Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP)

These two groundbreaking reports, along with the activism of the Standing Rock NoDAPL protests, which highlighted the link between fossil fuel “man camps” and sex trafficking, pushed the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) onto the national political stage. None of this momentum, however, would have been possible without decades of groundwork laid by Tribal activists, Tribal governments, and Tribal courts.

As years of advocacy continued, more and more stories emerged, showing that the violence extends beyond women. Indigenous children and men are also disproportionately affected. This broader awareness led to the shift from the acronym MMIW to MMIP: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.

At the current moment, a number of different laws have been passed at the federal and state level to address the Issue of MMIP. Examples at the federal level include the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, 2022 updates to VAWA (violence against women act) the Savanna’s Act of 2020 and the Not Invisible Act of 2019. In the state of California, the Feather Alert has been implemented as a specialized alert system to ensure a rapid and effective response to a missing Indigenous person. The Karuk MMIP program is focused on building partnerships with local, state and federal agencies responsible for implementing these changes. The Karuk MMIP program is also collaborating with other Tribes in the region to advance further legislative changes to address this issue.

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