The most silenced issue in North America right now is the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. In order to truly understand the scope, intensity, and relevance of the MMIW movement, it is important to first understand the factors that bleed into it. This issue runs deep into the veins of Canada and the United States, and its origins are deeply rooted in our social and political systems. To put into perspective the severity of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis, you first need to know the facts. An Indigenous woman is 10 times more likely to be murdered versus her white female counterpart. 1 in 3 Native women has been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Over 94% of Indigenous women in Seattle have been raped or coerced into sex. According to Annita Lucchesi, who has made one of the only databases in the US that are tracking MMIW cases, the estimated number of Indigenous women in America who have gone missing or who have been murdered since 1900 is around 25,000 (Between the Lines, Huff Post). Only a fraction of those cases are solved, let alone looked at.

Of course, sexism and racism are prevalent factors in this issue. Gender-based violence is a result of misogyny and colonialism. But environmental racism plays just as an important role. It is no secret that communities of color are subject to air pollution, acid rain, and contaminated water due to the fossil fuel industry, US government, and large corporations building toxic plants near their homes that simultaneously contribute to climate change. Oil and gas pipelines have become popular in the states of North Dakota and Montana. Of course, these pipelines are built outside Native land and often on tribal land, which not only defies treaties but contaminates water sources as well. Famously, this occurred in Standing Rock, North Dakota where the Sioux tribe protested to save their land from further destruction. In response, the US government sent militarized police.

The oil and gas pipeline industry is male-dominated and what some refer to as “man camps”, are built near the construction sites. Construction workers live in these camps for months on end and earn more than the average blue-collar worker. Background checks are not run on job applicants so often sex offenders are hired without anyone ever knowing. There is a lack of law enforcement in these areas because police are stretched so thin in rural areas as it is, which allows gambling and sex trafficking to thrive. There are clear connections between the “man camps” that are being built outside Native reservations to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women cases.

Last week in United States v. Cooley, the U.S. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld tribal officers' authority to at least investigate and detain non-Native people they suspect of committing crimes on reservations while waiting for backup from non-tribal law enforcement.

Authority to detain only goes so far

That's exactly what Lucero did in the case of this traffic stop. But he says that authority to detain only goes so far.

"I started calling around for help and [the County Sheriff's Office] didn't even want to come out. They just flat out said they were busy," Lucero says.

The New Mexico State Police first told Lucero that they couldn't spare an officer, and later said they believed state police also lacked jurisdiction to arrest the man on tribal land.

policies were creating conditions of hunger

In the 1940s, federal bureaucrats found that malnutrition was widespread in Indigenous communities and residential schools. But this wasn't new information to many Indigenous people.

"Indigenous people had been arguing for a long time that their kids were hungry in residential schools, that government policies were creating conditions of hunger in their communities," explained Mosby.

The Canadian government began to send researchers to examine these conditions of hunger. In many cases, the researchers found "severe malnutrition," said Mosby.

Some federal bureaucrats and scientists saw the pervasive malnutrition and hunger experienced by Indigenous people as an opportunity to test their scientific theories.

As discussed in previous blogs within the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (“MMIW”) series, Native women face murder rates at more than ten times the national average, and 96% of these women experienced violence from a non-Native perpetrator.[1] Under current legal precedent, the federal government is responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes committed by non-Native defendants against Native victims.[2] Historically, these cases have failed to be investigated or prosecuted to a level that provides adequate safety for Indigenous people.[3] This is in part due to jurisdictional issues that create law enforcement loopholes which do not hold perpetrators accountable for crimes they commit against Indigenous women and children.[4] Pipelines and the oil industry have exacerbated violence against Native women, as this blog will explore.

Violence Against Women and the Extraction Industry

Since the oil boom, Native communities have reported increased rates of human trafficking, sex trafficking, and missing and murdered Indigenous women in their communities.[5] Workers who come to a region for well-paid oil and gas jobs often set up “man camps.”[6] Placed in largely rural areas these camps strain infrastructures in communities that already have inadequate resources to support population booms.[7] In 2015, violent crime reports increased in the Bakken oil-producing region of Montana and North Dakota, due to the socio-economic changes brought to the area with the oil boom.[8] According to one report, sexual assaults on women on the Fort Berthold reservation increased by 75%.[9] Conversely, there was no corresponding rise of violent crimes in the counties outside of the Bakken oil region. In fact, the overall crime rate decreased during this time.[10] Overall, the potential for harm from “man camps” is exacerbated when they are on or near Indigenous peoples’ lands.[11]

The risks of oil development on Native reservations are distinct from development in other areas of the USA, as federal “Indian” law requires a jurisdictional analysis that “focuses on the identity of the perpetrator and the land status of the location where the crime occurred to determine which governmental body is responsible for arrest, detention and prosecution.”[12] Complicating issues further is the nature of colonization and the societal exploitation of Native women and children that stems from it. Such legal and historical treatment of Indigenous people has contributed to the increased risk of sex trafficking of Native women and children.[13] Studies demonstrate that generational and historical trauma along with high incidences of poverty, depression, homelessness, and substance abuse in Native communities can make Indigenous women and children vulnerable to trafficking.[14]