according to The Bureau of Indian Affairs. “Listening to Melanie’s family tell their story, I had the uneasy thought that justice in her case might not look like answers, arrests, and convictions but, instead, like subsequent missing persons cases being approached respectfully and rigorously the first time around.”

Native American voters could decide major elections in 2024, and grassroots efforts are underway across swing states to get this important electorate out to vote as Democrats and Republicans vie for power. Key issues for Native Americans, particularly Native American women, include the high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women, according to a 2023 First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) National Survey of Native Americans. This demographic is a powerful voting bloc with at least five million voters in the U.S. who identify as Native and Alaska Natives, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.