On Saturday May 4, we will be holding a MMIW March to commemorate May 5.  To call for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women of NC.  We don’t just march because we are upset, we are marching in prayer, bring awareness and attention to recognize the people who have been lost to us, who we still search for. Prepare your signs, banners, remember to wear RED, and bring your photos of lost and missing loved ones.

This marks the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. While the 2016 #NoDAPL and #MeToo movements have helped bring attention to Indigenous and women’s issues in general, little has been done at a policy level to address the high numbers of women who go missing in Indian Country. An alarming number of Indigenous women and girls disappear or are murdered each year. The absence of consistent, standardized reporting on the issue has prevented researchers from gaining a true understanding of the problem.

By targeting urban areas, we are hoping to be able to highlight how poor data collection, lack of persecution, and institutional racism are factors that occur in our Native Communities here in NC. North Carolina has the largest Native American population East of the Mississippi and in 2010 we had 122,000+ Native Americans residing in the state. Just as important to the study were the significant challenges encountered while attempting to obtain case records. Nearly half of municipal police departments failed to respond at all or within the designated time frame required of public disclosure requests. Additionally, racial misclassification was common, with some victims classified as “black” (the default when race is unknown) white or “Hispanic”. Often, Native women and girls from tribes that are not federally recognized were not identified as Native at all. Despite race typically being used as a classifier when crimes are reported, nine cities were unable to identify Native American, Alaska Native, or American Indian people in their database. Shining a light on all the causes of violence, murders, and disappearances is a daunting task. But it is a necessary one. We are exposing hard truths about the devastating impacts of colonization, racism and sexism