American Indian women and girls represent 1 percent of Minnesota’s population, but they make up 8 percent 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 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.
“Many of us have a story of a relative or loved one who has been missing or murdered,” said Nicole Matthews, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition and task force vice chairwoman. “This report with the included mandates is one more step that we are taking in Minnesota to address this issue and ensure that all our Indigenous relatives are safe.”
Task force recommendations include:
- Creation of a missing and murdered Indigenous women office to provide ongoing attention to the issue.
- Establishing adequate funding and resources to implement recommendations.
- Addressing systemic racism.
- Working toward eliminating poverty and meeting basic needs.
Task force member and Fond du Lac Tribal Council District III Representative Roger Smith said the report took 18 months of work, but it took hundreds of years to create the issues the report addresses.
“My hope is these recommendations, if implemented, will mean not one more woman trafficked, not one more woman abused,” Smith said.