Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie, and you're listening to stuff I've
Speaker 1: never told you. M M M M. And today we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about a topic a lot of your
Speaker 1: listeners have requested the missing and murdered Indigenous women of
Speaker 1: North America, and this is often shortened to M M
Speaker 1: I W and to talk about this. I am so
Speaker 1: happy to be joined with Christine Novis from Seating Sovereignty UM.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. Christine, thank you.
Speaker 1: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and
Speaker 1: about Seating Sovereignty. Uh? Yeah, UM. I'm playing Scriss salto
Speaker 1: of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. UM.
Speaker 1: But I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which sometimes
Speaker 1: I jokingly called the Razzius city in Canada. UM. And
Speaker 1: I've been living in Iowa for about thirteen years. I
Speaker 1: came here to get my degree. I have a degree
Speaker 1: in a master's degree in religious studies with a focus
Speaker 1: on Native American religion of culture and a minor in
Speaker 1: American Indian Native Studies and Seating Sovereignty UM is an
Speaker 1: organization that's been around just for a few years, kind
Speaker 1: of emerged out of standing rock UM. A woman by
Speaker 1: the name of Janet mcgilvary UH founded it UM and
Speaker 1: then I started working with Seating Sovereignty almost two years
Speaker 1: ago now and it's a woman's indigenous led organization. UH.
Speaker 1: And we kind of do I don't know what you
Speaker 1: would call us, to be honest, I have trouble answering
Speaker 1: that question. We do media, we do UM, a lot
Speaker 1: of UM writing, UM, we do a lot of community
Speaker 1: work and organizing. So we kind of do it all.
Speaker 1: I love it and that's one of the reasons UM.
Speaker 1: I reached out to you, and I'm so glad because
Speaker 1: you're a busy person. I've been chasing chasing Christine down
Speaker 1: like a year, so I'm really happy this this happened. UM.
Speaker 1: But before we get started, I did want to include
Speaker 1: the legal definition of missing in the United States. So
Speaker 1: if a woman is a legal adults eighteen or over,
Speaker 1: she has the right to go missing to get away
Speaker 1: from family, friends, or an abuser. To get a person
Speaker 1: declared dis missing by force, you have to reach out
Speaker 1: to the people in their life an attempt to ascertain
Speaker 1: the state of mind of the missing person and to
Speaker 1: determine whether or not the absence was by choice or
Speaker 1: by force. Improving this can be tricky. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: start with kind of an overview of this situation in
Speaker 1: the United States. So Christine, could you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about M M I W. Yeah, well, UM,
Speaker 1: I'd have to say that acronym it's elf UH, did
Speaker 1: not did not start in the United States. UM. It's
Speaker 1: something that was born out of the UM the the
Speaker 1: similar situations that are being faced in Canada. And in Canada, actually,
Speaker 1: I I believe it was UM. The acronym for a
Speaker 1: very long time was M Y G my WG missing
Speaker 1: murdered Indigenous women and girls UH. And I I can't
Speaker 1: be certain, but I'm pretty sure that it's what it
Speaker 1: could have been, a grassroots thing. But also UM, the
Speaker 1: Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP, they started their own task barce.
Speaker 1: Oh geez, it must be like fifteen ten, ten, ten,
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago now, UM just start looking into this
Speaker 1: and they called it M M I W G UM.
Speaker 1: And so UM, this issue in Canada UH is is
Speaker 1: if not similar, possibly UM were in terms of statistics UM.
Speaker 1: But but this this is not something new either. It's
Speaker 1: not like this is some UM emerging trend that has
Speaker 1: become some kind of you know, like a crisis lately.
Speaker 1: This is just people recognizing what has been going on
Speaker 1: now since settlers invaded. Um. And and to be honest,
Speaker 1: you know, the it's probably not as bad as it
Speaker 1: used to be. I mean, if you imagine a few
Speaker 1: hundred years ago. Um, we don't know what happened too
Speaker 1: many of our people. Um we have you know, we
Speaker 1: have boarding school graveyards, we have mass um the genocide.
Speaker 1: So that's m M I W is just like a
Speaker 1: it's an ongoing crisis, yes, um. And we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about Canada um in a little bit, because yeah,
Speaker 1: there is there are a lot of alarming number is
Speaker 1: out of out of Canada, but there are alarming numbers
Speaker 1: out of the United States as well. Just trying not
Speaker 1: to distinguish were just trying not to distinguish the border.
Speaker 1: I guess that is what we've got to do. That
Speaker 1: to abolished border imperialism, and we realize that border means
Speaker 1: nothing to indigenous people, right yeah, no, no, no, that
Speaker 1: totally makes sense. Um, yeah, I think and it's always
Speaker 1: worth keeping in mind. Um, like we have numbers from Canada,
Speaker 1: and we have numbers from the United States. But um,
Speaker 1: these numbers are kind of recent and how in that
Speaker 1: they've been collecting them and paying attention to them. But
Speaker 1: like you said, it's ongoing. Um, Yes, yes, But a
Speaker 1: two eight report from the U. S Department of Justice
Speaker 1: found that on some Native American reservations, the number of
Speaker 1: Native women murdered was ten times above the national average.
Speaker 1: The numbers from the National Crime Information Database out of
Speaker 1: but the number of known missing are murdered Indigenous women
Speaker 1: at five thousand, seven hundred and twelve according to the
Speaker 1: National Institute of Justice, for out of five Indigenous women
Speaker 1: have had violent experiences. Homicide is the third leading cause
Speaker 1: of death for Native women aged ten to twenty four
Speaker 1: based on numbers from the CDC, and to reiterate, murders
Speaker 1: the third leading cause of death um over have experience
Speaker 1: with domestic violence and sexual assault. Data collected in the
Speaker 1: years between two thousand and one found that, as compared
Speaker 1: to all other racial groups, Indigenous women were twice as
Speaker 1: likely to be sexually assaulted or raped. Unlike other races,
Speaker 1: which are typically assaulted by a member of their own race,
Speaker 1: Native American women are more often assaulted by non natives.
Speaker 1: One poll found that thirty of Native Americans don't contact
Speaker 1: the police because they fear discrimination. Yeah, that sounds about right,
Speaker 1: except um, I think it's more than twice that the
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice has of has reported I think
Speaker 1: that numbers at fifty now. Um. Also, if you talk
Speaker 1: to grassroots activists, uh, and you just kind of know
Speaker 1: what's going on in your community and you know the people, UM,
Speaker 1: that number UM is probably more like eighty or of
Speaker 1: Indigenous women that will be sexually assaulted or raped in
Speaker 1: their lifetime. And that number is not occurring, you know,
Speaker 1: just by our own people. Like you just stated, a
Speaker 1: lot of those cases um happened by non indigenous people.
Speaker 1: And then UM, the other thing is right now, there
Speaker 1: are as you said, five thousands twelve women UM indicated
Speaker 1: missing or murdered in the National Crime Database. But that
Speaker 1: number itself is also a lot higher um, just because
Speaker 1: some people might not identify as indigenous um M for
Speaker 1: some reason, or they aren't identified as indigenous on paper,
Speaker 1: you know, because we have it's a we have a
Speaker 1: really shady system going on here in the US and
Speaker 1: Canada where you know, basically the goal is to whitewash,
Speaker 1: you know, Indigenous people eventually they don't want anybody to
Speaker 1: technically be able to identify as as is indigenous because
Speaker 1: you know, then that means reserves, which means you know, money,
Speaker 1: which means recognition of sovereignty, which is just a real
Speaker 1: headache for the for the government. Um and so not
Speaker 1: only that, but then you know a lot of these people,
Speaker 1: um are some of these people that have gone missing.
Speaker 1: You know, they might be homeless and they might not
Speaker 1: have identification on them. M So, Um, we know this
Speaker 1: number is much higher, just like in Canada right now
Speaker 1: they say there's about a thousand, but like a grassroots
Speaker 1: activists will say there's probably more like four or five thousand. Wow. Yeah, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: these numbers are really really distressing, and it comes with
Speaker 1: like they're already distressing, and it comes with that recognition
Speaker 1: that it's probably far worse, like definitely far worse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it usually is an Indian country. Um. People don't realize
Speaker 1: the the conditions that a lot of um indigenous people
Speaker 1: are living in. Uh. They they there's this weird myth
Speaker 1: out there that somehow casinos are creating these lavish lifestyles
Speaker 1: for us, which is far from the truth, right, um So,
Speaker 1: so another number I have that I found is really
Speaker 1: really upsetting. In Washington State, where Native Americans make up
Speaker 1: less than two percent of the population, they comprise over
Speaker 1: five of the missing person cases. The FBI looked into
Speaker 1: sixteen deaths, most of them of Native women, that took
Speaker 1: place on Washington State's Yakima Reservation in the mid two thousand's.
Speaker 1: The victims bodies have been found between two and The
Speaker 1: high number had some in the FBI convinced they were
Speaker 1: dealing with a serial killer. When they released a report
Speaker 1: on the findings in two thousand nine, they came to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that these murders weren't the work of a
Speaker 1: serial killer or any one person. TENA the sixteen cases
Speaker 1: were deemed probably as homicides UM. The rest were listed
Speaker 1: as accidental drownings, hypothermia or unknown UM. And then the
Speaker 1: attention of the FBI and media in the country completely
Speaker 1: moved on UM. Yeah, that's not uncommon. Yeah this UM. Again,
Speaker 1: these numbers might not be accurate UM, because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of cases that are deemed hypothermia UM, when
Speaker 1: in fact there are these these victims have bruises on
Speaker 1: their body, and you have to wonder what that's about. UM.
Speaker 1: Hyperthermia is and often it can be considered one of them.
Speaker 1: More go to UM I guess cause of death for
Speaker 1: police because UM, it's not an uncommon occurrence on reservations.
Speaker 1: It's one of the satisfacts UM that we deal with
Speaker 1: UM is that we have a real lack of transportation
Speaker 1: on reservations. UM. Also a lot of people just don't
Speaker 1: drive or I have access to vehicles, and so they
Speaker 1: end up having to walk long distances between you know,
Speaker 1: houses or wherever it is they're trying to get to. UM.
Speaker 1: And and hypothermia is a real thing on reservations. UM.
Speaker 1: There are so if you start researching it, it's just
Speaker 1: really sad. There are so many devastating cases UM. I
Speaker 1: know of when personally of a father and it's two
Speaker 1: small girls that that that died trying to get home UM,
Speaker 1: and it just it's it saddens me. UM. And so
Speaker 1: because of at UM sometimes that's used as as a
Speaker 1: as a cause of death and then the investigation doesn't
Speaker 1: go any further. M hm. UM. This reminds me as
Speaker 1: well right now when you're talking as you're talking about
Speaker 1: the Northwest, UM, this reminds me of up north in Canada. Um. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a highway UM and it's called the
Speaker 1: Highway of Tears. And it's in British Columbia. It's about
Speaker 1: an eight kilometers stretch of highway UM that goes from
Speaker 1: Prince George. Uh. It's connects it can Um it connects
Speaker 1: Prince George or Prince Rupert anyways. UM. And it's like
Speaker 1: kind of infamous. Right now. I think there's eighteen unsolved
Speaker 1: cases of missing and murdered uh and women there, mostly
Speaker 1: First Nations. UM. But the number that grassroots people again
Speaker 1: UM tell us is that there's probably his highest fifty
Speaker 1: women that have been killed on that highway. UM. You know.
Speaker 1: Any again, let's get we get back to these this
Speaker 1: idea of a serial killer. UM. There there have been
Speaker 1: known uh serial killers uh that have attacked um some
Speaker 1: woman um in the US and Canada. UH And UM
Speaker 1: actually I think just as recently as I think, I
Speaker 1: just read an article a few days ago about a
Speaker 1: trucker that had pictures of Indigenous woman in his truck,
Speaker 1: and I think he had killed two or three of them,
Speaker 1: and one woman identified herself and just some like Facebook
Speaker 1: picture that they were trying to find out who this
Speaker 1: woman was, just in case she was missing, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because they didn't know who it was. Um.
Speaker 1: And then she saw this and that picture had been
Speaker 1: taken of her like twenty years ago, and the guy
Speaker 1: was riding around with it on the dashboard of his truck,
Speaker 1: a white guy. Yeah. UM. I think what it comes
Speaker 1: down to is, for well, first of all, all okay,
Speaker 1: first of all, because of the genocide of the colonization,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of sickness in our communities. Yes,
Speaker 1: we do have high rates of domestic violence. We do
Speaker 1: have high rates of abuse. We do have high rates
Speaker 1: of uh drug abuse, alcoholism, We do have those rates
Speaker 1: for sure, Um, because we are dealing with the aftermath
Speaker 1: of um, you know, the loss of our land, our culture,
Speaker 1: our language, you know so much, and though we are
Speaker 1: rebuilding and that we are doing amazing things all over.
Speaker 1: Because I don't like to just like um, lament about
Speaker 1: the things that have happened. I also like to look
Speaker 1: at all the wonderful, beautiful things that are happening, the
Speaker 1: revival of so much of of our of our culture. Um.
Speaker 1: The fact remains, as we still are dealing with a
Speaker 1: lot of sickness within our communities. However, UM, outside of
Speaker 1: our communities, UM, the the settler descendant population MH. To
Speaker 1: be honest, I don't think that there. I don't think
Speaker 1: a lot of these people have yet have to realize
Speaker 1: that we are human beings. I do feel that there
Speaker 1: um is this UM view of Indigenous women as accessible
Speaker 1: and um usable and more as an object rather than
Speaker 1: a human being. Mm hm. Um of Indigenous people will
Speaker 1: experience violence in their lifetime at the hands of a
Speaker 1: non native person, that's both women and men. UM. And
Speaker 1: so that just goes to show you that UM we
Speaker 1: we when we are still dealing with institutionalized racism, with
Speaker 1: UM blatant racism, violent racism, sexual racism, we're dealing with
Speaker 1: a very very dark and and ingrained UM type of
Speaker 1: thinking that it is still very much embedded uh in
Speaker 1: settler descendants society. Yeah, UM if you you've kind of
Speaker 1: been talking about about it a little bit, but could
Speaker 1: you describe what it is like on these these reservations
Speaker 1: for people who don't know, Well, every reservation is different.
Speaker 1: So that's something I like to make you know, sure
Speaker 1: that I let people know UM. But the fact remains
Speaker 1: that their very rural most of the time, and so
Speaker 1: there's not there's not a lot of infrastructure in place, UM,
Speaker 1: you know for people to go to necessarily. UM. Also
Speaker 1: we have UM, not very high budgets often for our
Speaker 1: own police departments, and we have to rely on you know,
Speaker 1: UH state or b I A programs. UM. The you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of poverty some reservations. On some reservations
Speaker 1: in the US. UH, the unemployment rate is as high
Speaker 1: as UM. And that's not for lack of people wanting
Speaker 1: a job. It's like what are you want to do
Speaker 1: on the reservation? There's not necessarily thriving uh businesses there.
Speaker 1: So I mean it's it's definitely, UM, it's it's definitely
Speaker 1: an issue that that is being of course UM looked at.
Speaker 1: You know, I like to think of UM some of
Speaker 1: the there's some there's some reservations out on the West
Speaker 1: coast and they're they're doing really great. You know they
Speaker 1: have UM some casinos or like the Cherokee Nation. UM.
Speaker 1: They they they started out with you know, gaming, but
Speaker 1: then they've like they they've branched out and now they
Speaker 1: have a lot of businesses. The difference with what we
Speaker 1: do with our money is a lot of people they
Speaker 1: do end up receiving UM, like money from this these businesses.
Speaker 1: Like it's called a per cap and so sometimes they
Speaker 1: do receive some money to help them. But it's not
Speaker 1: like it's like some kind of like it's like it's
Speaker 1: like you know enough to like to take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like a little bit of money
Speaker 1: that you get. UM. Some of them on the West Coast, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they do make some great money. But in general, UM
Speaker 1: reservations do deal with a lot of poverty, UM. But
Speaker 1: also they deal with a lot of UM cultural revival,
Speaker 1: fantastic programs that are trying to revive language and UM
Speaker 1: schools for instance, that are focused on you know, traditions
Speaker 1: and cultures and UM. That's that's what it's like. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing UM. And when we're talking about
Speaker 1: this issue, this problem, the problem is not like that's
Speaker 1: that's downplaying it, but of missing and murdered indigenous women. UM,
Speaker 1: federal laws certainly don't help the situation, right yeah, UM,
Speaker 1: are you talking about maybe for instance or no, not
Speaker 1: what would help? But are you talking about like the
Speaker 1: lack of the of our ability to prosecute non natives? Yeah, um, yes,
Speaker 1: A lot of things. But is there any of that
Speaker 1: you would like to speak to? Yes, Yeah, there is
Speaker 1: a definitely a lack of an ability for uh, for
Speaker 1: our nations to prosecute non natives. So in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases, uh, nothing happens. It's it doesn't that just
Speaker 1: blow your mind, Like they might actually know who did it,
Speaker 1: but they can't do anything about it. UM. And then
Speaker 1: what happens It kind of falls into this black hole
Speaker 1: and it seems like nobody wants to pick it up,
Speaker 1: like maybe the state should pick it up, or maybe
Speaker 1: this is something the federal government needs to deal with
Speaker 1: or you know that or should it be you know,
Speaker 1: the the nation itself that can should be able to do.
Speaker 1: But but it just that's what's been happening. A lot
Speaker 1: of these cases fall into these what I call a
Speaker 1: legisty legislative black hole. UM. And and so what happened
Speaker 1: in is with the Violence Against Woman Act, which started
Speaker 1: I think back that's been around for twenty five years now,
Speaker 1: so it was in the nineties that was actually implemented.
Speaker 1: UM is Uh they start they they put into it
Speaker 1: stipulations uh that focus on uh Native American people that
Speaker 1: um address this issue exactly and so now we actually
Speaker 1: do have more say on what happens with these people,
Speaker 1: and we are able to prosecute them on our nations. UM.
Speaker 1: The problem is is it's still not happening that is
Speaker 1: as much as it should be. UM. And and I
Speaker 1: don't know why, UM, but it just feels like a
Speaker 1: lot of people just don't want to touch it. And
Speaker 1: and so that's for me. Uh VA needs to go
Speaker 1: one step further and and and make things pretty black
Speaker 1: and white, you know, like if you do something to
Speaker 1: somebody on a reservation, that nation has dominion to prosecute you.
Speaker 1: Because right now it's still it still doesn't say that.
Speaker 1: M hm. We have some more of our conversation for
Speaker 1: your listeners, but first we have a quick break for
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsor. We're back, thank you sponsor.
Speaker 1: I have um Savannah's Act from North Dakota. UM. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: could you speak to that one. Savannah's Act? Yeah, UM,
Speaker 1: still not passed, which is really sad. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of a guy's name. Oh jeez, it really books
Speaker 1: me that I can't think of his name right now.
Speaker 1: Of course he's a Republican UM and you know how
Speaker 1: a congress person has the right to just say no
Speaker 1: to and you know that they don't want to vote,
Speaker 1: and then they can completely stall a piece of legislation.
Speaker 1: Just one person can do that. But UM, so that
Speaker 1: that was stalled, and what really sucks is it it
Speaker 1: was stalled before um Congress one on break and so
Speaker 1: then when they got back, they're gonna have they had
Speaker 1: to start all over again. But then, as you know,
Speaker 1: the government shutdown. So like it's just like there's always something,
Speaker 1: you know. However, there is some really fantastic badass you
Speaker 1: know congresswomen now, UM that are like you know, like
Speaker 1: in you know, they're like, we've got Sharis David's and
Speaker 1: dev Holland and they're like they're not going to take
Speaker 1: no for an answer, and so they are definitely going,
Speaker 1: I hope make sure that Savannah's Act passes. UM. I'm
Speaker 1: also right now thinking of uh Ruth and Buffalo, uh
Speaker 1: and South Dakota who has been uh working really hard
Speaker 1: to try and make sure that gets passed. UM. And
Speaker 1: And to be honest, UM, it's not just Savannah's Act
Speaker 1: in in our states, in individual states, UM, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that are trying to to get different
Speaker 1: legislation passed and UM, and I know Dev Hallan just
Speaker 1: talked about legislation that UM they're trying to pass in
Speaker 1: New Mexico. UM. Right now in uh Minneapolis, UM, they
Speaker 1: are trying to pass a task force, UH something akin
Speaker 1: to what the RCNP were doing up in Canada that
Speaker 1: really takes a look at everything and and UM figures
Speaker 1: out like what the what, like what the problem is.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know what's going on in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: but we have ports that woman a lot of women
Speaker 1: are sex traffic to uh and then they end up
Speaker 1: on these ships UM as you know, well sex slaves basically. UM.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty disturbing. We have a very high neated
Speaker 1: population in Minneapolis. And to be honest, a lot of
Speaker 1: women from where I'm from, Winnipeg, UH and like um,
Speaker 1: like in Manitoba and like Ontario and Saskatchewan, they they
Speaker 1: end up getting kind of trafficked down into these areas.
Speaker 1: And people think that sex trafficking is like you end
Speaker 1: up on the other side of the world, like in
Speaker 1: Russia or something. And in a lot of cases they
Speaker 1: just end up like it's some other place in the continent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and real real quickly. Could we step back a
Speaker 1: bit and talk about Savannah's Act and what that would
Speaker 1: if it was passed, what it would do. Yeah, Savannah's acts, UH,
Speaker 1: it's a recognition first of all, Okay, it's a recognition that, UM,
Speaker 1: there are there are some on some regervation preservations that like,
Speaker 1: Indigenous women are murdered at more than ten times the
Speaker 1: national average. It's UM. It's a recognition that we know
Speaker 1: of that we're going to experience violent crimes in our lifetime,
Speaker 1: and that there's a lack of cooperation on investigations between
Speaker 1: like UM different UH law enforcement agencies right now. So
Speaker 1: like it's recognizing that because there's a lack of cooperation, UM,
Speaker 1: things don't happen, you know. It's it's it's a really
Speaker 1: strange phenomenon that Indigenous people fall into UM and it
Speaker 1: can make things move very slowly, which is not what
Speaker 1: you want to happen when you're looking for a missing person. UM.
Speaker 1: And so I think what Savannah's Act wants to do
Speaker 1: is institute at database UM, which would allow for UH,
Speaker 1: you know, to to look at trends UM and to
Speaker 1: keep track of of such things. There's UM. And then
Speaker 1: obviously like create a task force to figure out, like
Speaker 1: what is happening and how can we fix that? M Um.
Speaker 1: And just so you know, there is a database that's
Speaker 1: all been created by an Indigenous woman. UM. Her name
Speaker 1: is uh, let me think for a second, Anita Chessie,
Speaker 1: and she is the executive director of the Sovereign Bodies Institute,
Speaker 1: and she created UM a database I'm missing and murdered
Speaker 1: Intigenous woman database, and I think at the moment she's
Speaker 1: got at least five thousand people in there, and she's
Speaker 1: got many different indicators so that you can look things
Speaker 1: up based on like what it is you're trying to,
Speaker 1: like to know region, tribe, age. UM. You know, I
Speaker 1: was actually UM talking to UH somebody that was working
Speaker 1: with her recently and asking if they could possibly start
Speaker 1: uh putting in information about pipelines UM and UH man
Speaker 1: camp construction sites if there's any like correlation to that,
Speaker 1: because we know there is. When UM, these people come
Speaker 1: in to start building UH pipelines and you know, larger
Speaker 1: construction sites and rural areas, they set up these man camps.
Speaker 1: And these man camps create havoc and communities, UH, they
Speaker 1: rape and murder rates increase, UH and often they are um,
Speaker 1: you know, on our near uh you know, reservations. Some
Speaker 1: of the stories I've heard are so distressing. Um, it's
Speaker 1: too hard to talk about, um, the stuff that happens
Speaker 1: that I've heard from these man camps. It's just a
Speaker 1: lot of these men that come into these uh camps
Speaker 1: are I don't want to say like a lot actually
Speaker 1: because I don't know to be honest, that would be speculating.
Speaker 1: But what I do know from what grassroots people have
Speaker 1: told me and from what I've read, is that some
Speaker 1: of these people are undesirables and that they're doing these
Speaker 1: jobs because they are transient jobs and be has. They're
Speaker 1: easy to get and I don't think they do background checks. Mhm.
Speaker 1: So you get these groups of these concentrated groups of
Speaker 1: men in areas that are already vulnerable, that already have
Speaker 1: people dealing with their own crisis of the aftermath of
Speaker 1: a genocide. And that's a really bad combination. Yes, that
Speaker 1: is a terrible combination. Yeah, Um, that's UM, we'll definitely
Speaker 1: have to include that database and the notes for this episode.
Speaker 1: That's really anything. Yeah, it's at UM Sovereign hayphen Bodies
Speaker 1: dot Org. I believe because it used to be myw
Speaker 1: but did she changed the So yeah, it's just sovereign
Speaker 1: bodies institute. I think they'll find it perfect. Um. And
Speaker 1: we've already been talking about Canada a little bit. Um
Speaker 1: that we mentioned some of the numbers. It's they're very
Speaker 1: very they're disturbing, UM. And there it is a big
Speaker 1: conversation in Canada right now when it comes to laws
Speaker 1: attempting to be passed. UM. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: could talk about some of those things or some of
Speaker 1: the things in Canada that are happening around this. Oh jeez, UM,
Speaker 1: Well it's been happening for a long time. UM. There's
Speaker 1: been a recognition that this is an issue in Canada,
Speaker 1: UM for quite some time. UM. When I see there's
Speaker 1: been a recognition, I mean it's not like our people
Speaker 1: haven't known that already. So our people have always known this,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just it's part of business as
Speaker 1: usual unfortunately, uh in Indian country to know that your
Speaker 1: life doesn't mean as much as um, a white person's life.
Speaker 1: And however, um, you know, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Speaker 1: has has recognized this UM for about I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna guess twenty years they've they've been
Speaker 1: recognizing it, um, but haven't really done anything. I said
Speaker 1: until about I think about fifteen years ago, UM, when
Speaker 1: they started their might W and MMIGHTWG task force. So
Speaker 1: you wanted me to talk about sorry, um Harper for instance.
Speaker 1: I see you mentioned Harper in here. Um this issue
Speaker 1: wasn't on his radar, Yes, of course, UM. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I Trudeau seems to have um a better
Speaker 1: understanding of this issue, except right now Indigenous people are
Speaker 1: mad at him in general because he's not recognizing our
Speaker 1: sovereignty um. And so it's really hard to trust somebody
Speaker 1: to do something about this crisis when in essence they're not.
Speaker 1: They're also just allowing you know, pipelines and and all
Speaker 1: sorts of other um, devastating projects to go through our territories,
Speaker 1: which we should have the right to say no to.
Speaker 1: So it's such a complicated phenomenon because you know, these
Speaker 1: people say, oh, we recognize there's this crisis of Indigenous
Speaker 1: women that are you know, and it's not just women,
Speaker 1: by the way, like this is people like I tend
Speaker 1: to want to um call this an m A M M.
Speaker 1: I p issue because um are men. From what I've
Speaker 1: been told by UM, a fellow grassroots activists who actually
Speaker 1: does this for a living search for Native people, she
Speaker 1: tells me that she thinks our men go missing at
Speaker 1: um higher rate, but because they're not caregivers, they're not
Speaker 1: necessarily reported because you know, you because in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases, the mothers are the caregivers of our children,
Speaker 1: like they go missing quicker is you know, and so um.
Speaker 1: But anyways, back to what I was saying, the the
Speaker 1: issue that I see is that body sovereignty is very
Speaker 1: much linked to land sovereignty. When the settler invaders came
Speaker 1: to colonize this land, the process of that is too
Speaker 1: to take the land, you know, you know, just to
Speaker 1: take it because it's free real estate for the sake
Speaker 1: of you know, living on it, and then extracting the
Speaker 1: resources from it in the in then in the process
Speaker 1: you have to mitigate the local population either through you know, annihilation, assimilation,
Speaker 1: or slavery. And so one of the one of the
Speaker 1: one of the tactics that's that's used is to attack
Speaker 1: the woman, to to dismantle the family units um and
Speaker 1: to basically to cause uh, just a basic shutdown of
Speaker 1: the functioning of a tribe. And that is to um,
Speaker 1: you know, rape the woman, kill the woman, Uh, do
Speaker 1: all sorts of they're they're I mean, I I there's
Speaker 1: stories that I just I don't know if your listeners
Speaker 1: want to hear, like, there's just there are stories that
Speaker 1: are just so atrocious that it's it's hard to believe
Speaker 1: that human beings would do this to one another. And
Speaker 1: so this right here is and I know I seem
Speaker 1: like I'm going off on a tangent, but this right
Speaker 1: here is exactly it though, Because they don't see us
Speaker 1: as human beings and therefore we don't have any body sovereignty. Um.
Speaker 1: In the quest to take the land, our body sovereignty
Speaker 1: is removed, right and it's still it still has not
Speaker 1: come back. It's we're still fighting to revive that. We're
Speaker 1: still fighting two to own that in a way, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: we're not as safe um as your regular white person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, there was obviously we I did some research
Speaker 1: on the media coverage around this, and that that was
Speaker 1: something that I ran into and unfortunately didn't surprise me.
Speaker 1: But um, that it took a white woman going missing
Speaker 1: for authorities to look into Um, what what was I
Speaker 1: think it was the Highway of Tears. Um. It turns
Speaker 1: out eight of the women who went missing previously we're white,
Speaker 1: but reporters mistakenly thought they were indigenous, so they didn't
Speaker 1: really report on it. And then um, yeah when it
Speaker 1: was a white woman, and then suddenly it was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's look at this. So that's definitely a piece of
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. And it's it's unfortunate and terrible,
Speaker 1: it really is. Um. You know, you know, when there's
Speaker 1: a white person that goes missing, you see the picture
Speaker 1: all over the place, right, yeah, like all over the
Speaker 1: nation even, and it's a national news. Um. How often
Speaker 1: do you see that for an indigenous woman or a
Speaker 1: black woman or like a Latino woman. Yeah. I just
Speaker 1: really don't know. It's just and I it's just sometimes
Speaker 1: like the institutionalized racism that like is that like runs
Speaker 1: this country like just blows my mind, Like I can't
Speaker 1: It's almost like I I can't believe that. It's it's
Speaker 1: almost like I'm in some different dimension, like is this
Speaker 1: a joke? You know? Like how was that a thing?
Speaker 1: How is that a thing right now in this day
Speaker 1: and age? But then I remember, you know, the Civil
Speaker 1: rights movement and the Red Power movement that was only
Speaker 1: like what sixty years ago. I mean, are we really
Speaker 1: going to wipe out like you know, uh, five hundred
Speaker 1: years of genocide and colonization like that happened before that,
Speaker 1: like just from the past sixty years. No, I mean,
Speaker 1: like some of the people that were in those revolutions
Speaker 1: are still living today. You know, my grandmother went to
Speaker 1: a residential school, my grandfather did, um, and so like
Speaker 1: I'm just like two generations away from like being beaten
Speaker 1: for speaking my language and probably you know, um, sexually
Speaker 1: you know, assaulted, um and and you know, high likelihood
Speaker 1: of even being murdered just because I'm a Native person
Speaker 1: attending forced into a residential school. So I'm only two
Speaker 1: generations away from that, yeah, um and and actually not
Speaker 1: really not even my aunt also went to the same
Speaker 1: residential school that um my grandmother went to. So to
Speaker 1: be honest, I'm just one generation away from it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Um it that yeah, it's it's so uh, there's so
Speaker 1: much work to be done. Um. We have a little
Speaker 1: bit more that we want to touch on, but first
Speaker 1: we're going to pause for a quick break for word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor m HM, and we're back. Thank you sponsor,
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm glad that we're having this conversation and
Speaker 1: that you're you're here to hopefully bring this like the
Speaker 1: attention at least some of the attention that it deserves
Speaker 1: that we've been ignoring it for so long. UM. Are
Speaker 1: there are there things that listeners can do? M resources
Speaker 1: for them? UM? Yeah. I like to give people something
Speaker 1: that they can they can do. UM. I would like
Speaker 1: them to support the database UM that I was talking
Speaker 1: about earlier that Anita lu Chessi has been working on. UM.
Speaker 1: I would like them to call their local um legislature
Speaker 1: and ask them to push through the Savannah Act and
Speaker 1: the Survive Act. UM. I would like them to get
Speaker 1: to know uh the local tribe in their area. UM.
Speaker 1: It's through unity that we can make a difference. It's
Speaker 1: through people getting to know us UM and and and
Speaker 1: and humanize us basically that they're going to understand more
Speaker 1: of what's going on. UM. That this issue just doesn't
Speaker 1: affect uh, you know indigenous people either. You know, it
Speaker 1: affects us all because this is UM a part of
Speaker 1: the human condition. UM. By looking at what's happening with
Speaker 1: indigenous people as well, Like you know, you have an
Speaker 1: understanding of sex trafficking that's happening everywhere to all people. Mhm. UM,
Speaker 1: it's it's a really it's an issue that affects everybody. UM.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see people push to see VAA reauthorized
Speaker 1: because right now it's it's um. It didn't get reauthorized
Speaker 1: on February UM when the government sorted up again that
Speaker 1: the Democrats say they didn't they're the ones that stopped
Speaker 1: it from being reauthorized because they want to do something
Speaker 1: to it. UM. Hopefully it's to uh fix the I
Speaker 1: don't know if you know what Trump did to the
Speaker 1: definition of domestic violence, but it was very quietly done.
Speaker 1: He gutted the definition of domestic violence in the VAWA,
Speaker 1: so where as it used to be quite expansive, and
Speaker 1: it took years to get to that point, and it
Speaker 1: talked about UM, emotional violence, it talked about uh, psychological
Speaker 1: you know, all those other um, you know issues. UM.
Speaker 1: Right now it's just like one line that's a very
Speaker 1: much UM and like very much just like um a
Speaker 1: judicial definition. You know, Uh, domestic violence is violence uh
Speaker 1: committed on one person uh by another that blah blah
Speaker 1: blah lives in their household or something like that. Like
Speaker 1: that's that's what it. You can look at the I have,
Speaker 1: UM I think if you could, somebody has taken screenshots
Speaker 1: of what it used to look like and you can
Speaker 1: we confined it online, but like, um, it was much
Speaker 1: more expansive. And so I I know, I'd like to
Speaker 1: see people like talk about that and and see if
Speaker 1: they can get that changed. UM. You know, like figure
Speaker 1: out what's going on in your own state, Like right now,
Speaker 1: there are UM, like I said, you know, Minnesota is
Speaker 1: working on their own MYW task Force, New Mexico, UM,
Speaker 1: A few other states, UM, South Dakota, UM, possibly no
Speaker 1: Dakota if I can, I can't remember. UM. But you know,
Speaker 1: like every state should have its own task force M
Speaker 1: and so that that's really important. UM. You know there's
Speaker 1: there's some amazing um grassroots uh organizations UM uh like
Speaker 1: uh White Buffalo Calfwoman's Society in South Dakota that they've
Speaker 1: been around for a long time. I think, like jeez,
Speaker 1: um thirty or forty years and they've been doing this
Speaker 1: work uh to help women in their community for a
Speaker 1: long time. UM on the Brave Heart society, same thing, UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, we need to recognize that there are
Speaker 1: people in the reservations or in inner city urban UM
Speaker 1: communities where there are high populations of Native people that
Speaker 1: have seen this hue and have been trying to deal
Speaker 1: with it for a very long time. And we need
Speaker 1: to recognize that. You know, I'm just a voice for
Speaker 1: UM right now for a lot of these people that
Speaker 1: are doing the work on the ground. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like I want to I want these
Speaker 1: people recognize UM or not, you know, and their work
Speaker 1: that needs to be recognized. A lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know about it, UM. And you know, it doesn't take
Speaker 1: much to figure it out or to find out what's
Speaker 1: going on. No, because we have the internet now, you
Speaker 1: can pretty much find out anything you want. Yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: it's there for for you. Yes, UM. Yeah, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: so so happy to have this conversation with you. Is
Speaker 1: there anything that you want to talk about before we
Speaker 1: close out? There's always events going on. That's the other thing, UM.
Speaker 1: You know, look into UM. It's called the Coalition to
Speaker 1: Stop Violence against Native Woman MHM and UM it's www
Speaker 1: dot c s v A n W dot org. UM,
Speaker 1: so you can find a lot of information on this page. Great. Perfect,
Speaker 1: And also I don't want people to forget that, UM,
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community, he's also highly targeted as well. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, not only is there a lot of hate
Speaker 1: geared towards this community, but then you know, become indigenous
Speaker 1: on top of that, Uh, you know, you're dealing with
Speaker 1: some serious UM issues in terms of like, you know,
Speaker 1: your safety. So I just thought that would be important
Speaker 1: to mention. Absolutely absolutely, UM, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: for joining us today. This has been so it's been
Speaker 1: such an a very I'm so glad that you're here
Speaker 1: to have this conversation. I'm so glad that after I've
Speaker 1: been a year, I've been like, we've got to get
Speaker 1: I will not stop. And so I'm just thrilled that
Speaker 1: you that you joined us today. Thank you. I just
Speaker 1: want to end um by UM honoring all of the
Speaker 1: ancestors that have gone before us, and UM, all of
Speaker 1: the tenacious people that have managed to keep our cultures
Speaker 1: and our languages in tact that are helping us get
Speaker 1: through this, and all of the people on the ground
Speaker 1: that are doing this work. UM first and foremost, UM,
Speaker 1: I really want them. I really want to say thank
Speaker 1: you to all of them because this is not easy work. Yeah. Absolutely, Um.
Speaker 1: Is there are there places that the the listeners can
Speaker 1: find you or work that they can check out online
Speaker 1: that you'd like to share. Um. Yeah, well you can
Speaker 1: go on UM seating sovereignty on our blog and I've
Speaker 1: got some stuff there. I do have a couple of
Speaker 1: articles UM on Bustle, uh you know b us teay um.
Speaker 1: One of them speak specifically about vow wa. Another one
Speaker 1: I wrote steer about UM about this issue missing and
Speaker 1: murdered Indigenous woman. So um, there's a couple of articles
Speaker 1: I have up on Bustle for that. Yes, and your
Speaker 1: listeners should check them out. They're they're wonderful. UM, thank
Speaker 1: you so much again for joining us. Christine, thank you
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate it and I hope you have
Speaker 1: a great day you too. Um, I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1: If you listeners would like to write to us, you
Speaker 1: can Our email is mom Stuff at a stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast and on Instagram at stuff I've Never
Speaker 1: told you. I think it's always her producer Andrew Howard,
Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening,