On Wednesday, May 9th, FCNL hosted a community dialogue on the crisis of violence against Native Women. The event, hosted in FCNL’s Quaker Welcome Center was organized to observe the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls (May 5) and to hear from congressional leaders and Native American advocates on policy solutions.
More than 4 in 5 Native Women will have experienced violence in their lifetime. The numerous cases of missing and murdered Native women and girls are alarming, yet this trend receives little recognition outside of Indian Country. For the past two years, Senator Steve Daines (MT) has been a champion for this issue by introducing a resolution naming May 5^th^ the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.
During FCNL’s event, Senator Heidi Heitkamp (ND) made a statement proclaiming her dedication to protecting Native children and bringing justice for Missing and Murdered Native women. Her current bill, Savanna’s Act, honors the memory of Savanna Lafontaine Greywind and is a promise to bring justice to missing and murdered cases. Savanna’s Act addresses this crisis by creating a standard protocol of response to missing cases and facilitates coordination between state, federal, tribal, and local law enforcement. It improves tribal access to the federal databases while recognizing the need for better data collection.
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Savanna’s act seeks to close the information gap to help bring justice to Native American Women.
Annita Lucchesi, a Southern Cheyenne PhD student, who is gathering data on missing and murdered native women, knows the obstacles to data collection all too well. There wasn’t one place to find data on how many victims are out there, until Annita began her database three years ago. “This information is so hard for the public to access…we know this issue is happening but we don’t know how or why or to what extent because that information isn’t made available to us,” Annita said.
While Native women face high rates of violence, for Annita and many Native people, this issue is about more than just significant data trends. These numbers represent our loved ones, and to Annita the data is sacred and it represents the “lives and spirits of women” and that they are honored and respected.
The goal of this event was not to just raise awareness, but to honor the women and girls we have lost to violence through a call for policy action. I believe we can honor those we lost by respecting Indigenous voices in their cries for justice and the solutions they bring to the table.
We need to not only support access to information but also policies allowing tribes to control this information and ensuring tribes have the legal jurisdiction, infrastructure, and resources they need to bring justice for missing and murdered native women and keep their communities safe. This includes reauthorizing the special jurisdiction from the Violence Against Women Act, which allowed tribes to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators who committed violent crimes against Native, and expanding this jurisdiction to all criminal conduct so tribes can protect all victims, especially children, from violent acts.
I encourage you to contact your members of Congress to ask them how they will respond to the crisis of missing and murdered native women and girls. Ask if they will support bills such as Savanna’s Act or reauthorize and expand jurisdictions with the Violence Against Women Act, to help tribes bring justice to victims and their families.
