05/06/2026
Pics from our PAINT THE CRACKS RED EVENT to remind our neighbors and officials to not let our loved ones fall through the cracks.
*DATA DROP...This is an ongoing issue for indigenous communities everywhere, and why we paint the cracks red at Spokane City Hall.
🥀WA State is in the top ten states with the highest amount of missing indigenous persons cases.
🥀Washington State: As of Nov 17, 2025, the Washington State Patrol listed 101 missing indigenous individuals.
🥀National Context: A 2024 report highlighted 10,248 missing Indigenous reports.
🥀Alert Usage: The Missing Indigenous Persons Alert (MIPA) system was the most heavily used alert system for missing persons in 2025.
🥀Ongoing Disparities: Data indicates Native women face murder rates more than ten times the national average on some reservations, with high percentages of cases involving non-native perpetrators.
🥀High Rates of Violence: More than 4 in 5 (84.3%) American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime.
🥀Underreporting: In 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Alaska Native and American Indian women and girls, yet only 116 cases were logged in the Department of Justice database.
🥀Leading Cause of Death: Homicide is the third leading cause of death among Native girls and women aged 10 to 24, and the fifth leading cause of death for Native women aged 25 to 34.
🥀Two-Spirit Data Gaps: While data regarding violence against 2S+ people is limited, they experience disproportionate rates of violence, racism, and transphobia.
🥀Indigenous-Led Initiatives: Organizations like Data for Indigenous Justice (Alaska) and Safe Passage (Canada) are collecting accurate, community-based data to fill gaps left by official reports.
🥀Disproportionate Homicide: Indigenous women and girls are six times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women.
🥀Overrepresentation: Between 2009 and 2021, Indigenous women and girls represented 5% to 7% of homicide victims, despite making up only 2% to 3% of the population.
🥀Systemic Factors: The crisis is driven by legal loopholes, mistrust of law enforcement, generational trauma, and lack of adequate resources.
🥀2024–2026 Trends: The FBI reported 10,248 missing Indigenous person reports in 2024, of which 5,614 were women and 4,626 were men, highlighting that the crisis affects all genders.
🥀Racial Misclassification: Law enforcement often misclassified Indigenous victims as white, Asian, or "other" in official reports.
🥀Mistrust of Authorities: Due to historical, systemic racism, many families do not report missing loved ones to the police.
🥀Lack of Communication: Poor, or non-existent, communication between tribal, federal, and state law enforcement agencies allows cases to fall through the cracks.
May 5th -a day of awareness and remembrance for all missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, two Spirit and people.
Additional data, sources, and relevant information:
https://www.niwrc.org/mmiwr-awareness
https://www.atg.wa.gov/washington-state-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-people-task-force
Missing and Murdered Indigenous People | Indian Affairs https://share.google/03RPpBvvllqvM4Z6m
https://share.google/5TDpzHpVHzQWCYCcs
MMIP-Fact-Sheet_NCUIH_D242_V6_F.pdf https://share.google/GlKB7qI96FVODGnXG
