The System Didn’t Forget Them. It Was Built to Look Away

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and the Legacy of Legal Erasure

They are mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunties. They disappear at rates that would trigger national outcry if they were white, suburban, and well-covered by the nightly news. But in Indian Country, when a woman goes missing, there is often no headline, no search party, and no justice.

In 2016, over 5,700 Indigenous women and girls were reported missin…