Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people are far more likely to experience violence, be murdered, or go missing compared to other demographic groups in Minnesota. While Indigenous people make up just 1% of the state’s population, 8% of all murdered girls and women in Minnesota from 2010-2019 were American Indian.
This jarring information is included in the most comprehensive study of the “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) injustice” in the history of the Minnesota legislature. The report, a 163-page document presented Tuesday by the MMIW Task Force and The Department of Public Safety to the Minnesota Legislature, addresses the systemic institutions that should be involved in reducing and eliminating violence against and helping Indigenous women and girls heal from violence.
The task force was able to identify root causes including; historical trauma and colonization, racism, and sexual objectification of Indigenous women and girls. Much of the report outlines the research and data used to identify those root causes of the MMIW crisis and works to suggest legislative changes that will be key to identifying and executing solutions.
The many faces of the MMIW Task Force include Your Call Minnesota collaborators Sheila Lamb, an advocate with Life House and Steering Committee member of the MMIW Task Force, Christine Stark, author and activist and Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein, Minnesota House of Representatives.
To read the full MMIW Task Force report to the Minnesota Legislature, click here.
To watch the Our State. Their Lives. Your Call. film premiere, which includes a question-and-answer session with Stark, click here.
