Unprotected and Uncounted: Domestic Violence and the MMIW Crisis

The intersection of domestic violence and Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) is both complex and substantial. These issues are deeply rooted in the legacy of Colonization and historical trauma caused by governmental policies of forced removal, land seizures, and violence against Native Americans. Today, the long-term effects of those policies are seen and felt in the higher rates of violence and crime, including murder, rape, and human trafficking, in Indian Country. Native Americans live daily with risk factors that have their roots in these policies, such as disconnection from their cultures; insufficient resources for the preservation of families; lack of housing, economic opportunity, or educational opportunities; and distrust of the governmental systems that are supposed protect individuals. These challenges contribute to unacceptably high rates of victimization, feelings of hopelessness about getting help to stay safe, and an ultimate lack of justice for victims and their families. 

Rates of severe victimization of Native Americans are striking. Homicide was the third highest cause of death among Native American/Alaska Native girls and women in 2019. Men had the second highest rate of homicide compared with men in other populations. More than half of Native American women have experienced physical violence by intimate partners in their lifetime – 55.5% of women and 43.2% of men have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner, higher than any other racial or ethnic group. On some reservations, the murder rate of Native women is ten times higher than the national rate. 

Further, the National Criminal Justice Center recently concluded that 40% of trafficking victims are American Indian or Alaska Native, while making up only about 2% of the total U.S population. Often intimate partners or family members recruit victims into sex trafficking. These numbers are staggering but also insufficient and undercount the actual frequency and severity of domestic abuse and other forms of violence experienced by Tribal communities. A fraught relationship with State and Federal governments, fears of ostracization from their local community, revictimization by law enforcement, having their children removed from their homes, and until recently, lack of Tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrators are some of the reasons domestic violence goes unreported in Tribal communities. The rural nature of many Tribal communities and, in some cases, a lack of financial resources and scant population mean they are also under-surveyed and underserved.  

When Indigenous women do report abuse, too often they are not believed, supported, or protected. This contributes to their silence and lack of reporting. When reports are made, there can be issues with data collection due to the racial or ethnic misclassification of victims leading to undercounting, low-quality law enforcement response to crime reports from reservations, insufficient funding for tribal law enforcement, and a lack of media coverage of Native American victims. It is against this background that the MMIW crisis has unfolded as in many MMIW cases, there were warning signs, such as patterns of abuse, stalking or control by a current or former partner that escalated over time. 

In California, Native Americans also face jurisdictional uncertainty because of Public Law 280.  This federal law , which took away thewithdrew  the federal government’s authority to prosecute most violent felony crimes committed in Indian Country and transferred that authority to certain States to be concurrently exercised with Tribe). One of the designated PL 280 states is California.  while greatly expanding the state’s criminal jurisdiction, even on reservations. While PL 280 gave State and local nontribal law enforcement greater authority on tribal reservations, however, without any provisions for there was no additional federal funding appropriated to the States carrying out this new and additional for law enforcement responsibility. The combination of lack of funding for both State and Tribal law enforcement and Tribal Courts and infrastructure , of community resources and of media coverage means perpetrators often act with impunity and rates of violence and crime on reservations indicate perpetrators are well aware of this reality. 

Another issue affecting domestic violence survivors is that parties may file paperwork in competing Tribal or State Courts, resulting in delays while the proper jurisdiction is determined. Enforcement of tribally issued restraining orders  is off-reservation issued by Tribal courts still remains problematic and, if enforcement is necessary, law enforcement may struggle to interpret competing restraining orders. 

Despite these challenges, there is progress. Efforts at gathering information about MMIP continue with the Sovereign Bodies Institute’s database of missing and murdered victims and the Yurok Tribal Court’s collaboration with Sovereign Bodies to create a MMIW database focused on Northern California. The Feather Alert system is in place to get the word out early about suspicious or unexplainable disappearances of an indigenous person and allow collaboration between Tribal communities and law enforcement in the search process. Legislatively, there are proposals to allow for vacatur of criminal convictions of trafficking victims in certain circumstances and to create a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Month, among other efforts. There is reason to hope that these efforts will greatly increase awareness around MMIW and encourage survivors to report their victimization. 

At CILS, our Northern and Southern Offices work with survivors of domestic and dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. Our services support survivors in obtaining legal remedies from Tribal or State courts, such as protection orders, defending against an abuser’s false requests for protection orders, and custody, divorce, and support orders needed for long-term safety and justice.