There is widespread anger and sadness in First Nations communities. Sisters, wives, mothers, and daughters are gone from their families without clear answers. There are families whose loved ones are missing—babies growing up without mothers, mothers without daughters, and grandmothers without granddaughters. For Native America, this adds one more layer of trauma upon existing wounds that cannot heal. Communities are pleading for justice.
However, the data to confirm the scope of the problem is elusive.
"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 person database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases."
A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of a growing movement, the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. It stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard. It stands for the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis. It stands for the oppression and subjugation of Native women who are now rising up to say #NoMoreStolenSisters.
--from nativehope.org
10th grade student Sophie Bruno and I painted this mural to hang in our school in the hopes that people in our community would become aware of this crisis and be moved to do something. (48" x 72")
We wrote 304 names, followed by age and status--a tiny fraction of the total number of missing and murdered women and girls in North America.
Unknown name, Kiowa warrior woman
Pretty Nose, an Arapaho war chief who fought at Little Bighorn
An activist wearing the symbol of the red hand over her mouth