The Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

The epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women is worsening everyday- and no one is talking about it.

According to the National Institute of Justice, more than four in five American Indian and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence. On top of that, the murder rate for indigenous women is ten times higher than the national average.

According to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, in 1817 Congress passed the first statute creating federal jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians to non-Indians. This statute is now the basis of the General Crimes Act. Later on, in 1885, Congress passed the Major Crimes Act that expanded federal jurisdiction of seven to sixteen major crimes. Most of these major crimes follow the pattern of domestic violence. In result of these statutes that are now the bedrock of current federal Indian law; perpetrators of these crimes face little, if any legal consequence for their actions.

The violence against Indigenous women is horrific, and the normalized injustice and inaction for them is even more so. We must hold our federal government responsible, and demand justice and protections for Indigenous women everywhere.