MMIWG Information

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MMIWG stands for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls and is not a new phenomena. It has been happening since Euro-contact, however the methods behind it have changed over time. Currently, there are four main sets of complex circumstances that lead to extremely high incidents of Indigenous women and girls becoming MMIWG victims

MMIWG numbers in 2016 from the Department of Justice were approximately 6,000 victims and numbers are growing. We can estimate that since 2016 over 20,000 Native women and girls have become victims of MMIWG in the United States alone and numbers are comparable in Canada. There are many loopholes in data reporting, hence the published estimates are conservative. One example is that many coroner reports have no identifiers for “Native/Indigenous”, rather only Caucasian, Black, Asian and Other.

The following factors contribute to high incidences of MMIWG:

Multi-level systemic impacts of extreme poverty
Fracking, oil drilling, mining and other extractive industries often set up on or near Reservations, bringing with them transient worker camps or “Man-Camps” that create a market for the sexual exploitation of trafficked women and children.
Non-natives can commit crimes on reservation lands with virtual impunity due to the outdated and unjust laws set up by the Federal government and reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court related to Tribal Law
Cartels infiltrating Reservations and impoverished urban areas to sell Methamphetamine, and to sell women and girls to buyers which is the 2nd largest criminal enterprise in the U.S.