Blackfeet Nation to host tribunal on murdered, missing indigenous women

The Blackfeet Nation will host the first-ever Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) tribunal in the United States over the weekend of Oct. 4 and 5 at the Blackfeet Community College in Browning.

The two-day tribunal will record public testimony from MMIW survivors and victims’ families, as well as provide private sessions for witnesses who may be hesitant to share their accounts in a public forum.

“We welcome witnesses from the four directions to attend and share their experiences,” Blackfeet Nation Chairman Tim Davis said in a press release. “This is not just a Blackfeet or Montana tribes’ tragedy, it is an Indian Country tragedy, and a national and international disgrace.

“This is a multi-generational epidemic the federal government has done nothing to address – even less than the Canadian government – which was found to be complicit in ‘deliberate race, identity and gender-based genocide’ by its own national inquiry into MMIW,” Davis continued.

The Blackfeet Nation is uniquely positioned to host this first of its kind MMIW tribunal in the lower-48 states, he said. The Blackfeet Tribe (Amskapi Pikuni), a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy, along with its three sister tribes – the Piikani, Blood and Siksika — located in Alberta, Canada, stands in solidarity in combating the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women in Indian Country, the press release noted.

“The truth is that we live in a country whose laws and institutions perpetuate violations of basic human and indigenous rights. These violations amount to nothing less than the deliberate, often covert campaign of genocide against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people,” Chief Commissioner Marion Buller wrote in “Reclaiming Power and Place,” the final report of Canada’s National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, published on June 3.

Davis continued, “We are not divided by the border; we are united in our grief. Many women and children stolen from our communities are trafficked back and forth between the U.S. and Canada,” explained Chairman Davis.

Tribal members constitute 7% of Montana’s population, but the state identifies some 26% of missing persons as Native American. Available evidence suggests that may be a low estimate. Last year’s Urban Indian Health Institute Report identified Montana as the state with the fifth-highest incidence of MMIW cases.

Billings, which had the same disturbing ranking among cities, is a purported hub on the I-90 corridor through Crow, Cheyenne and Lakota-Dakota country to Minnesota, along which indigenous women and children are trafficked into sex slavery, the press release said. The western “track” runs from Missoula to Seattle.

As of this spring Montana had not submitted any MMIW data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the release stated.

“For those abducted into sex-slavery, the I-90 corridor is a second ‘Highway of Tears,’” Davis commented, drawing a comparison to the infamous highway in British Columbia cited in Reclaiming Power and Place.

The Blackfeet MMIW Tribunal is being held in conjunction with the Global Indigenous Council and is endorsed by the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council credits the work of both organizations in partnership with the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association in raising the profile of MMIW cases and the alliance’s efforts to secure meaningful MMIW legislation on Capitol Hill.

For further information: www.mmiwtribunal.com www.mmiw-gic.com; Facebook.com/MMIWtribunal; info@mmiwtribunal.com or call 406-209-8480/703-980-4595.