Epstein victims deserve spotlight. So do 5,700 Native women and girls reported missing each year

By Matt K. LewisContributing writer
Nov. 28, 2025

"[C]aring about survivors means caring about exploitation, not just the victims of the most high-profile predator.

"The very same forces that failed Epstein’s victims continue to fail thousands of others.

"Here’s one example that probably didn’t come up over pumpkin pie: According to federal and tribal data, about 5,700 Native American girls are reported missing every year. (To put it in perspective, one of Epstein’s victims estimated she was' one story of a thousand,' but most estimates say 'dozens.' Whichever number you pick, the story is tragic.)

"The disappearances of Native American women — many of whom are presumed murdered, raped or trafficked — receive only a modicum of media attention, barely registering in public consciousness.

"Yet the crisis is so widespread that it has its own acronym — #MMIP, 'Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons.'

"Last November, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who heads the House Interior and Environment Subcommittee on Appropriations, wrote an op-ed pointing out that '40 percent of all victims of #SexTrafficking are identified as #AmericanIndian and #AlaskaNative women.' Forty percent. For context: Just 2.9% of people in the U.S. identify as Native.

"Simpson also noted that almost three-quarters of the Native American females who went missing in 2023 were children. Girls."

Read more:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-11-28/missing-native-women-girls-epstein-cases

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/lSb3S

#HighwayOfTears #MMIWG #USPol #MMIW #ZorroRanch

I'm sorry, but I really don't care about some mid-morning television host's mother gone missing when so many Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirits are murdered and missing EVERY DAY!

#MMIW #MMIWG #MMIWGT2S #MMIC

A #NativeAmerican girl was found dead and dismembered by an Arizona highway. Will her killer ever be found?

“Criminals and bad actors believe that they can get away with (crimes) on the Indian reservations.”
—attorney and activist Margo Hill-Ferguson

By Rob Picheta
Feb 13, 2026

"Carolyn Bender remembers her niece’s smile: broad and vibrant and heartbreakingly innocent, as though the whole world was in on her joke.
She remembers Emily drawing in the back seat of the car, and teasing her younger brother, and the sound of her soft-spoken voice. She recalls with a smile her love of being active in the outdoors: Emily was 'always on a swing, always in a pool.'

"That’s how #EmilyPike’s family remembers her. But for many in her tribe and across Arizona, she is known for something else: Being the victim of a savage crime.

"Last year Emily – a 14-year-old member of the #SanCarlosApache tribe – went missing from her group home in #MesaAZ, an eastern suburb of #PhoenixAZ. Her dismembered body was discovered by hikers nearly three weeks later and around 70 miles away, stuffed into trash bags left by the side of a rural highway.

"A multi-pronged investigation by federal and tribal authorities, with the support of the #FBI, has seemingly stalled. And a year later Emily’s family is still left waiting, desperately, for justice.
But her grisly killing underscores a broader problem: an epidemic of violence against #NativeAmericanWomen and girls who go missing or are killed at a staggeringly high rate.

"Native people were reported missing more than 10,200 times in 2024, according to the latest available FBI data: a rate of 28 missing person cases a day, or more than one an hour. Over 7,000 of those cases involved children, and more than 4,000 involved girls.

"This is a crisis hidden in plain sight, campaigners and tribal leaders say. In 2023, homicide was the fourth-leading cause of death for Native American men under the age of 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the sixth-leading cause for women of the same age. And in a landmark study conducted a decade ago, more than four in five Native American women said they had experienced violence in their lifetime. "

Read more [paywall?]:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/us/emily-pike-killing-arizona

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/XhhqA

#MMIW #MMIWG #StolenSisters #MurderedSisters #MMIWGT2S #MMIWG2S #NoMoreStolenSisters #InidgenousRights #PoliceDontKeepUsSafe #WhoKeepsUsSafe #MurderedAndMissingIndigenosuWomen

𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐄𝐫𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡’𝐬 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒎𝒂𝒏 -

Your interpretation is colonial.

Fine the episode now and follow the podcast!
https://youtube.com/shorts/PKM46wPA3HY

#podcast #literature #books #bookworm #book #read #readreadread #bookpodcast #literarylovers #whatareyoureading #bookboost #booklover #bookclub #louiseerdrich #thenightwatchman #simonortiz #time #lineartime #ideology #history #mmiw #mmiwr #niwrc

Emily Pike's murder remains a mystery a year after she went missing from a Mesa group home. Emily Fox-Million shows how the state is working to close gaps in group home care for Indigenous children and how the community is still working to help solve the case. (Video by Emily Fox-Million/ Cronkite News)

#MMIW #MMIWG2S #MMIP #Native #Indigenous #Women #Girls #TwoSpirit #People
https://youtu.be/VFE76QrJAaI

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒔: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆: 𝑬𝒓𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒉’𝒔 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒎𝒂𝒏 -

Your Interpretation is Colonial.

When we turn Zen into a pop-culture vibe or a totem pole into a corporate metaphor, we aren't learning; we're committing interpretative violence.

https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/erdrich-the-night-watchman/

#podcast #literature #books #bookworm #book #read #bookpodcast#time #lineartime #ideology #history #mmiw #mmiwr #niwrc