MMIW: The Indigenous Decimation You Haven't Heard Of
MMIW stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a hashtag created to raise awareness about the thousands of Native women throughout the United States and Canada who go missing or are murdered every year. This is an issue close to my heart, not only because I am indigenous, but also because my dad is, and my grandmother, and my future children, and because my little sister deserves a safer world to grow up in.
This is more than an epidemic; it’s a genocide. Indigenous people (especially women) are specifically targeted and more often become victims of domestic violence, assault, and murder than any other minority considering population size in the US. This is because news outlets are reluctant to cover their stories so less people end up knowing about it (and consequently doing something about it), attorneys decline to prosecute (see photo below), and predators take advantage of these odds of getting away with it.
So what can you do? I wrote an informative essay about the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (available at my website camrynjeter.com), and you can find great information on their website as well as the Urban Indian Health Institute and their website. CSVANW offers trainings to help stop domestic violence against Native women in certain areas. If you can only learn the statistics and help us raise awareness, that helps more than you know. Help us take away their power and give it back to Indigenous people.
If you are a victim of this, know that I and thousands of other people support you and that we won’t stop until there are #NoMoreStolenSisters
Art/graphics credit: the Urban Indian Health Institute
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