National Day of Awareness for #MMIWG2S
Fortuna honors those on whose stolen land we currently reside:
Tséstho’e (Cheyenne) hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho) Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute)
“… Despite centuries of colonial theft and violence, this is still Indigenous land. It will always be Indigenous land. Indigenous people are not relics of the past. We are still here, and we continue to demonstrate our talents and gifts amidst a backdrop of ongoing colonialism and oppression …”
- Native Governance Center, excerpt from Land Acknowledgement
May 5th is a national day of awareness and mourning for the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit Relatives of this continent. May 5th was the birthday of Hannah Harris 21 year old Northern Cheyenne woman who went missing and was found murdered on her reservation in 2013.
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.
What are the obstacles to justice?
Jurisdictional Complexity - As many have acknowledged, due to federal and state policies, criminal jurisdiction in Indian country can be complex, and coordination across agencies can be limited.
Law Enforcement Negligence & Incapacity - Law enforcement and the justice system routinely fail to hold perpetrators accountable as a result fail to effectively communicate to the general public that there are consequences for harming indigenous women and girls
Gender Violence By Law Enforcement - The institutionalized culture of violence is compounded by pervasive instances of law enforcement violence against indigenous women and girls.
Difficulty In Accessing Data - The difficulty in accessing accurate data on MMIWG2S and Sex trafficking of indigenous women and girls has been widely discussed and confirmed involving prohibitive fees and lengthily delays in registering requests.
Policy making process is abusive to survivors - These spaces can be retraumatizing, insensitive and unsafe for survivors and family members seeking justice.
What is the meaning of the term “two spirit”?
Two-Spirit is a direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh manidoowag, “Two-spirited" or “Two-spirit," and is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. Where did the term Two-Spirit emerge from? The term “Two-Spirit” emerged in 1990 at the third annual inter- tribal Native American/First Nations Gay/Lesbian conference in Winnipeg.
The term Two-Spirit was created for Native individuals who wanted to take a step back from the mainstream language of LGBTQ and connect specifically to culture and spirituality. It is important to remember that in some tribal communities they may not use or identify with the word Two-Spirit because of their own unique cultural beliefs embracing LGBT2 relatives.
Thank you to Lenny hayes - sisseton wahpetonoyate for this explanation
“We are not post-colonial. And although many wish to believe that westward expansion is done, however in our experience and perspective, Manifest Destiny is not over.
At this very moment, Indigenous Peoples across the Americas, and across the globe, are engaged on the frontlines in a worldwide conflict stemming from this spiritual greed manifested in physical form to consume everything.
Our purpose is ReIndigenization, which is the active and dynamic process of recovering traditional relationships to land, community, culture, and spirit for self-determination, collective liberation, and to restore balance. Fundamental to this is a rejection of white supremacist colonial patriarchy as an assumed framework for thinking, being, or of action.
We center our work and actions on an acknowledgement of the inherent power and value of Indigenous women, who birth, nurture and guide our nations beyond survival; who are the mothers of future generations of nations.
A core operating principle is the belief that the Earth is our common mother. We believe she has a right unto herself, to be free from exploitation, pollution, ecological violence and other assaults, which preclude or impede the Earth’s ability to nurture and sustain life. What occurs in the land echoes in the bodies of Indigenous Peoples.
Indigenous women and girls personify Mother Earth. We are those mountains that are being desecrated, ripped open, raped, and exploited. Indigenous bodies are the casualties of war taking place over these many centuries against Mother Earth, and Earth-based Peoples.
The correlation between extreme resource consumption, particularly mega-extractive industries, and the consumption of Indigenous women and girls bodies, is witnessed in today’s “man camps” where high concentrations of non-Native men are brought in by mining companies to work in the oil fields.
Tia Oros Peters (Shiwi) - hSeventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples
“The movement for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people is older than all of us. Indigenous peoples have resisted colonial violence against our women and girls since colonization began
While this movement is guided by those ancestral teachings and traditions, it is also guided by decades of leadership and movement building beginning in Canada, now stretching throughout the Americas.
Sovereign Bodies Institute is a non-profit research institute dedicated to capacity building research to address, heal from, and prevent gender and sexual violence against indigenous people. Sovereign Bodies Institute is home to the MMIW database, one of the largest data sources on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Staff, Board & Partners include indigenous survivors of violence and family members from tribal communities.
What does ‘honoring the treaties’ look like? A few indigenous voices
“If we honor the Constitution, we have to honor the treaties. If we are truly going to honor the treaties, we have to center Indigenous histories, support self-determination, and build decolonized futures by giving back stolen land. The return of stolen land is how we truly honor the trust responsibility.”
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, Hoopa Valley Tribe/Yurok/Karuk
“The original understanding of the federal-tribal relationship was that the United States agreed to undertake a duty of protection to Indians and tribes. This means that the tribes gave up much of their exterior sovereignty, but they were to retain all the internal governmental powers they possess, like the power to make laws and enforce them within the tribe’s territory”
Matthew Fletcher, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa /Potawatomi
“First and foremost, fulfilling the treaties means recognizing that tribal nations are political entities and respecting the right to self-govern. To support that, the federal government needs to fully fund its obligations that were pre-paid by tribes with land. This respect for self-governance also needs to extend to criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country. At the current moment, the Violence Against Women Act and its provisions to allow for prosecution of non-Indians who commit domestic violence on tribal members, expired last year.”
Karen Diver, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
“As many tribes entered into agreements with the Crown and later the US, we were specific in reserving our right to fish, hunt, and harvest as we always have on our lands. And yet tribal members are regularly fined for exercising these rights, and the US and corporations continue to build infrastructure that disrupts our ability to practice our traditional food systems. Treaties guarantee our right to traditional plants, animals, lands, air, and waterways. Projects that inhibit those rights are a violation of our treaties and by extension the Constitution of the United States.”
DeLesslin George-Warren, citizen of Catawba Nation
To begin a chapter of US history that does not find its foundation in annually broken treaties, Congress must do its duty to uphold the law. We must be able to protect our own people, enforce tribal laws, develop economically, and ensure healthy lands and waters to sustain our communities. We are the holders of the sacred. We are the canary in the mine of humanity.
Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation
“It is critical to understand that the basic binding relationship between tribes and the US, and its state and territorial governments, is a political one, as between tribal nations. As a country founded on theft of Indigenous lands and lives and on the theft of black labor and lives through slavery, it means that this country must live up to its own ideals of itself and its legally binding promises, obligations, and commitments to the fullest extent. It means the US has to be honorable; and where it has not been, it must work to rectify this.”
Liz Medicine Crow, Haida/Tlingit