National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

In 2017, Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester from Montana introduced a resolution recognizing May 5, as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. It was in response to the murder of Hanna Harris on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and other abductions and killings of Native women across the United States. Since 2017, actions on May 5th to honor MMIW at the local, regional, and national level continue to grow across the United States and internationally. These efforts are as varied as the Indian Nations, where they are being organized. The silence of tolerance and inaction is being challenged.

When a mother, daughter, or sister goes missing communities understand action is needed immediately. Silence is being replaced with the understanding of the urgency to act—alerting tribal leadership, reporting to law enforcement, not accepting the “no action response,” but demanding a “yes crisis-mode response.”

Sourced from https://www.niwrc.org/restoration-magazine/february-2020/national-day-awareness-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-may