Where Are Our Girls?
Where Are Our Girls?
Ciera Tsosie
Across the United States and Canada, Indigenous communities ask a painful question: Where are our girls? The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement is still active, initially started in the early 2010s, this crisis continues to disproportionately affect Native populations at an alarming rate. If there are so many missing, why is there little to no media coverage?
Without media coverage, public response is non-existent and awareness falls under the radar as “just another missing person” 
case. The violence experienced at the domestic level on the reservation alone is significantly higher than the national average. We turn to jurisdictional gaps for this reason as tribal, state, and federal law enforcement have historically delayed investigation causing crucial time gaps.
The movement to address MMIW has expanded in the last few years thanks to social media, art exhibitions, and community-led events. Red has become a powerful symbol of visibility, being the only color that spirits can see as the movement features a hand print over the mouth that symbolizes their silenced voices.
So, what is our solution? There are significant job vacancies on the Navajo Nation especially in our law fields, and barriers such as geographical locations, lack of security infrastructure, as well as poor data collection are all contributing factors to this issue. In Arizona, awareness efforts like the Turquoise Alert system have been set in place into systems to help combat this issue. However, to begin tackling this problem, it starts with us.
Many families await answers, the encouragement of Indigenous youth entering fields essential to the operation of our nation is crucial to ensuring the Navajo Nation remains active 50 years into the future. Raising awareness in schools is one-way students can educate themselves, ensuring that they and their missing relatives are heard. When we ask, “where are our girls?” We are asking our communities to listen, to care, to act and to return to the land with careers that’ll help locate our missing people.