Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada, the United States, and Latin America; notably those in the FNIM (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) and Native American communities. Across Latin America, it is estimated that Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately the victims of femicide. According to a report prepared by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, representatives from Canada, Mexico, and the United States have resolved to work together as part of the North American Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls. A mass movement in the US and Canada works to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) through organizing marches; building databases of the missing; holding local community, city council, and tribal council meetings; and conducting domestic violence trainings and other informational sessions for police.

MMIW has been described as a Canadian national crisis and a Canadian genocide. In response to repeated calls from Indigenous groups, activists, and non-governmental organizations, the Government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established a national public inquiry, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in September 2016.National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
According to the inquiry's backgrounder, between the years 1980 and 2012, Indigenous women and girls represented 16% of all female homicides in Canada, while constituting only 4% of the female population in Canada. The inquiry was completed and presented to the public on June 3, 2019.

A 2014 report by the RCMP, titled "Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview", found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a span of 30 years. From 2001 to 2015, the homicide rate for Indigenous women in Canada was almost six times as high as the homicide rate for other women, representing "4.82 per 100,000 population versus 0.82 per 100,000 population." In Nunavut, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, this over-representation of Indigenous women among homicide victims was even higher. The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has documented 582 cases since the 1960s, with 39% after 2000—though advocacy groups say that many more women have been missing in Canada, with the highest number of cases in British Columbia. Notable cases have included 19 women killed in the Highway of Tears murders, and some of the 49 women from the Vancouver area murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton.

In the US, Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic. One in three Indigenous women is sexually assaulted during her life, and 67% of these assaults are perpetrated by non-Indigenous perpetrators. The federal ''Violence Against Women Act'' (VAWA) was reauthorized in 2013, which for the first time gave tribes jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute felony domestic violence offenses involving both Native American offenders as well as non-Native offenders on reservations. In 2019, the House of Representatives, led by the Democratic Party, passed H.R. 1585 (''Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act'' of 2019) by a vote of 263–158, which increases tribes' prosecution rights much further. The bill was not taken up by the Senate, which at the time had a Republican majority.

Law enforcement, journalists, and activists in Indigenous communities in both the US and Canada have fought to bring awareness to the connection between sex trafficking, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and the women who go missing and are murdered.

Background and overview

As a group that has been "socially, economically, and politically marginalized",Harper, Anita (Winter 2006). "Is Canada Peaceful and Safe for Aboriginal Women?". ''Canadian Woman Studies''. 25: 33–38 Indigenous women have been frequent targets for hatred and violence. Underlying factors such as poverty and homelessness contribute to their victimization, as do historical factors such as racism, sexism, and the legacy of imperialism. The trauma caused by abuses under Canada's residential school system also plays a role.

Indigenous women are between 3 and 3 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than other women, and the violence they face is often more severe.

Canada

In Canada, according to activists, "thousands of cases" of missing and murdered Indigenous women over the last half-century were not properly investigated due to police bias. The 49 women murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton, who was eventually jailed in 2007, are cited as an example; with families claiming that Pickton was able to go on killing for so long because police had not taken the disappearances seriously because most of the women were sex workers and Indigenous.

A 2011 Statistics Canada report estimated that, between 1997 and 2000, the rate of homicides for Aboriginal women and girls was almost seven times higher than that of other female victims. Compared to non-Indigenous women and girls, they were also "disproportionately affected by all forms of violence." They are also significantly over-represented among female Canadian homicide victims, and are far more likely than other women to go missing.

A 2014 report by the RCMP, titled "Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview", found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a span of 30 years. In response to activists, the federal government-funded data collection on missing and murdered women, ending in 2010; the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has documented 582 cases since the 1960s, with 39% after 2000. Nevertheless, advocacy groups say that many more women have been missing, with the highest number of cases in British Columbia. Notable cases have included 19 women killed in the Highway of Tears murders, and some of the 49 women from the Vancouver area murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton.

In 2010, Jaime Black started the REDress project to represent the Indigenous women and girls that were missing, and her first dress was displayed in a Museum in Winnipeg. Red Dress Day is now May 5 in both Canada and US. In 2012, Sheila North Wilson, coined the hashtag #MMIW, for missing and murdered Indigenous women, while working for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

In response to repeated calls from Indigenous groups, activists, and non-governmental organizations, the Government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in September 2016. According to the April 22, 2016 background of the inquiry, between the years 1980 and 2012, Indigenous women and girls represented 16% of all female homicides in Canada, while constituting only 4% of the female population in Canada.

United States

In the United States, Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic. One in three Indigenous women is sexually assaulted during her life, and 67% of these assaults are perpetrated by non-Native perpetrators. Lisa Brunner, executive director of Sacred Spirits First National Coalition states:

What's happened through US Federal law and policy is they created lands of impunity where this is like a playground for serial rapists, batterers, killers, whoever and our children aren't protected at all.

The federal ''Violence Against Women Act'' (VAWA) was reauthorized in 2013, which for the first time gave tribes jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute felony domestic violence offenses involving both Native American offenders on reservations, as well as non-Native offenders. In 2019 the Democratic House passed H.R. 1585 (''Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act'' of 2019) by a vote of 263–158, which increases tribes' prosecution rights much further. However, in the Republican Senate, its progress had stalled. Law enforcement, journalists, and activists in Indigenous communities—in both the US and Canada—have fought to bring awareness to this connection between sex trafficking, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and the women who go missing and are murdered.

In 2021, Biden Administration Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the creation of the Missing and Murdered Unit within that department, following her appointment and confirmation, to help for missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Statistics for Canada

Various groups have collected data from different periods of time and using different criteria. Available data suggest that the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women is disproportionately high compared to their percentage of the total population.

One of the most significant findings of the "National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls" report of June 2019 was that there was no "reliable estimate of the numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA persons in Canada." One reason is that Canada did not maintain a database for missing people until 2010, which made it difficult to determine the rate at which Indigenous women are murdered or go missing, or to compare their data to those of other populations.

In Canada, according to activists, "thousands of cases" of missing and murdered Indigenous women over the last half-century were not properly investigated due to alleged police bias. The 49 women murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton, who was eventually jailed in 2007, are cited as an example; with families claiming that Pickton was able to go on killing for so long because police had not taken the disappearances seriously because most of the women were sex workers and Indigenous.

The National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR) unit of the RCMP was established in 2010 in response to their investigations of murdered and missing Indigenous women, particularly in relation to what became known as the "Highway of Tears"—an area of intersecting highways around Highway 16 in British Columbia. In order to track a national picture of missing persons across Canada, the RCMP created the Missing Children, Persons and unidentified Remains (MCPIR) unit and developed an algorithm to collect and collate "all missing persons reports and related reports filed by police across Canada" into the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). Since 2010, NCMPUR has published the "NCMPUR Fast Fact Sheet" to provide a "national breakdown of missing persons reports by province, age (child or adult), sex, and probable cause."

A database compiled as part of a 2013 Ph.D. thesis identified 824 missing or murdered Indigenous women between 1946 and 2013. A 2014 report from RCMP said that the "number grew to almost 1,200 between 1980 and 2012."

From 1980 to 2012, Indigenous women and girls represented 16% of all female homicides in Canada while being only 4% of the female population in Canada. A 2011 Statistics Canada report estimated that between 1997 and 2000, the rate of homicides for Indigenous women was almost seven times higher than other women.

While homicides for non-Indigenous women declined between 1980 and 2015, the number of Indigenous women who were victims of homicide increased from 9% of all female homicide victims in 1980, to 24% in 2015. From 2001 to 2015, the homicide rate for Indigenous women in Canada was almost six times as high as the homicide rate for non-Indigenous women, representing "4.82 per 100,000 population versus 0.82 per 100,000 population". In Nunavut, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, this over-representation of Indigenous women among homicide victims was even higher. According to a 2007 study by the Province of Saskatchewan—the only province to have systematically reviewed its missing persons files for cases involving Indigenous women—Indigenous women were found to have made up 6% of the province's population, and 60% of the province's missing women cases.

In the CBC investigative report, "Missing & Murdered: The Unsolved Cases of Indigenous Women and Girls", an interactive database was created that included more than 300 persons of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women by February 2016. CBC investigated 34 cases in which families disagreed with authorities' determination that no foul play was involved; it found "suspicious circumstances, unexplained bruises and other factors that suggest further investigation is warranted."

RCMP reports (2014, 2015)

In late 2013, the Commissioner of the RCMP initiated a study of reported cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women across all police jurisdictions in Canada. The result of the inquiry was a report ordered by the Stephen Harper administration, entitled "Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview", which was released on May 27, 2014, and dated back to 1951. The report stated that 1,181 Indigenous women were killed or went missing across the country between 1980 and 2012. Moreover, it reported that, over a 33-year period (1980–2012), there were 1,181 incidents and 225 unsolved cases. Among all female homicides (Indigenous and non-Indigenous), 80% were solved. Of the cases analyzed by the RCMP, 67% were murder victims, 20% were missing persons, 4% were suspicious deaths, and 9% were unknown.

In 2015, the RCMP published an updated report which showed that murder rates and the percentage solved (80%) were essentially unchanged since the 2014 report. The 2015 Update reported 106 unsolved homicide cases, 98 unsolved missing cases, and an overall resolution rate of 9.3% from the prior year: 11.7% for homicides and 6.7% for missing Aboriginal females.

The RCMP study was mostly limited to crimes committed in areas policed by the RCMP as the 2015 Update did not include homicide data from the "over 300 non-RCMP police agencies" that was included in the 2014 Overview.

The Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP) conducted as part of the National Inquiry into MMIWG (2019) found that the 2014 and 2015 RCMP reports identified "narrow and incomplete causes of homicides of Indigenous women and girls in Canada".

Controversies and Findings of the 2015 Report

The Harper government, including Bernard Valcourt, who served as federal Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development from 2013 to 2015, had rejected calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, saying that there had been enough studies undertaken. They said they were addressing the problem "through broad public safety and criminal justice measures." Valcourt said in the fall of 2015, that the "deaths and disappearances came down to a lack of respect among aboriginal men on reserves for aboriginal women, and urged chiefs and councils to take action." During a private meeting between Valcourt and chiefs held on March 20, 2015, in Calgary, Valcourt released the statistics from the 2015 RCMP report. He infuriated the chiefs when he said that "up to 70 per cent of the murdered and missing indigenous women stems from their own communities," basing his claim on the conclusions of the 2015 RCMP report.

In response to Valcourt's statement, Chief Marshall Bernice Marshall sent an official request to the RCMP on March 26, 2015, in which she asked for the 2015 RCMP report, as well as access to data from the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR). In his April 7, 2015 response to Marshall's request, then-RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson said that, while the May 27, 2014 report was online, the RCMP did not have the authority to release NCMPUR data. He added that the RCMP does not disclose statistics on the ethnicity of perpetrators under the ''Access to Information Act'', to respect their "bias-free policing policy" as publicizing "ethnicity of ffendershas the potential to stigmatize and marginalize vulnerable populations." Paulson then confirmed the statistics cited by Valcourt, saying:

The consolidated data from the nearly 300 contributing police agencies have confirmed that 70% of the offenders were of Aboriginal origin, 25% were non-aboriginal, and 5% were of unknown ethnicity. However, it is not the ethnicity of the offender that is relevant, but rather the relationship between victim and offender that guides our focus with respect to prevention...Aboriginal females were killed by a spouse, family member or intimate relation in 62% of cases; similarly, non-aboriginal females were killed by a spouse, family member or intimate relation in 74% of occurrences. Female homicide across all ethnicities is inextricably linked to familial and spousal violence; it is for this reason that RCMP analysis and prevention efforts have focussed on the relationship between the victim and offender.

Paulson copied this letter to Valcourt, then-Premier of Alberta Jim Prentice, Michelle Moody-Itwaru of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), and Lorna Martin of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC).

The 2016–2019 National Inquiry's Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP) found that the "often-cited statistic that Indigenous men are responsible for 70% of murders of Indigenous women and girls is not factually based"; and that "the statistics relied on in the RCMP's 2015 Report are inaccurate and provide a misleading picture of the relationship between offenders and victims in cases of homicides of Indigenous females. The empirical basis for the claim set out in the 2015 Report is an analysis of the narrow statistical data on 32 homicides of Indigenous women and girls within RCMP jurisdiction in 2013 and 2014."

NWAC report (2005-2011)

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) database, which was created with federal funding in 2005, reported that from the 1960s to 2010, there were 582 missing and murdered Indigenous women. This was the first time a number had been given based on research. An initiative called Walk 4 Justice collected names of missing and murdered Indigenous women from 2008 to 2011, yielding over 4,000 names that they shared with the NWAC. There was confusion about the data produced by this informal initiative: a Walk 4 Justice activist contacted by CBC News said 'roughly 60 to 70 per cent' of the 4,000 or so people on her list were Indigenous."

In February 2016, Canada's Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Patty Hajdu, acknowledged that good data was lacking to estimate the number of MMIW, but pointed to NWAC data to indicate that the number could be as high as 4,000 MMIW in Canada from 1980 to 2012. The RCMP report estimated the number was 1,200. Hajdu said that historically there had been under-reporting by law enforcement of cases of murdered or missing Indigenous women.

Highway of Tears

The term "Highway of Tears" refers to the stretch of Highway 16 from Prince George to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, which has been the site of the murder and disappearance of a number of mainly Indigenous women since 1969.

In response to the Highway of Tears crisis, the RCMP in BC launched ''Project E-Pana'' in 2005. It initiated an investigation of nine murdered women, launching a task force in 2006. In 2007, it added an additional nine cases, which include cases of both murdered and missing women along Highways 16, 97, and 5. The task force consists of more than 50 investigators, and cases include those from the years 1969 to 2006.

Government organizations and Indigenous organizations have different estimates of the number of victims along the highway, with police identifying 18 murders and disappearances, 13 of them teenagers, and other organizations placing the number as closer to 40. A reason for this numerical discrepancy is that for a disappearance or murder to be included in the RCMP's E-Pana project statistics, the RCMP requires for the crime to have happened within a mile of Highway 16, 97, or 5; their count rejects all cases that take place elsewhere along the route.

Many people hitchhike along this stretch of highway because they do not own cars and there is a lack of public transit. The Highway of Tears murders have led to initiatives by the BC government to dissuade women from hitchhiking, such as billboards along the highway warning women of the potential risks. Numerous documentaries have focused on the victims associated with this highway. The Canadian media often refer to the highway in coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people in Canada.

Canadian National Inquiry into MMIWG

, image=Justin Trudeau speech on missing and murdered indigenous women – Ottawa, October 2016.jpg, caption=Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, speaking on missing and murdered Indigenous women in front of Parliament in Ottawa, 2016., budget=$53.8 m CAD, participants=* 1,484 family members and survivors (testimony)
* 83 experts, knowledge-keepers, and officials (testimony)
* 819 other individuals (artistic expressions)
After the 2015 Canadian federal election, the Liberal Government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upheld their campaign promise and announced the initiation of a national public inquiry on December 8, 2015.

From December 2015 through February 2016, the government held pre-inquiry meetings with a variety of people including families, front-line workers, representatives of the provinces and Indigenous organizations, in order to determine how to structure the inquiry.

The mandate and projected length of time of the inquiry were published on August 3, 2016. In addition to the inquiry's estimated cost of CA$53.8 million, the government announced $16.17 million over four years to create family information liaison units in each province and territory.

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was officially launched on September 1, 2016. The inquiry was established as independent from the Government of Canada, and five commissioners were appointed to oversee the independent inquiry process: Marion Buller (chief commissioner), Michèle Audette, Qajaq Robinson, Marilyn Poitras, and Brian Eyolfson.

In February 2017, the National Family Advisory Circle, which included family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from across Canada, was formed to help guide the inquiry.

An interim report was expected from the Inquiry in November 2017. The initial conclusion date for the inquiry was set as December 31, 2018; however, on June 5, 2018, the federal government announced the extension of the National Inquiry by six months.

Data gathering (2017-2018)

Statements for the inquiry were gathered from across Canada from May 2017 to December 2018.

After a pre-formal public hearing (meant as a "truth-gathering" advisory meeting) in April 2017, complaints by observers began to arise about the inquiry's terms of reference, its composition and administration, and a perceived lack of transparency.

Community hearings were the first part of the inquiry's "truth-gathering process" taking place from May 31, 2017, to April 8, 2018, in 15 locations across Canada. Evidence was taken from 50 witnesses during the first hearings over three days in May 2017 at Whitehorse, Yukon.

In July 2017, the Assembly of First Nations asked the federal government to reset the inquiry, revisit its mandate, and extend its timeline to allow more data gathering.

Throughout 2017, a number of key staffers left the inquiry. For instance, executive director Michèle Moreau announced in June that she would leave her position at the end of July. Marilyn Poitras resigned as a commissioner in July as well, saying in her resignation letter to the Prime Minister:

It is clear to me that I am unable to perform my duties as a commissioner with the process designed in its current structure ... I believe this opportunity to engage community on the place and treatment of Indigenous women is extremely important and necessary. It is time for Canada to face this relationship and repair it.

On August 8, 2017, Waneek Horn-Miller, the inquiry's director of community relations, stepped down, and on October 8 that year, ''CBC News'' reported that the Inquiry's lead lawyer and research director had also resigned.

On November 1, 2017, the inquiry published its interim report, titled "Our Women and Girls are Sacred". In October 2018, the Inquiry announced the last of its public hearing dates, following which the commissioners would write a final report and submit recommendations to the Canadian government by April 30, 2019.

Final report (June 3, 2019)

The final report, entitled "Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls", which consists of volumes 1a CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF and 1b, CP32-163/2-2-2019E was released on June 3, 2019. In Volume 1a, Chief Commissioner of the Inquiry Marion Buller said that the high level of violence directed at FNIM women and girls is "caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies."

In preparation for the final report and to fulfill their mandate, the Commission held numerous gatherings and 24 hearings across Canada, collected statements from 750 people, held institutional visits in 8 correctional facilities, led four Guided Dialogues, and held 8 validation meetings. In 15 community hearings, there were 468 family members and survivors of violence and, overall, 2,380 people participated. There were "147 private, or in-camera, sessions" where more than "270 family members and survivors shared their stories." There were 819 people whose creative artistic expressions "became part of the National Inquiry's Legacy Archive". The Inquiry also indicates that "84 Expert Witnesses, Elders and Knowledge Keepers, front-line workers, and officials provided testimony in nine Institutional and Expert and Knowledge Keeper Hearings."

Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP)

Families who gave testimonies to the National Inquiry expressed overwhelming concern that police investigations were "flawed" and that police services "had failed in their duty to properly investigate the crimes committed against them or their loved ones." In response, the Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP) was established to review "police and other related institutional files." There were two FDRP teams: one for Quebec and one for the rest of Canada. The second team subpoenaed 28 police forces, issued 30 subpoenas, reviewed 35 reports, and obtained and analyzed 174 files consisting of 136,834 documents representing 593,921 pages.

The most significant findings identified by the FDRP were:

# There is no "reliable estimate of the numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA persons in Canada."
# The 2014 and 2015 RCMP reports on MMIWG identified "narrow and incomplete causes of homicides of Indigenous women and girls in Canada."
# The "often-cited statistic that Indigenous men are responsible for 70% of murders of Indigenous women and girls is not factually based."
# "Virtually no information was found with respect to either the numbers or causes of missing and murdered Métis and Inuit women and girls and Indigenous 2SLGBTQQIA persons."
# "Indigenous communities, particularly in remote areas, are under-prioritized and under-resourced."
# "There is a lack of communication to families and Indigenous communities by police services and a lack of trust of the police by Indigenous communities."
# "There continues to be a lack of communication with and coordination between the police and other service agencies."
# "Deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are marked by indifference. Specifically, prejudice, stereotypes, and inaccurate beliefs and attitudes about Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA persons negatively influence police investigations, and therefore death and disappearances are investigated and treated differently from other cases."

Calls for Justice

The final report issued 231 "Calls for Justice" to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The report stated that these recommendations were legal imperatives under international human rights law. The calls were directed variously at governments, institutions, industry, and all Canadians.

Section 2 ("Calls for Justice for All Governments: Culture") calls upon governments to:
* Acknowledge Indigenous Peoples' inherent right to their culture
* Recognize Indigenous languages as official languages
* Make funds available to support the restoration of Indigenous cultures
* Create educational opportunities that incorporate Indigenous language
* Educate the general public and those within social services about Anti-Racism and Anti-Sexism and implement social movements based on confronting stereotypes
* Support the increase in representation of Indigenous Peoples in media

= Children and Youth

=

A number of the "Calls for Justice" relate specifically to children and youth.

Sections 12.5 to 12.10 of the "Call for Social Workers and Those Implicated in Child Welfare" introduce the themes of financial support, welfare services, access to their culture, and advocacy.

* Provide financial support of resources and specialized care provided by the government to family or community members of missing children and murdered Indigenous women
* Child welfare services will ensure a family member or close friend will care for Indigenous children. The new caregivers then receive financial support equal to the amount of a foster family.
* All levels of government must ensure that Indigenous children have access to culture and language programs that align with their cultures
* Provincial and territorial governments urged to put a halt to the culturally based targeted practice of taking away Indigenous children from mothers/families by the state via birth alerts and putting them in the welfare system due to Eurocentric values
* Final report states that within one year, advocacy and accountability need to be addressed for Indigenous children and youth. Recommend that each jurisdiction appoint a Child and Youth Advocate
* The immediate adoption of Canadian Human Rights Tribunal 2017 CHRT 14 to implement Jordan's Principle by federal, provincial and territorial governments in regards to all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children.

= A Call for all Canadians

=
Section 15 calls for participation from all Canadians. Within the eight subsections, it establishes that these are actions that are taken by citizens and not the state. This includes places such as the home, the workplace, and the classroom. Some of the actions listed in Section 15 that can be carried out by Canadians include:

* Speaking out against violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people
* Acknowledging and celebrating Indigenous peoples' history, cultures, pride, and diversity
* Reading and understanding the final report itself and acknowledge the land lived upon
* Allowing for Indigenous girls and women to generate their individual self-determined solutions.

Resource Extraction and MMIW

Chapter seven of The Final Report found that, "There is substantial evidence of a serious problem demonstrated in the correlation between resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Work camps, or 'man camps,' associated with the resource extraction industry are implicated in higher rates of violence against Indigenous women at the camps and in the neighbouring communities." The report also found that Indigenous women did not have equitable access to the economic benefits of resource extraction.

Canadian genocide of Indigenous Peoples

According to a May 2019 ''CBC News'' article, the National Inquiry commissioners said in the report and publicly that the MMIWG crisis is "a Canadian genocide". Moreover, the chief commissioner, Marion Buller, said there is an ongoing "deliberate, race, identity and gender-based genocide."

The MMIWG inquiry report cited the work of Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959), who coined the term ''genocide''. Lemkin had explained that genocide does not exclusively mean the "immediate destruction of a nation", but signifies "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." According to a ''Global News'' article, Canada's '' Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act'' of 2000 "offers a broader definition, saying genocide can encompass not only acts of commission, but 'omission' as well."

A supplemental report of the "Canadian genocide of Indigenous Peoples according to the legal definition of 'genocide,'" was announced in ''Reclaiming Power and Place'' by the National Inquiry because of its gravity.

On June 3, 2019, Luis Almagro, secretary-general of Organization of American States (OAS), asked Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to support the creation of an independent probe into the MMIWG allegation of Canadian 'genocide' since Canada had previously supported "probes of atrocities in other countries" such as Nicaragua in 2018. On June 4, in Vancouver, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that, "Earlier this morning, the national inquiry formally presented their final report, in which they found that the tragic violence that Indigenous women and girls have experienced amounts to genocide."

On June 9, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer denied the use of the word ''genocide'', saying, "I believe that the tragedy that has happened to this vulnerable section of our society is its own thing. I don't believe it falls into the category, to the definition of genocide."

Statistics for the United States

The National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 missing Indigenous women and girls in 2016. A study funded by the US Department of Justice found that,

National rates of homicide victimization against American Indian and Alaska Native women are second to those of their African American counterparts, but higher than those for white women. However, these national averages hide the extremely high rates of murder against American Indian and Alaska Native women present in some counties consisting primarily of tribal lands. Some counties have rates of murder against American Indian and Alaska Native women that are over ten times the national average.

Data on MMIW in the United States has been difficult to gather. The race, citizenship or ethinicity of Native Americans is often mis-identified on death certificates and law enforcement records. Less than half of incidents of violence against women are reported. Many times when Indigenous women and girls go missing, or when Indigenous murder victims are unidentified, forensic evidence has not been accurately collected or preserved by local law enforcement. Cases have been allowed to quickly go "cold", and crucial evidence has been "lost", or never forwarded on from local law enforcement to the appropriate agencies. As these cases go unreported, it allowed violence and murder to be inaccurately represented in statistical data against Indigenous women, but it has also allowed aggressors to go unpunished.

A 1999 Bureau of Justice Statistics report on American Indians and crime did not provide information about missing or murdered Indigenous women.

Incidents of violence on tribal lands are frequently unprosecuted. The Major Crimes Act

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