Stephanie Patrick

Christopher Jocks
AIS 404
22 December 2022

Research Proposal Update:

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Research Question/Statement
Throughout North America, there has been an ongoing concern surrounding the
disappearance and murders of indigenous women and girls; so much so that a grassroots
movement has emerged called Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). After the
movement began to take off, the name branched out to include girls and Two-Spirit–those who
were traditionally considered a third or even fourth gender–as well as their relatives, through the
acronyms MMIWG2S and MMIWR. There is also the Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women and Children movement which is an extension of MMIW. These all have been used
interchangeably throughout studies and research as well as news stories and legislation, however,
for the purposes of this paper, I will use MMIW instead of the other versions because I will be
focusing specifically on the general movement.
MMIW started in Canada with First Nations activists and has since then spread to the US
Native population. It began so as to bring awareness to the estimated 25,000 cases since 1900
that have been “lost”--meaning no media coverage, no data collection, and typically cold cases
that have not been researched thoroughly (Buchanan, 2021). The movement is mainly a call to
action toward lawmakers and law enforcement to pay attention to these cases.
The reason this is such an issue is not because the Indigenous peoples are unable to or
don’t have the funding to take care of their own. In fact, most Indigenous people don’t live on
reservations where, if one of their own goes missing, the government and people ban together to
search (only about 20 or so percent do). The problem lies beyond the reservation borders and the
stereotypes of Indigenous people that have followed them throughout the centuries, which have
hindered the search processes. Today, those stereotypes are no longer as pronounced, but the
effects of them within law enforcement is the reason the movement began.

Literature Review
Here are two of the sources that I can include in my paper, excluding the ones in the
works referenced for the above statement:
Burns, Gneck, J., & Bell, S. (2020). Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls:
A case for abuse screening in at risk paediatric populations. Journal of Paediatrics and Child
Health, 56(10), 1641–1641. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.15130
This is a very short article found at Cline. It was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and
Child Health iin 2020, making it have a few unique aspects. One, since it’s 2020, we know that
the information is recent and more relevant than other sources. And also, with regard to the
MMIW movement, it’s more specific toward the “and girls” or “and children” side of the
movement. I will be able to use this in the history section of my research and form questions
around what makes the cases with children different from the women.
(2020). Reviewing the Trump Administration's Approach to the Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women (MMIW) Crisis: Oversight Hearing before the Subcommittee for Indigenous
Peoples of the United States of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of
Representatives (2020).
This is a book that can be found in Cline library. It is a newer source that I can use to help
determine what has been going on in the most recent years surrounding the movement and
people’s–other than the Indigenous communities’–responses. It is specifically centered around
what former President Trump did and didn’t do regarding the MMIW movement and what the
administration’s and Congress’s approach was.

Methodology:
I am currently looking at a few sources I need to gather. First, is of course history on the
problem and current information specifically to MMIW. For these I’m focusing on Cline Library
and the websites dedicated to the movement. I also need to gather information on people and law
enforcement. Specific cases and law enforcement’s reaction to these cases. What are they doing
to stop or prevent Indigenous missing and murdered cases? For this, I’m still using Cline,
however I’m branching out to the internet to look for interviews and articles written about this
topic. Because I’m looking to do a podcast, over break I will be researching key people in the
movement to interview and reaching out to them to ask if I can have them on my “podcast”.
I also need to look up how to conduct a podcast interview in the best way possible. I will
be looking at internet sources to figure out what is best, how to formulate questions, and even
what tools to use to record the interviews and podcast so that it is the most efficient and
reproducible.
The podcast information and questions, who I’m interviewing and reaching out to them,
and how to record a podcast will all be done by the new start of the semester. As for the research,
the questions are the most important thing to be completed so that I can interview the people in
the most effective way possible so that will be done first thing next semester along with general
information and history so that I’m infomed during the interview. As for the solo episodes of the
podcast, including the introduction and the history, that will come last so that I can focus on the
most time consuming part of the project which will be the people component (my idea to have
classmates/peers be interviewed is put on the back burner as a backup or a small addition to the
podcast episodes).
 References

Albizu, B. (2022, February 05). Groups rally behind proposed legislation on missing and

murdered Indigenous people. Retrieved from

https://www.koat.com/article/rally-proposed-legislation-mmip/38987988#

Bartley & Pueblo. MMIW. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.nativewomenswilderness.org/mmiw

Buchanan, C. (2021, June 15). Since 1900, 25,000 Indigenous Women Have Gone Missing or

Have Been Murdered. Retrieved from

https://www.unpublishedzine.com/activism-2/since-1900-25000-indigenous-women-have-

gone-missing-or-have-been-murdered

Cavallier, Andrea. (2021, August 27). Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women featured in

Dateline NBC's Missing in America and Cold Case Spotlight. Retrieved from

https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/in-the-news/look-missing-murdered-indigenous-wome

n-featured-dateline-nbc-s-missing-n1277762

Greene, Barbara Anne. Greybull Standard via Wyoming News Exchange. (2021, September 30).

Missing, murdered Indigenous people issue continues to plague Wyoming. Retrieved from

https://www.thesheridanpress.com/news/regional-news/missing-murdered-indigenous-peo

ple-issue-continues-to-plague-wyoming/article_44a3761e-220a-11ec-a713-9b003838eb55.

html

Levy-Uyeda, Ray. (2022, January 07). Can Minnesota Deliver Change for Missing and

Murdered Indigenous Women? Retrieved from

https://talkpoverty.org/2022/01/07/minnesota-missing-murdered-indigenous-women/