#mmiwusa

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash is one of the most prolific Indigenous activists in history. In the left picture she is seen digging bunkers at Wounded Knee. Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was murdered in 1975 by members of AIM (American Indian Movement), the same organization she was a part of. Although it has been almost 48 years since her death she will always be remembered for her strength and bravery she showed throughout her life.

Mihesuah, Devon Abbot. Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780803232273/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater.

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"Anna Mae digs bunker at 1973 armed liberation of Wounded Knee (Lakota Nation)." Photograph. Wordpress.com, 1973, https://mgouldhawke.wordpress.com/anna-mae-words/.

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I was able to view an exhibit at the George Washington Carver Museum’s We Ride For Her Red Dress Exhibit in Austin, Texas. Right in the entrance of the museum one can see over forty red dresses of all sizes hanging from the ceiling, each representing an Indigenous woman or girl who has gone missing or has been murdered. I was able to feel the sense of emptiness each dress created, as if it was a big closet full of dresses waiting to be put on by a woman or girl who can’t anymore, as if there was a hole in the world where a woman should be. Also at the entrance is a table with red ribbons and sharpies for visitors to write down the names of loved ones who are missing or murdered Indigenous people and pins to pin these ribbons to the blanket dress at the front of the exhibit. Inside the exhibit there are a multitude of mediums honoring the Indigenous women and two-spirit people who have gone missing, been murdered, or raped. Immediately one sees the Loved Beyond Words Dress. This Dress is a white and red Jingle dress, in red writing one can see the names and descriptions of MMIW, along with kind words. There were seventeen women in total honored on this dress, only one, Esther Smith, has been found after being missing for 14 years. All of the words on the Loved Beyond Words Dress were given by the families of these victims.

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A major part of the MMIW movement is social media! Sheila North (pictured above) created the hashtag #MMIW in 2012 to spread awareness about the movement. Sheila North Wilson is a former grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc., a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation, and an activist for Indigenous issues.

Golden Eagle Rising Society. “Grand Chief Sheila North.” Accessed April 12, 2024. https://www.goldeneaglerising.org/champions/grand-chief-sheila-north.

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Ashley Loring Heavy Runner (pictured on top) has been missing since June 2017. Local and federal law enforcement effort to find Ashley has been low, to say the least. Kimberly Loring, pictured on the bottom has been searching and advocating for her sister. Lack of law enforcement is a major problem in MMIW cases and contributes to the overall crisis of MMIW. Through the mishandling of Ashley’s case we can see the way both the national and local government neglect cases of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women.

Simon, Evan, Jessica Hopper, Eamon McNiff, and Allie Yang. “No answers 2 years after 20-year-old student vanishes -- a single case in an epidemic in American Native communities.” ABC. October 8, 2019. https://abcnews.go.com/US/answers-years-20-year-student-vanishes-case-epidemic/story?id=65344265.

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Loring, Ashley. "Ashley Loring Heavy Runner went missing from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana in June 2017." Photograph, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/US/answers-years-20-year-student-vanishes-case-epidemic/story?id=65344265.

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Stacy Hill was a senior in high school and was looking forward to graduating when she went missing in September of 2009. Stacy lived on Red Lake Reservation and had many interests such as beading, drawing, basketball, and reading. Her remains were found later in October of 2009 on the Red Lake reservation. Finding any reporting on Stacy Hill's case is challenging.

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“The National Crime Information Center reports that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, though the US Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases.”

As a settler-colonialist nation, the United States has committed genocide against Indigenous peoples since its founding. Even before the United States was an official nation, colonizers (generally from Europe) began to wipe out Indigenous populations because of prejudices and greed for monetary gain, as well as the possession of native land. The lack of engagement from the government to help find these women, and to fight for these women, is just another way colonization has continued into the 21st Century.  

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Today, May 5th is National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Day . On May 5 people from across the United States and Canada take part in raising awareness about MMIW by wearing red, participating in marches and protests, and hosting events. Today is about honoring the lives that have been lost to this crisis, it is also about protesting the lack of police involvement, lack of media coverage, and the blatant racism towards Native Americans that has continued this crisis. To fix this, there is an entire movement full of activists that spend their time trying to change the law, and help these women, families, and communities find justice. The quest for justice is far from over and will never be till Native American Women are truly safe, till the last family finds justice, and healing can begin.

Native Hope. “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)” Accessed February 2, 2024. https://www.nativehope.org/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw.

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