Grijalva proposes May 5 as awareness day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

By Alisa Reznick
Published: Friday, May 5, 2023 - 11:59am

Indigenous men and women used the #MMIW hashtag and the red hand, a symbol of the movement, during a 2018 Women’s March in Phoenix
Melina Zuniga/Cronkite News
Indigenous men and women used the #MMIW hashtag and the red hand, a symbol of the movement, during a 2018 Women’s March in Phoenix to honor missing and murdered indigenous women.

This week, the Pima County County Board of Supervisors officially declared May 5 as a day of awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The move comes ahead of a similar, national effort at the U.S. House of Representatives. A pair of U.S. Senators from Montana introduced a resolution to make May 5 a national day of awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2017, in honor of Hanna Harris, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who was murdered in 2013. Her birthday was May 5, 1992.

Local and federal task forces, resolutions like Pima County’s, and other efforts have taken form across the U.S. since then.

Southern Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva said it’s time for the U.S. House to do the same.

“Essentially reaffirming that Congress and the United States of America, this government, has a trust, and treaty responsibility to Indigenous People,” he said.

Grijalva and Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse of Washington state co-introduced a resolution Friday to officially recognize the day. The resolution cites 2017 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found murder rates more than ten times the national average among American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls under 44, making it the leading cause of death in that demographic.

It says the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice should commission a new study to update the data gathered in 2016. Grijalva said despite national and local efforts, things like jurisdictional issues, a lack of coordination between law enforcement agencies, and consistent underfunding are still standing in the way of change.

He hopes recognizing the day in another federal sphere will highlight the importance of directing resources into helping, especially as lawmakers in Congress debate a budget proposal from House Republicans that suggests cutting some $33 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal law enforcement and justice programs.

“Less capacity, less resources for the judicial side, less resources for the issues of collaboration and coordination and sharing of information and equitable standard for tribal law enforcement and judicial ... those are all at risk,” he said.

A 2019 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute found Arizona had the third highest number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls of 29 states analyzed. Tucson had the fourth highest number of cases of cities nationwide.

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