Expand Your Knowledge
Education: Why does MMIR Matter?
Why should I care?
What is MMIR?
Missing and Murdered Relatives (MMIR) is a movement in the Americas bringing awareness and a call to action to end the violence, kidnapping, trafficking, disappearing, and homicide of Indigenous peoples. This crisis particularly adversely affects those who are most marginalized in the Americas which in many Indigenous communities, are both cisgender and transgender women, young women, girls, and Two Spirit and femme folks.
MMIR is also called by other names that have changed and included other targeted people within Indigenous communities:
MMIW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
MMIWG: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
MMIWG2S: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit individuals
MMIP: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People/Person(s)
MMIR is observed internationally May 5th.
To see a list of MMIR chapter and organizations, please visit our Connecting Communities page.
Why the Red Dress?
“The REDress Project (2010). An aesthetic response to the more than 1000 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. The REDress Project focuses around the issue of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. It is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to this critical national issue. The project has been installed in public spaces throughout Canada and the United States as a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us. Through the installation I hope to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.”
-Jaime Black (Anishinaabe and Finnish), Founder
History
European Contact: Human Trafficking & Disease
Since the start of colonization and missionization, Native American children, women, Two Spirit, and femme individuals of the Americas have been the most vulnerable to violence, kidnapping, killings, human trafficking, and slavery. During his colonization and genocide campaign against the Taíno, Christopher Columbus noted in his diary:
“Yesterday a canoe came alongside the ship, with six youths in it. Five came onboard and I ordered them to be detained. They are no where. I afterwards sent them to a house on the western side of the river, and seized seven women, old and young, and three children. I did this because the men would behave better in Spain if they had women of their own land, than without them.”
-Christopher Columbus, Monday 12th of November
As more and more European colonizers violently settled the Americas, many Native tribes united to push the Europeans out. Many campaigns were successful; however, most were not due to the Native American people not having resistance to the various diseases the European colonizers infected the Americas with.
As Native tribes were being decimated by the European diseases, many surviving adults and children become slaves.
The 17th to 19th Century: A Lethal Romanticization
During the centuries of further colonization and missionization by the colonial settlers, propaganda at dehumanizing and sexualizing Native people was popular. Since the story of Matoaka (born Amonute, also known as Lady Rebecca Rolfe, also erroneously known as “Pocahontas”) and John Rolfe, the British colonizers imagery of Native women moved from one of distain and hatred to one of lust and needing to be tamed.
The 20th & 21st Century: The Protected Murderers
MMIR historically has been exacerbated by colonial national, federal, state, provincial, and local government and law enforcement laws, policies, and judicial rulings. In recent history, tribal sovereignty has been legally eroded, twisted, distorted, and even eliminated due to ongoing attacks by colonial settler corporations, business persons, elected officials, judicial, legislative, and executive branches of national and federal government.
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe
On March 6, 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that Native tribal courts could not prosecute non-Native individuals for any crimes committed on Native lands on the Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe case. The issue of non-Native individuals, particularly cisgender heterosexual men, targeting and committing violent crimes towards Native women has been a huge issue in Native communities nationally. Many tribal courts after this ruling were ordered to turn the non-Native assailants over to state law enforcement to be prosecuted by the state courts which often times would fail to fully prosecute or lower the sentences of the non-Native assailants.
Violence Against Women Act
On September 13, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Violence Against Women Act. The act provided funding toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women. The act also established the Office of Violence Against Women under the U.S. Department of Justice.
(source: VAWA, 34 USC § 12471 et seq.)
Recent History
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized in February 28, 2013 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law on March 7, 2013 by President Barack Obama which expanded federal protections to gay men, lesbian women, transgender individuals, Native Americans, and immigrants.
Now, the Violence Against Women Act allowed Native tribal courts to prosecute non-Native members who committed violent crimes to Native members on Native lands. Prior to this provision, tribal courts could not prosecute non-Native members who committed domestic or dating violence against Native women on Native lands. Thus, effectively overturning the Supreme Court case ruling of Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe.
The Violence Against Women Act would later expire during the 2018-2019 United States federal government shutdown but then was reinstated for a short term until expiring again on February 15, 2019.
Finally, on March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Violence Against Women Act back into law.
Education
Listen More About the Violence Against Women Act and Native Communities
Listen to "Speaking Our Truth: Podcast for Change" from National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
Education
Watch & Listen About the Violence Against Women Act
Watch Indigenous Pride LA’s currated playlist on educational videos about the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Want to watch the playlist on YouTube? Click here.