Disparity in the data

The groundbreaking study by UIHI, highlighted the barriers to obtaining data and documented the first baseline data for MMIWG in 71 urban areas. As one of twelve Tribal Epidemiology Centers, and the only one operating on a national level, UIHI has highlighted the scope of violence experienced by Native women through a three-part series entitled, Our Bodies, Our Stories. This series of reports details the struggles of Indigenous women and girls in life, the media, and data.

Based on these findings, SIHB developed policy recommendations for government to address the MMIWG crisis across Indian Country and in urban Indian communities. Some of SIHB’s most recent work has contributed the language of both Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act of 2019 to be more inclusive towards urban Indians.

When Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind was brutally murdered in 2017, she was living in Fargo, North Dakota. While the original text of Savanna’s Act intended to improve data collection and reporting in cases of MMIP, it was focused on tribal lands. Ironically, this would not have aided in addressing the injustices committed against Greywind. Savanna’s Act passed the Senate in 2018, but narrowly failed in the House.

As Congress went into the next session, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Representative Norma J. Torres (D-CA) reintroduced Savanna’s Act in the Senate and House, respectively- using nearly the same text as the former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). Noting the gaps in language that excluded urban Indians like Greywind herself, SIHB endorsed the bill but called attention to gaps and provided suggestions including:

• Inclusive legislative language explicitly naming urban Indian communities and organizations in bill language, definitions, and data;
• Adding urban confer policies to allow all communities most impacted by MMIWG to provide input without impeding on tribal sovereignty; and
• Reallocating a portion of state and county funding to Tribal Epidemiology Centers and urban Indian organizations to ensure urban Indian people have access to culturally relevant organizations and providers.

Similar policy requests were provided for the Not Invisible Act. Working in conjunction with the bill sponsors of Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act, SIHB secured more inclusive bill language and urban confer policies into both bills. These advocacy efforts were critical to addressing the fact that violence transcends reservations and urban boundaries, affecting all Indigenous people regardless of where they reside.

What’s next?

On a local level, SIHB leads policy initiatives and reform in conjunction with the City of Seattle, including passage of Resolution 31900, affirming the city’s commitment to addressing MIWWG. This year, SIHB has supported the development of a MMIP Strategic Data Advisor position to address systemic data reforms within local law enforcement systems and work with tribes, urban Indian organizations, and other government agencies to ensure that efforts to improve data collection and reporting in Native communities are both community-informed and culturally attuned.

SIHB and UIHI continue be leaders in collaborating with tribal, community, and government partners to address the crisis of MMIWG nationwide. With our tribal partners, we seek to end the violence through policy reform, increase funding to Native organizations who prevent and respond to violence, and create policies that bring tribal and urban Native people to decision making tables. Without representative data, coordinated response, and upstream prevention through culturally attuned services, we will never address the true extent of the crisis. The passage of Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act are steps in the right direction.

A timeline of addressing the crisis

• Pre-2002 – Decades of survivors and families impacted by violence against Indigenous womxn call attention to the growing crisis of MMIWG2S in Indigenous communities. Similar issues in First Nations communities are brought to light. Grassroots activism and community mobilization raise awareness of the issues and experiences which are shared across Indian Country.
• 2002 – National Coalition for Our Stolen Sisters is founded by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Amnesty International Canada, KAIROS, Elizabeth Fry Society, and the Anglican Church of Canada. They hope to raise awareness about the MMIWG crisis in Canada.
• 2005 – Sisters in Spirit vigils are started by Bridget Tolley (Algonquin) to honor the lives of MMIWG and two-spirit persons.
• 2006 – Amnesty International releases Maze of Injustice, a report on sexual violence experience by Indigenous communities.
• 2010 – The REDress Project, a public art installation of empty red dresses hung to represent MMIWG begins. It inspired the start of Red Dress Day and is still on-going.
• 2012 – Faceless Dolls Project started by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. People create dolls to represent those who have been missing or murdered or affected by violence, “reconstructing identity” for all the countless womxn who become a statistic.
• 2017 – Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind (Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe) is brutally murdered in Fargo, North Dakota. The subsequent bill to protect Indigenous people, Savanna’s Act, is written and introduced to Congress by Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).
• 2018 – SHB. 2951 is passed by Washington State Legislature, ordering a study on missing Native American women to increase reporting and investigation of these cases.
• 2018 – UIHI begins the series Our Bodies, Our Stories, documenting violence against Indigenous peoples. The first report in the series is a sexual violence study of Indigenous women in Seattle. The second report, on MMIWG, is the first and only report of its kind, focusing on the MMIWG crisis in urban areas on a national level. The data is alarming, and the biggest finding reveals the data challenges only exacerbating the crisis. Native people are disappearing in the data due to racial misclassification, poor data collection practices, unreported cases, and unnecessary fees for accessing data.
• 2018 – Savanna’s Act passes the Senate and fails in the House.
• 2019 – Senator Liza Murkowski (R-AK) and Representative Norma Torres (D-CA) reintroduce Savanna’s Act into the Senate and House, respectively. The Not Invisible Act, designed to supplement Savanna’s Act, is introduced by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM).
• 2019 – SIHB endorses both Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act but offers commentary pointing out the gaps in coverage for urban Indians and gives suggestions for closing these gaps.
• 2019 – In partnership with advocates and family members of MMIWG from local tribal and urban Indian communities, City of Seattle passes Resolution 31900, acknowledging the epidemic of violence that affects Indigenous people and affirming their support for MMIWG, making a pact to establish a system that will better protect Indigenous people.
• 2019 – UIHI publishes MMIWG – We Demand More, a corrective study written in response to WSP’s 2019 Missing and Murdered Native American Women Report, which failed to honor the legislation put forth in 2018 (SHB. 2951) to create a report that would determine how to best report and investigate cases of missing Native American women in Washington State.
• 2020 – Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act are passed by Congress, including SIHB’s requests, and signed into law.

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