Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

*This report contains strong language about violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women.

A snapshot of data from 71 urban cities in the United States

MISSING AND

MURDERED

WOMEN &

GIRLS

This report is the second of the Our Bodies, Our Stories series. Go to UIHI.org to read the

rst report regarding sexual violence against Native women in Seattle, Washington.

Urban Indian Health Institute is a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board. Donate

to future projects that will strengthen the health of Native people by going to

http://www.sihb.org/get-involved-donate.

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

DUE TO URBAN INDIAN

HEALTH INSTITUTE’S LIMITED

RESOURCES AND THE

POOR DATA COLLECTION BY

NUMEROUS CITIES,

THE 506 CASES IDENTIFIED

IN THIS REPORT ARE

LIKELY AN UNDERCOUNT OF

MISSING AND MURDERED

INDIGENOUS WOMEN &

GIRLS IN URBAN AREAS.

2 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

A NATIONWIDE CRISIS:

MISSING AND MURDERED

INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

Nationwide, the voices of Indigenous people have united

to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous

woman and girls (MMIWG). Though awareness of the crisis

is growing, data on the realities of this violence is scarce.

The National Crime Information Center reports that, in 2016, there

were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native

women and girls, though the US Department of Justice’s federal

missing persons database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases.

i,ii

The Center

for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that murder is the

third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska

Native women and that rates of violence on reservations can be up to

ten times higher than the national average.

iii, iv

However, no research

has been done on rates of such violence among American Indian

and Alaska Native women living in urban areas despite the fact that

approximately 71% of American Indian and Alaska Natives live in

urban areas.

To ll this gap, in 2017, Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI), a tribal

epidemiology center, began a study aimed at assessing the number

and dynamics of cases of missing and murdered American Indian

and Alaska Native women and girls in cities across the United States.

This study sought to assess why obtaining data on this violence is so

dicult, how law enforcement agencies are tracking and responding

to these cases, and how media is reporting on them. The study’s

intention is to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the MMIWG crisis

in urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities and the

institutional practices that allow them to disappear not once, but three

times—in life, in the media, and in the data.

MURDER

The third-leading cause of death

among American Indian/Alaska

Native women.

iii

ONLY 116

of them were logged

in DOJ database

5,712

cases of MMIWG

were reported

in 2016

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

AN OVERVIEW OF

MMIWG IN URBAN

AMERICA

Despite this ongoing crisis, there is a lack of data and an

inaccurate understanding of MMIWG, creating a false

perception that the issue does not aect o-reservation/

village American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

However, according to an analysis of 2016 Census data, 50.2%

of the urban Indian population identied as female.

The data

in this report also includes LGBTQ, non-binary, and Two Spirit

individuals. The majority of American Indian and Alaska Native

people now live in urban communities due to a variety of reasons

for migration, from forced relocation due to 1950s federal relocation

and termination policies, to current barriers to obtaining quality

educational, employment, and housing opportunities on tribal

lands. Because of this, urban American Indian and Alaska Native

people experience MMIWG-related violence in two ways—through

losses experienced by extended family and community ties on

reservations, in villages, and in urban communities themselves.

Though there are critical issues regarding jurisdiction of MMIWG

cases on reservation and village lands, lack of prosecution, lack

of proper data collection, prejudice, and institutional racism are

factors that also occur in urban areas.

In this study, UIHI sought to demonstrate the ways in which these

issues also impact urban MMIWG cases, highlighting the results of

a deeply awed institutional system rooted in colonial relationships

that marginalize and disenfranchise people of color and remains

complicit in violence targeting American Indian and Alaska Native

women and girls.

Institutional racism is the process of

purposely discriminating against certain

groups of people through the use of biased

laws or practices. Oen, institutional racism

is subtle and manifests itself in seemingly

innocuous ways, but its eects are anything

but subtle.

vii, viii

Urban Indians are tribal people

currently living o federally-

dened tribal lands in urban areas.

of American Indians/

Alaska Natives live in

urban areas.

71%

UIHI utilized a multi-pronged methodology to collect data on cases of MMIWG with the

understanding that what is reported and recorded by law enforcement, covered by media, and

remembered and honored by community members and family rarely matches.

COLLECTING THE DATA

Racial misclassication is the incorrect

coding of an individual’s race or ethnicity,

e.g. an American Indian and Alaska Native

individual incorrectly coded as white.

Misclassication generally favors the larger

race, so while American Indians and Alaska

Natives are oen misclassied as white, the

reverse of that is rare.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

grants any person the right to request

access to federal agency records or

information.

As demonstrated by the ndings of this study, reasons for the lack

of quality data include underreporting, racial misclassication,

poor relationships between law enforcement and American Indian

and Alaska Native communities, poor record-keeping protocols,

institutional racism in the media, and a lack of substantive

relationships between journalists and American Indian and Alaska

Native communities.

In an eort to collect as much case data as possible and to be able

to compare the ve data sources used, UIHI collected data from

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to law enforcement

agencies, state and national missing persons databases, searches of

local and regional news media online archives, public social media

posts, and direct contact with family and community members

who volunteered information on missing or murdered loved ones.

UIHI’S DATA SOURCES

Law Enforcement

Records

State & National

Databases

Media

Coverage

Social Media Community & Family

Member Accounts

4 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

In these FOIA requests, UIHI requested all case data from 1900

to the present. No agency was able to provide data dating to 1900

but providing such a large date range was useful in accessing as

much data as the agency had readily available, which varied across

jurisdictions. The oldest case UIHI identied happened in 1943, but

approximately two-thirds of the cases in UIHI’s data are from 2010

to 2018. This suggests the actual number of urban MMIWG cases

are much higher than what UIHI was able to identify in this study.

These cities were selected because they either have an urban Indian

health center that is aliated with UIHI, a signicant population

of urban Indians, or were found to have a large number of MMIWG

cases in a preliminary consultation with key community leaders.

UIHI attempted to collect data in

71 cities across 29 states.

Due to challenges in collecting data on

historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000.

CITIES UIHI ATTEMPTED

TO COLLECT DATA FROM

Seattle

Tacoma

Spokane

Oakland

Missoula

Tempe

Albuquerque

Salt Lake City

Idaho Falls

Sacramento

San Jose

Fresno

Reno

Portland

Eureka

Redding

Bakerseld

Los Angeles

San Diego

Fountain

Valley

Santa

Barbara

Gallup

Farmington

Santa Fe

Billings

Great Falls

Helena

Butte

Denver

Oklahoma

City

Wichita

Kansas

City

St. Louis

Indianapolis

Chicago

Detroit

Cleveland

Akron

Milwaukee

Green Bay

New Orleans

San Antonio

Houston

Dallas

Arlington

Omaha

Rapid City

Pierre

Sioux

Falls

Bismarck

Fargo

Duluth

Minneapolis

St. Paul

Lincoln

Anchorage

Juneau

Sitka

Ketchikan

Fairbanks

Utqiagvik

Bethel

Tuscon

Phoenix

Flagsta

San

Francisco

Bualo

Boston

Orlando

Tulsa

Baltimore

6 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

FINDINGS

UIHI identied 506 unique

cases of missing and murdered

American Indian and Alaska

Native women and girls across

the 71 selected cities—128 (25%)

were missing persons cases, 280

(56%) were murder cases, and 98

(19%) had an unknown status.

A case was agged as “status unknown” in two circumstances: when

law enforcement gave a number of total cases in response to a record

request but did not clarify how many were missing and how many

were murdered (16 cases total), and when a case was listed on a missing

persons database but had been removed, UIHI could not verify whether

the woman or girl was located safe or deceased.

The identied cases were widely distributed by age and tribal aliation.

The youngest victim was under one year old and the oldest was 83 years

old. One hundred and thirty-ve cases (27%) were victims aged 18 or

under, and mean victim age was approximately 29 years old (out of 387

cases for which victim age was able to be determined).

UIHI identied 96 cases that were tied to broader issues such as

domestic violence, sexual assault, police brutality, and lack of safety for

sex workers. In this report, domestic violence includes intimate partner

violence and family violence. Forty-two (8% of all cases) cases were

domestic violence related, and 14% of domestic violence fatalities were

victims aged 18 and under. Three victims were pregnant at their time

of death. At least 25 victims (6% of all cases) experienced sexual assault

at the time of disappearance or death, 18 victims (4% of all cases) were

identied as sex workers or victims of tracking, and 39% of victims

in the sex trade were sexually assaulted at the time of death. For this

report, sexual assault is dened as penetrative and non-penetrative

sexual violence and includes victims who were found murdered and left

nude. Eight victims were identied as homeless, six were trans-women,

and seven were victims of police brutality or death in custody.

UIHI was able to identify the victim’s relationship to the perpetrator in

24 cases; of these, 13 victims were killed by a partner or the partner of an

immediate family member, three were killed by an immediate family

member, six were killed by a serial killer, and two were killed by a drug

dealer. Of the perpetrators UIHI was able to identify, 83% were male and

approximately half were non-Native. Thirty-eight of the perpetrators

were convicted, while nine were never charged, four were acquitted, one

had a mistrial, and one committed suicide. Altogether, 28% of these

perpetrators were never found guilty or held accountable. An

additional 30 alleged perpetrators have pending charges.

Approximately 75% of the cases

UIHI identied had no tribal

aliation listed.

Sixty-six out of 506 MMIWG cases

that UIHI identied were tied to

domestic and sexual violence.

The youngest victim was a baby less

than one year old.

The oldest victim was an elder

who was 83 years old.

MMIWG STATISTICS FROM A SURVEY

OF 71 CITIES ACROSS THE U.S.

The ribbon skirt is a form of cultural clothing

that represents the sacredness of American

Indian and Alaska Native women and the

deep connection their bodies and spirits have

to the land. Just like a skirt, each American

Indian and Alaska Native community has

its own beauty and stories of resilience

despite multiple ribbons of trauma and

violence stacked upon them. We chose to

represent the study’s ndings in this way to

honor the sacredness of our urban missing

and murdered Indigenous women and

girls, the prayers we hold them in, and the

responsibility we have to care for their stories.

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

THE INVISIBLE 153

Number of cases

identied by UIHI that

currently do not exist

in law enforcement

records.

10 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

The 506 cases UIHI identied were dispersed over a wide geographic area. Regionally, the

Southwest (157), Northern Plains (101), Pacic Northwest (84), Alaska (52), and California (40)

were the areas with the highest number of cases. The cities that gure most prominently in the

data are Seattle (45), Albuquerque (37), Anchorage (31), Tucson (31), and Billings (29).

GEOGRAPHY

The states with the highest number of cases are

as follows: New Mexico (78), Washington (71),

Arizona (54), Alaska (52), Montana (41), California

(40), Nebraska (33), Utah (24), Minnesota (20), and

Oklahoma (18).

The areas with the largest number of urban cases

with an unknown status were Albuquerque (18), San

Francisco (16), Omaha (10), and Billings (8). Notably,

both Albuquerque and Billings police departments

acknowledged FOIA requests but did not provide any

records or information or respond to any follow-up,

while the records provided by San Francisco police

did not specify the name or status of any victim.

Omaha gured prominently in this list because,

like many jurisdictions across the country, when

a person listed on the Nebraska missing persons

database is located, the notice is removed with no

public information as to whether they were found

safe or deceased. Together, these cities highlight the

need for changes to public information systems on

missing persons and improvement in cooperation

from law enforcement agencies.

AREAS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF CASES (BY REGION)

Southwest Northern Plains Pacic Northwest Alaska California

TOP 10 CITIES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF MMIWG CASES

See Appendix for data from all 71 cities surveyed.

Seattle, WA (45)

Albuquerque, NM (37)

Anchorage, AK (31)

Tucson, AZ (31)

Billings, MT (29)

Gallup, NM (25)

Tacoma, WA (25)

Omaha, NE (24)

Salt Lake City, UT (24)

San Francisco, CA (17)

TOP 10 STATES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF MMIWG CASES

New Mexico (78)

Washington (71)

Arizona (54)

Alaska (52)

Montana (41)

California (40)

Nebraska (33)

Utah (24)

Minnesota (20)

Oklahoma (18)

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

12 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

ACCESSING LAW ENFORCEMENT DATA

UIHI led FOIA requests with municipal police departments in

all 71 cities included in the survey. In the case of Alaska, UIHI also

led a request with the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS)

because a case that occurred in a major city was not considered

city jurisdiction. To ensure other such cases would be included in

the data, a request to DPS was necessary.

Initially, these requests were led via the agency’s online request

system, when one existed, and, in cases where there was no such

system, via email. Where no online system or email was available,

no contact was made. After a signicant portion of these initial

requests never received a response, UIHI utilized MuckRock, a

paid service that assists in FOIA requests, to re-le prior requests

and le new requests with agencies that had no online system or

email available.

In these requests, UIHI asked for all data on cases of missing

persons (unsolved only), homicides, suspicious deaths, and deaths

in custody (solved and unsolved) involving an American Indian

or Alaska Native victim that was female or identied as a trans-

woman/girl.

CHALLENGES AND

OBSTACLES IN OBTAINING

MMIWG DATA

“Until there is cooperation and

better tracking systems at all

government levels, the data on

missing and murdered Indigenous

women will never be 100 percent

accurate, which is what we need

to strive for in order to protect our

mothers, daughters, sisters, and

aunties.”

-Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), Director,

Urban Indian Health Institute

71 CITY POLICE

DEPARTMENTS AND

1 STATE AGENCY

WERE SURVEYED.

FOIA RESULTS

Seventy-one city police agencies and one state

police agency were surveyed. Forty agencies

(56%) provided some level of data. Thirty-three

of the 40 (and 46% of all surveyed) actually

searched their records, though not all provided

comprehensive data. Ten out of the 40 agencies

provided data but with a “caveat”, meaning they

only conrmed cases UIHI had already logged,

provided what they could recall from memory,

or gave partial data. Fourteen of the 72 agencies

surveyed (20%) did not provide data, and 18

(25%) are still pending. Those combined with

the 10 “caveat” cases comprised 59% of all the

agencies surveyed. In sum, nearly two-thirds

of all agencies surveyed either did not provide

data or provided partial data with signicant

compromises.

Thirteen of the 72 agencies surveyed (18%) did

not respond to our FOIA request within the time

limit set by local statute, and an additional 12

agencies (17% of all agencies) failed to respond

within their local time limit by ignoring the

rst attempt, but did respond in time when

a second request was led nine months later

using MuckRock. Combined, these 25 agencies

OUT OF THOSE:

“It is unacceptable that law enforcement feel

recalling data from memory is an adequate

response to a records request. In the one

instance where this occurred and the

ocer searched their records aer, several

additional cases the ocer could not recall

were found. This highlights the need for

improved records provision standards and

shows that the institutional memory of law

enforcement is not a reliable or accurate

data source.”

- Annita Lucchesi (Southern Cheyenne), PhD-c

40 AGENCIES

PROVIDED SOME

LEVEL OF DATA

14 AGENCIES

DID NOT

PROVIDE DATA

18 AGENCIES

STILL HAVE

PENDING FOIA

REQUESTS

as of our cuto date,

October 15, 2018

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

14 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

represent over one-third (35%) of all agencies surveyed. Six

agencies never responded to any FOIA requests: Albuquerque,

Baltimore, Butte, Reno, San Jose, and Tempe. Sixty agencies

(83%) required more than one communication regarding UIHI’s

request. Of those 60, 29 (40% of all agencies) needed more than

two, and 16 (22% of all agencies) needed more than ve.

The ndings highlight that the FOIA process is, at best,

laborious, requiring intensive follow up and resources from the

requesting agency. For example, a representative from Juneau

Police in Alaska explained that they received UIHI’s initial

request at the same time as an unaliated project at another

institution led a request for data on sexual assault on Alaska

Native women. The agency assumed any request on violence

against Alaska Native women must have come from the same

source, so, when they lled the other institution’s request, they

closed out UIHI’s. Similarly, in an October 2018 phone call,

a representative from the Los Angeles Police claimed UIHI’s

two prior FOIA requests to their agency had been closed out

by being lost in the system due to understang. They had a

backlog of thousands of requests that three sta members

were responsible for lling, and many were not answered (as

UIHI’s rst request was) or were rerouted to the wrong agency

(as UIHI’s second request was). An entire year later, the agency

expected UIHI to le a third request and “get back in line.”

In another case, the Chief of Police in Billings, Montana, after

having received a second FOIA request from UIHI, wrote, “Your

assertion that we have ignored a similar request from eight

months ago is false. Unless you sent your request elsewhere,

this is the rst time we have seen it.” UIHI responded with

screenshots of the initial request and of the automatic email

received stating that the request was received and was

processing, but UIHI never received any response to the email

or to the record request to date.

However, some agencies were helpful and provided case

data in a timely manner. For example, a representative

from the Anchorage police department was one of the very

rst to provide comprehensive data on MMIWG cases in

their jurisdiction. Not only did they search their records for

“Your assertion that we have ignored

a similar request from eight months

ago is false. Unless you sent your

request elsewhere, this is the rst

time we have seen it.”

-Chief of Police in Billings, Montana, aer

receiving a second FOIA request. Aer

receiving screen shots of rst request, no

further response was given.

Departments like Anchorage

and Lincoln demonstrate that

it is possible for urban police

departments to respond to

FOIA requests for such data and

that the barriers other agencies

have identied are not inherent

to law enforcement as a whole.

FEES FOR ACCESSING DATA

Thirteen percent of all agencies surveyed charged a fee for

accessing data: Fairbanks, Flagsta, Juneau, Sitka, Kansas City,

Ketchikan, Portland, Salt Lake City, Tucson, and Utqiagvik.

If UIHI had paid every invoice received, it would have cost

$4,464.48 (not including the cost of the paid service for the

FOIA requests). Alaska agencies comprised 93% of the total

costs of invoices. The invoices UIHI paid totaled $68, and,

in turn, UIHI received data from three cities, resulting in an

additional 51 cases logged. Portland police never provided any

data despite their invoice being paid. As a small American

Indian and Alaska Native organization with limited resources,

UIHI was unable to pay a majority of the fees and thus was

unable to access the data.

Of the agencies that did provide some kind of data, nine (23%)

located data prior to 1990, 18 (45%) located data prior to 2000,

and 29 (73%) located data prior to 2010. Accessing historical

data was extremely dicult.

cases, they also searched the name of each case UIHI had logged

to determine why they may not appear on the department’s

search results. Similarly, a representative from the Lincoln police

department called for clarication of the request to ensure that they

were pulling all of the pertinent records. They were very supportive

of the project and dedicated hours of research at no cost to provide

case data dating back to 1962.

FOIA REQUEST TO ALASKA

After UIHI’s FOIA request was rejected by the Alaska State

Troopers for being too burdensome, an appeal was denied

by the Department of Public Safety because they estimated

there were between 800 and 1,200 homicides of Alaska

Native women since 1940 and it would require too many

work hours to complete the request. Using one of the

author’s connections in Alaska, UIHI received assistance

from a prominent Alaska Native tribal

leader, after which the agency oered

to provide data only from 2013 to 2018

because those records had been digitized

and were searchable. However, UIHI has

still not received the data to date.

Total Required Fees

(from 13% of the cities)

UIHI’s Budget

for FOIA Fees

$4,464 $68

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

16 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

LACKING RECORDS AND RACIAL MISCLASSIFICATION

Nine cities (13% of total) reported the inability to search for

American Indian, Native American, or Alaska Native in their data

reporting systems despite the common and expected practice

of classifying victims by race in data systems. A representative

from Santa Fe police wrote, “[Many] Native Americans adopted

Hispanic names back during colonial times…Our crime systems

are not exible enough to pick out Native Americans from others

in the system…it would be impossible to compile any statistically

relevant information for you.”

In Seattle, UIHI was initially provided one list then subsequently

provided another. Considering they had signicant overlap, UIHI

asked for an explanation of the dierence between the two and

were told: “[Regarding the dierence] the Homicide unit found

that ‘N’ was being used in the 60s up through the late 70s and

early 80s – meant Negro not Native American.” However, all of

the names that were on the original list—which presumably had

both American Indian and Alaska Native and African American

names on it—were also on the second list and did not provide

any clarication.

Additionally, several police departments provided UIHI with data

that included both American Indians and Indian-Americans

with visibly Indian-American surnames (e.g. Singh). When asked

about this misclassication, a representative from Sacramento

police claimed the Indian-American names must be victims who

were biracial.

Misclassication can also occur due to lack of recognition of

tribal nations. UIHI found that if a woman or girl was killed

during the time their tribe was terminated, her citizenship may

have never been restored when her nation was re-recognized,

and she may have been falsely classied as white—or not racially

classied at all—in documentation regarding her case. These

cases would not be included in search results constrained to

searching for records of Native American females. This is an

issue that still impacts contemporary cases involving victims

from tribes that are not federally recognized, and lack of

recognition is an issue that disproportionately aects urban

“Sometimes the information [on

a victim’s race] would not be

asked and our record system

defaults to white.”

-Representative from Fargo Police

Department

“[Regarding the dierence] the

Homicide unit found that ‘N’ was

being used in the 60s up through

the late 70s and early 80s – meant

Negro not Native American.”

-Representative from Seattle Police

Department

“[Many] Native Americans adopted

Hispanic names back during

colonial times…Our crime systems

are not exible enough to pick

out Native Americans from

others in the system…it would

be impossible to compile any

statistically relevant information

for you.”

-Representative from Santa Fe Police

Department

Indian communities. For example, Seattle, San

Francisco, and Los Angeles each are located on

homelands belonging to tribes that are not federally

recognized (the Duwamish, Ohlone, and Tongva

peoples, respectively). In this way, it is possible that

American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls

indigenous to the land the city is located on may

not even be included in the city’s data on American

Indian and Alaska Native people, and their deaths

and disappearances go uncounted on their own

homeland.

UIHI found that it was not just racial categories

that held misclassications. Records obtained

from Anchorage police showed that two-thirds of

the cases UIHI identied that were not in the data

the agency provided were, indeed, in their system,

but three cases were misclassied as white, one

was classied as a suicide (despite the case having

been reopened as a homicide), one was classied

as an overdose when her body had been moved

and disposed of suspiciously, and one was not

considered as having happened within the city

because she had been kidnapped from a bar within

the city but killed just outside of it.

Through research methods outside of FOIA

requests (government missing persons databases,

news reports, social media and advocacy sites,

direct contact with families and community

members who volunteered info), UIHI found 153

cases that were not in law enforcement records. Of

all of the data gathered in the 40 cities where FOIA

requests produced results, 42% of the cases were

found by UIHI’s diligent research and not present

in law enforcement data. This 42% was made up

of cases from 26 of the 40 cities (65%). The cities

where UIHI located the highest number of cases not

found in law enforcement records are listed in the

table below.

TOP 10 CITIES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF MMIWG CASES THAT ARE NOT IN LAW ENFORCEMENT RECORDS

CITY NUMBER OF CASES

Gallup, NM 20

Billings, MT 17

Omaha, NE 16

Seattle, WA 11

Anchorage, AK 9

CITY NUMBER OF CASES

Farmington, NM 9

Denver, CO 7

Oklahoma City, OK 7

Rapid City, SD 6

Great Falls, MT 5

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

18 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

METHODS

UIHI conducted a content analysis of media

coverage on MMIWG in the areas covered by the

study. The vast majority of coverage on MMIWG,

both on individual cases and on the issue overall,

was centered on reservation-based violence.

Though coverage of reservation-based violence

is critical, this bias does work to collectively

minimize this issue in urban spaces. It also bolsters

stereotypes of American Indian and Alaska Native

people as solely living on reservations or in rural

areas, perpetuates perceptions of tribal lands as

violence-ridden environments, and, ultimately,

is representative of an institutional bias of media

coverage on this issue. Additionally, media sources

have used language that could be perceived as

violent and victim-blaming in their coverage of

MMIWG cases. This type of coverage can also

perpetuate negative stereotypes of American

Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, so UIHI

also conducted a qualitative analysis to identify

this type of language.

UIHI conducted a comprehensive online search for

media coverage on all 506 cases represented in the

data. Each publicly-available article UIHI found was

logged, assessed and coded for the type of language

it used, and attributed to the outlet that originally

published it.

URBAN MMIWG

IN THE MEDIA

FINDINGS

Media Coverage

UIHI examined 934 articles, which collectively

covered 129 cases out of the 506 represented in the

study. One-quarter of the total number of cases were

covered by local, regional, or national media. Less

than one-fth of the total number of cases were

covered more than once (14%), less than one-tenth

were covered more than three times (7%), and less

than 5% of cases were covered more than ve times.

The top ten cases that received the most coverage

comprised 62% of all coverage, and 47% of coverage

was regarding just one case. Nearly all of the articles

UIHI surveyed (91%) regarded a murder case, and

83% of the cases covered by media were murder

cases. There were 27 articles printed in national or

international media, covering 21 cases.

of the cases in this study were

never covered by national or

international media.

MORE THAN 95%

Violent Language

For the purposes of this analysis, UIHI dened

violent language as language that engages

in racism or misogyny or racial stereotyping,

including references to drugs, alcohol, sex work,

gang violence, victim criminal history, victim-

blaming, making excuses for the perpetrator,

misgendering transgender victims, racial

misclassication, false information on cases, not

naming the victim, and publishing images/video

of the victim’s death.

Of the articles analyzed, 46 media outlets had

violent language in their coverage, representing

nearly a third of all outlets surveyed (31%). Thirty-

six media outlets (25%) used violent language in

50% or more of the cases they covered, and 22

(15%) used violent language in 100% of the cases

they covered. UIHI identied prevalence of specic

types of violent language in the table on the right.

If the case is covered in the media, the language

that is used to describe the crime and the victim

often causes additional harm. In addition, these

ndings demonstrate that media outlets are

willing to publish a single story on this issue but

not commit to sustained coverage on the cases that

happen within the geographic areas they cover.

TYPES OF VIOLENT LANGUAGE

USED IN ARTICLES

References to drugs or

alcohol

38%

31%

11%

References to victim’s

criminal history

References to sex work

Gave false information

on the case or did not

name the victim

Made excuses for

the perpetrator or

used victim-blaming

language

Showed images or

video of victim death

WHEN LANGUAGE

FUELS VIOLENCE

33%

Coverage of trans-

women victims that

misgendered the victim

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

20 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

DISCUSSION

This study illustrates the maze of injustice that

impacts MMIWG cases and demonstrates how

they are made to disappear in life, the media,

and in data. UIHI discovered a striking level

of inconsistency between community, law

enforcement, and media understandings of

the magnitude of this violence. If this report

demonstrates one powerful conclusion, it is that

if we rely solely on law enforcement or media

for an awareness or understanding of the issue,

we will have a deeply inaccurate picture of the

realities, minimizing the extent to which our

urban American Indian and Alaska Native sisters

experience this violence. This inaccurate picture

limits our ability to address this issue at policy,

programing, and advocacy levels.

Moreover, many of the reasons commonly

attributed to root causes of MMIWG in the media

and popular narrative—sex work and domestic

violence, for example—are forms of violence

that were not prominent in the cases UIHI found,

and the geography of this data does not match an

assumed perception on where MMIWG cases are

more likely to occur. These narratives stress areas

like Montana and North Dakota, while minimizing

the issue in places like California and Alaska. This

study shows these neglected areas need to be at

the forefront of the dialogue rather than almost

entirely absent from it. Overall, there is a need for

more sustained and in-depth research on how and

why urban American Indian and Alaska Native

women and girls go missing and are killed and

enforceable data collection practices for local,

state, and federal agencies.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

The challenges and barriers in accessing data on

this issue from law enforcement severely impede

the ability of communities, tribal nations, and policy

makers to make informed decisions on how best to

address this violence. This is especially problematic

in the case of grassroots organizers, who often serve

as informal rst responders and service providers

for American Indian and Alaska Native women and

their families. The average community member

does not have thousands of dollars and unlimited

time to continue to follow up for this data, and

yet they are the entities stang women’s shelters,

volunteering in searches, organizing memorials,

advocating for policy changes, caring for families,

holding ceremonies, fundraising for funerals, and

organizing awareness campaigns. This indicates that

measures need to be put in place for community

access to information on this issue as the FOIA

process is far from its democratic intentions.

Additionally, it is alarming that UIHI located records

of 153 cases that are not in law enforcement records

and that some cities still do not have systems that

are searchable by race or include American Indian,

Native American, or Alaska Native as categories.

Record-keeping protocols must be updated and

implemented immediately—no agency can

adequately respond to violence it does not track.

More largely, continued research on racial and

gender bias in police forces regarding how MMIWG

cases are handled needs to occur. It is unacceptable

that nearly a third of perpetrators were never held

accountable, and the resistance to tracking this data

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

that UIHI experienced from agency leadership is

indicative of larger institutional structural inequity.

Ultimately, American Indian and Alaska Native

women will continue to go missing and be killed as

long as law enforcement does not account for this

violence in accurate, meaningful ways and does not

bring these cases to justice more consistently.

MEDIA

Based on UIHI’s ndings, it is clear that media

coverage of this issue is extremely uneven, and

the vast majority of cases occurring in urban areas

are never covered by media at all. Combined with

the inaccessibility of law enforcement data, this

lack of reporting leads the general public to have

an inaccurate understanding of the issue, and

over two-thirds of the cases that happen in urban

areas are rendered invisible. This not only prevents

critical awareness of the issue and is hurtful to

victims’ families and communities, it limits eorts

to engage in cross-cultural community dialogue on

how to enhance safety, not just for urban American

Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, but for

all who live in the cities in which they go missing

and are killed.

Similarly, existing media coverage remains deeply

biased, and standards and protocols need to be put

in place for covering these cases to decrease the

amount of violent language used. It is imperative

that stories on the violence our urban American

Indian and Alaska Native women and girls

experience are treated with care and respect. The

Native American Journalist Association has created

resources to assist reporters in evaluating their

stories to determine if they rely on stereotypes; use

of resources such as this will assist in decreasing, and

ultimately ending, the use of racist, victim-blaming,

and criminalizing language.

Both the lack of reporting and the bias in existing

coverage could be addressed through the presence of

more Indigenous sta at media outlets, and eorts

to build more substantive relationships with the

communities they are reporting (or not reporting)

on. In an urban context, these relationship-building

opportunities are readily available through urban

American Indian and Alaska Native community

events, community organizations and programming,

and outreach to American Indian and Alaska Native

college students pursuing a career in journalism.

THE CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS IN ACCESSING DATA ON THIS

ISSUE FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT SEVERELY IMPEDE THE ABILITY

OF COMMUNITIES, TRIBAL NATIONS, AND POLICY MAKERS TO MAKE

INFORMED DECISIONS ON HOW BEST TO ADDRESS THIS VIOLENCE.

22 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

RECOMMENDATIONS

The MMIWG epidemic deeply impacts urban

American Indian and Alaska Native communities,

and the dialogue must shift to include them. Any

policy addressing MMIWG that does not account for

the violence urban Native communities experience

will not adequately address the issue. This includes

the currently proposed Savanna’s Act, a federal bill

aimed at collecting data on new MMIWG cases.

Though it is named after Savanna LaFontaine-

Greywind, who was murdered in Fargo, North

Dakota (one of the cities included in this survey),

presently, it solely asks federal law enforcement

to track and report data. Because cases occurring

in urban areas are not federal jurisdiction, this

means missing and murdered urban Native women

and girls, including Savanna herself, would not be

included in the data the bill aims to collect. Gaps

such as these allow the violence urban Native

women and girls experience to continue.

Tribal nations must have the ability to advocate

for their citizens living in urban areas when

they go missing or are killed. This is a courtesy

extended to all other sovereign nations—when a

citizen is killed while living or traveling outside

the nation of which they are a citizen, the nation

is notied of their death and able to advocate for

their citizen’s case and family. This basic respect

must be aorded to tribal nations as well, so they

are able to fully practice their inherent sovereignty

by advocating for the health and safety of all

their citizens, regardless of where they reside.

Currently, this courtesy is not extended, and rarely

is a tribal nation notied or given access to the

data regarding their tribal citizens. The concept

of Indigenous Data Sovereignty, which has been

adopted by the National Congress of American

Indians in 2018, is dened as the right of a nation to

govern the collection, ownership, and application

of its own data, including any data collected on its

tribal citizens.

xii

The ndings in this report show

that racial misclassication and a lack of consistent

data collection made for a signicant undercount of

urban MMIWG cases. Tribal nations should be part

of meaningful consultations to ensure proper data

collection and sustained access to the data.

Lastly, funding for research that will support eective

policy on violence against American Indian and

Alaska Native women and girls in urban areas is

desperately needed—by mid-October 2018, 76

urban MMIWG cases had already occurred in the

year. Despite calls to action from tribal leadership,

federal agencies have not been able to conduct a

comprehensive study on MMIWG, and a focused

study on this violence as it occurs in urban areas

has been deemed too dicult to include in a bill

like Savanna’s Act. However, UIHI completed this

study in approximately one year. This demonstrates

the deep commitment Indigenous research and

epidemiology institutions have in honoring and better

understanding the violence our sisters experience.

This study shows the importance of creating funding

opportunities to support a continuation of this work by

the Indigenous institutions who are equipped to take it

on in a good way.

*The data collected does not reect any FOIA responses

received aer October 15, 2018 nor any community reported

instances aer that date. UIHI acknowledges that Chicago

recently responded to the FOIA with 7 reported homicides,

and 4 urban Indigenous women and girls have been

murdered and are missing since this date.

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board

The lack of good data and the resulting lack of understanding about the

violence perpetrated against urban American Indian and Alaska Native

women and girls is appalling and adds to the historical and ongoing trauma

American Indian and Alaska Native people have experienced for generations.

But the resilience of American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls

has sustained our communities for generation after generation. As the life

bearers of our communities, they have been integral to holding strong our

culture and traditional practices. Bringing to light the stories of these women

through data is an integral part of moving toward meaningful change that

ends this epidemic of violence. UIHI is taking huge steps to decolonize data by

reclaiming the Indigenous values of data collection, analysis, and research, for

Indigenous people, by Indigenous people. Our lives depend on it.

END NOTES

National Crime Information Center (2018). Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Department of Justice (2018). NamUs. Retrieved from https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Search

iii

Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle Indian Health Board (2016). Community Health Prole: National Aggregate of Urban Indian Health

Program Service Areas.

Bachman, R., Zaykowski, H., Kallmyer, R., Poteyeva, M & Lanier, C. (2008) Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and the

Criminal Justice Response: What is Known. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdles1/nij/grants/223691.pdf

Norris, T., Vines, P.L. & Hoeel, E (2012). The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from https://

www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-10.pdf

U.S. Census Bridged Race Categories (2016). National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

vii

Omi, M. & Winant, H. (2015) Racial Formation in the U.S. Third Edition. New York: Routledge.

viii

Robertson, D.L. (2015) “Invisibility in the color-blind era: Examining legitimized racism against indigenous peoples.” The American Indian

Quarterly 39.2: 113-153.

Jim, M.A., Arias, E., Seneca D.S., Seneca, D.S., Hoopes, M.J., Jim, C.C., Johnson, N.J. & Wiggins, C.L. (2014). Racial Misclassication of American

Indians and Alaska Natives by Indian Health Service Contract Health Service Delivery Area. American Journal of Public Health. 104 (Supplement 3):

S295-S302.

Oce of Information Policy, Department of Justice (2017). About FOIA. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/oip/about-foia.

Native American Journalists Association (2018). NAJA AP Style Guide. Retrieved from https://www.naja.com/resources/naja-ap-style-guide/

xii

National Congress of American Indians (2018). Support of US Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Inclusion of Tribes in Development

of Tribal Data Governance Principles (Resolution #KAN-18-011). Retrieved from http://www.ncai.org/attachments/Resolution_

gbuJbEHWpkOgcwCICRtgMJHMsUNofqYvuMSnzLFzOdxBlMlRjij_KAN-18-011%20Final.pdf

24 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

Spokane

UIHI has recorded 1 case

in Spokane--Mary Bercier,

who was announced as

missing by a relative in

2018.

Tacoma

Portland

Seattle

Missing & Murdered

Indigenous Women & Girls

in Pacific Northwest Cities

UIHI has recorded

6 cases in Port-

land, including

Dusti Grey, who

was homeless

when she was

reported missing

in 2017.

UIHI has recorded 25 cases in Tacoma, including Teekah

Lewis, who went missing in 1999 at the age of 3, Teresa

Davis, missing since 1973, and Jacqueline Salyers, who

was a Puyallup tribal member who was pregnant when

she was killed by law enforcement in 2016.

UIHI has recorded

45 cases in Seattle,

including Patricia

YellowRobe, who

was from the Rocky

Boy Chippewa-Cree

reservation and

murdered by a

serial killer in 1998,

and Sandra

Smiscon, Ashton

Reyes, Nicole

Westbrook, and

Eveona Cortez.

Representing the

Yakama, Tlingit,

Navajo, and

Blackfeet nations,

Sandra, Ashton,

Nicole, & Eveona

were all randomly

killed in acts of gun

violence, in 2003,

2012, and 2018.

This map includes a Coastal-inspired orca

design, honoring Tahlequah, a whale from Puget

Sound, who the world joined in mourning for

her spirit baby for 17 days in 2018. Like

Tahlequah, Native mothers remain resilient

leaders through the grief of losing their

children to colonial violence. This map also

includes cedar designs, to honor the prayers

we say for these mothers and their babies.

Notes: data ranges from 1943 to 2018,

but due to challenges in collecting data

on historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000. All MMIWG photos are

sourced from public media.

Missing & Murdered

Indigenous Women & Girls

in California Cities

San Diego

UIHI has recorded one case in San Diego--Linda

Hewitt, murdered in 1978. No photo of Linda or

information on her story is available.

Bakersfield

San

Francisco

Sacramento

Eureka & Redding

UIHI has recorded 4

cases in Bakersfield,

including Peggy

Humber, a 44-year-old

woman missing since

2000.

UIHI has recorded 17

cases in San Francisco,

including Jezzeille

Murdock, who went

missing on her 34th

birthday in 2017.

UIHI has recorded 13 cases in Sacramento.

None of these were ever reported on by

media, so no photos or stories on these 13

stolen sisters are available. 3 remain missing,

and 10 were murdered.

UIHI has recorded 5 cases in Eureka,

and 3 in Redding, including Jennika

Suazo, a Tolowa high school student

who was killed in 2016, and Heather

Cameron, a Grand Ronde tribal

member and mother of four who was

last seen shortly before she made

three 911 calls from her abusive

ex-boyfriend’s phone, saying she had

been drugged and kidnapped.

UIHI has recorded a total of 41

cases of missing and murdered

indigenous women and girls in cities

across California. This map includes

a design inspired by California tribal

basket designs, with abalone

components to honor the Yurok

story of Abalone Woman, who was

killed by her love, Dentalium Man,

and became the beautiful shell that

indigenous peoples across the

continent admire and pray with.

Notes: data ranges from 1943 to 2018,

but due to challenges in collecting data

on historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000. All MMIWG photos are

sourced from public media.

26 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

Juneau & Ketchikan

Fairbanks

Anchorage

Missing & Murdered

Indigenous Women & Girls

in Alaskan Cities

In 2018, UIHI filed a FOIA

request to the Alaska State

Troopers, for information on

the number of MMIWG in the

state. They estimated there are

between 800 to 1,200

homicides of Alaska Native

women in their records since

1940, but said the agency does

not have the time to pull them.

This map has over 1,200

feathers on it, to honor each of

those files UIHI could not

access. This map also honors the

connection our stolen sisters

have to our communities and

the land, with Alaska-style

forget-me-not beadwork

designs.

UIHI has recorded 6 cases in Fairbanks,

including Sophie Sergie, a 20-year-old

aspiring marine biologist, who was found

raped and shot in a bathtub in a

University of Alaska dorm in 1993.

UIHI has recorded 3 cases each in

Juneau and Ketchikan, including

LoriDee Wilson, a Yup’ik mother of

three missing since 2016, and

Angeline Dundas, a 34-year-old

woman, whose body was pulled from

the Tongass Narrows in 2015, within

24 hours of seeking help at a local

women’s shelter.

UIHI has recorded 31 cases in Anchorage, including

Annie Mann, Vera Hapoff, Della Brown, and Genevieve

Tetpon, 4 of at least 10 murders of Native women in

the span of a few years. Many of these cases remain

unsolved, including Annie and Vera’s.

Notes: data ranges from 1943 to 2018,

but due to challenges in collecting data

on historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000. All MMIWG photos are

sourced from public media.

Utqiagvik

UIHI has recorded 1 case

in Utqiagvik--Nancy

Brower, a 15-year-old high

school student raped and

murdered in 2002.

Bethel

UIHI has recorded 8 cases in Bethel,

including Stella Evon, a 17-year-old Yup’ik

girl missing since 1996, and Sandra Frye, a

26-year-old mother of four found

murdered in 2017.

Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls

in Northern Plains & Great Lakes Cities

This map includes floral designs

inspired by Anishinaabe-style beadwork,

and the silhouette of a deer, to honor

the story of Deer Woman, who some

Plains tribes say protects women and

girls by punishing men who abuse them.

In researching a case represented on

this map, a seemingly unrelated article

on the rare sighting of a white doe

appeared the same week a Native

woman’s killers pled guilty--a powerful

reminder of Deer Woman’s presence.

Colorado

Montana

Nebraska

Dakotas

Great Lakes

UIHI has recorded 9 cases in Lincoln,

and 24 cases in Omaha, including

Barbara Gonzales, murdered by her

partner’s nephew in 2010, and Rose

Fields, who was known to be homeless

and went missing in 2000.

UIHI has recorded12 cases

in Denver, including Dawn

DeHerrera, a sex worker

and advocate for the

homeless who was found

killed in a massage parlor in

2003.

UIHI has recorded 2 cases

in Fargo, 1 in Pierre, 8 in

Rapid City, & 4 in Sioux

Falls, including Cari Black

Elk-Cline, Alicia Jumping

Eagle, Deziree Martinez,

& Jamie Wounded Arrow,

who were each killed in

2017.

UIHI has recorded 1 case in Illinois, 1

in Michigan, 6 in Wisconsin, and 20

in Minnesota, including 25-year-old

Ojibwe woman Tess White, who was

pregnant when she was tortured

and killed in 2016.

UIHI has

recorded 29

cases in Billings, 5

in Great Falls, 3 in

Helena, & 4 in Missoula, including

Almeda Old Crane, a Crow mother

who was found raped and killed

after her husband went to

prison for killing the man

who raped her in 1981.

Notes: data ranges from 1943 to 2018,

but due to challenges in collecting data

on historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000. All MMIWG photos are

sourced from public media.

28 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

Missing & Murdered

Indigenous Women & Girls

in Southwest Cities

Salt Lake City

UIHI has recorded 24 cases

in Salt Lake City, including

Deborah Haudley, who was

living at a motel with her

partner when he killed her in

2010.

Gallup

Farmington Santa Fe

Albuquerque

Flagstaff

Phoenix & Tempe

UIHI has recorded 6 cases in

Flagsta, including Nicole Joe,

who was beaten by her partner

and left outside in the cold,

and died on Christmas Day in

2017.

UIHI has recorded 25 cases in

Gallup, including high school

student Colleen Lincoln, who

was beaten to death and

burned two days before

Christmas in 2010.

UIHI has recorded 14 cases

in Phoenix, 3 in Tempe, and

4 in Tucson, including Jade

Velasquez, who was killed

by a serial killer in 2003, a

15-year-old Jane Doe found

in 2002.

UIHI has recorded 10 cases in

Farmington, including Vanessa

Tsosie, whose only photo

circulated was the shoes she was

wearing at time of death.

UIHI has recorded 6 cases in

Santa Fe, including Navajo

woman Melissa Tsosie, who

was killed in a homeless

encampment in 2015.

UIHI has recorded 37

cases in Albuquerque,

including Terri Benally,

Kelly Watson, & Ryan

Hoskie, 3 Navajo

trans-women killed

from 2004-2009. No

photos of them

were published.

This map includes a design inspired by South-

western weaving traditions, and images of

corn, to honor the cultural and ceremonial

uses of corn in the Southwest, and its ties to

stories of the sacredness of women.

Notes: data ranges from 1943 to 2018,

but due to challenges in collecting data

on historical cases, approximately 80% of

the cases in this report have occurred

since 2000. All MMIWG photos are

sourced from public media.

Tucson

UIHI has recorded 31 cases in

Tucson, including Mia

Henderson, a Navajo college

student murdered in 2007.

1-5 cases

6-10 cases

11-15 cases

16-20 cases

21-25 cases

MISSING & MURDERED INDIGENOUS

WOMEN &

GIRLS IN

MAJOR US

CITIES

No agency has

comprehensive data on

the true number of

missing and murdered

indigenous women and

girls, and that further

research is needed. A

challenge in researching

this violence is the

drastically different

information each source

has. On this map, we

compare UIHI data to

data obtained from

FOIA requests to

municipal police

departments, and to data

on which cases from

those sources were

covered by media. This

comparison highlights

the gaps and disconnects

between community, law

enforcement, and media

awareness of urban

MMIW cases.

MEDIA

CITY

POLICE

UIHI

DATA

26+ cases

Note: data ranges from 1943

to 2018, but due to challenges

in collecting data on historical

cases, approximately 80% of

the cases shown here have

occurred since 2000.

30 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS

APPENDIX

CITY MISSING MURDERED UNKNOWN TOTAL

Akron, OH 0 0 0 0

Albuquerque, NM 3 16 18 37

Anchorage, AK 3 27 1 31

Arlington, TX 1 0 0 1

Bakerseld, CA 1 3 0 4

Baltimore, MD 0 1 0 1

Bethel, AK 1 3 4 8

Billings, MT 5 16 8 29

Bismarck, ND 0 0 0 0

Boston, MA 0 0 0 0

Bualo, NY 1 0 1 2

Butte, MT 0 0 0 0

Chicago, IL 0 0 1 1

Cleveland, OH 1 1 0 2

Dallas, TX 1 1 0 2

Denver, CO 1 8 3 12

Detroit, MI 1 0 0 1

Duluth, MN 1 3 0 4

Eureka, CA 3 2 0 5

Fairbanks, AK 3 3 0 6

Fargo, ND 0 2 0 2

Farmington, NM 3 3 4 10

Flagsta, AZ 0 7 0 7

Fountain Valley, CA 0 0 0 0

Fresno, CA 0 0 0 0

Gallup, NM 12 9 4 25

Great Falls, MT 2 0 3 5

Green Bay, WI 0 3 0 3

Helena, MT 0 0 3 3

Houston, TX 6 1 0 7

Idaho Falls, ID 2 2 3 7

Indianapolis, IN 0 0 0 0

Juneau, AK 2 1 0 3

Kansas City, MO 0 1 0 1

Ketchikan, AK 0 3 0 3

Lincoln, NE 2 5 2 9

CITY MISSING MURDERED UNKNOWN TOTAL

Los Angeles, CA 0 0 0 0

Milwaukee, WI 1 2 0 3

Minneapolis, MN 2 7 0 9

Missoula, MT 1 1 2 4

New Orleans, LA 1 0 0 1

Oakland, CA 0 0 0 0

Oklahoma City, OK 2 7 1 10

Omaha, NE 11 3 10 24

Orlando, FL 0 2 0 2

Phoenix, AZ 8 6 0 14

Pierre, SD 1 0 0 1

Portland, OR 4 0 2 6

Rapid City, SD 3 5 0 8

Redding, CA 2 1 0 3

Reno, NV 0 0 1 1

Sacramento, CA 3 10 0 13

Salt Lake City, UT 1 22 1 24

San Antonio, TX 1 0 0 1

San Diego, CA 0 1 0 1

San Francisco, CA 1 0 16 17

San Jose, CA 0 0 0 0

Santa Barbara, CA 0 0 0 0

Santa Fe, NM 2 1 3 6

Seattle, WA 7 38 0 45

Sioux Falls, SD 0 4 0 4

Sitka, AK 0 0 0 0

Spokane, WA 0 0 1 1

St. Louis, MO 0 0 0 0

St. Paul, MN 4 3 0 7

Tacoma, WA 13 10 2 25

Tempe, AZ 0 2 1 3

Tucson, AZ 1 30 0 31

Tulsa, OK 4 1 3 8

Utqiagvik, AK 0 1 0 1

Wichita, KS 0 2 0 2

TOTAL 128 280 98 506

Partial funding for this report was provided by the Indian Health Service Division of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention,

grant #HHS-2016-IHS-EPI-0001. The report contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily

represent the ocial views of the Indian Health Service.

Image credit: U.S. map by Theshibboleth [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyle/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Annita Lucchesi (Southern Cheyenne), PhD-c

Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), MA

Chief Research Ocer, Seattle Indian Health Board

Director, Urban Indian Health Institute

[email protected]g

206-812-3030

Urban Indian

Health Institute

A Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board