Keeping Us Whole: Preventing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People - Podcast Series

Current as of:

For generations, American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian peoples have faced an ongoing crisis of violence, human trafficking, and an epidemic of Missing

and Murdered Indigenous People (also known as MMIP).

Per President Biden’s  Executive Order on Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (EO) 14053, Generations of Native Americans have experienced violence or mourned a missing or murdered family member or loved one, and the lasting impacts of such tragedies are felt throughout the country. Native Americans face unacceptably high levels of violence and are victims of violent crime at a rate much higher than the national average.” In response to this crisis, the federal government is working across agencies to address MMIP and violence against Native Americans via an integrated and multifaceted approach, which includes focusing efforts on strengthening prevention, early intervention, and victim and survivor services to make a meaningful and lasting difference on the ground.

To bolster prevention efforts to mitigate the MMIP epidemic, the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Interdepartmental Council on Native American Affairs (ICNAA), developed a podcast series to raise awareness, provide prevention resources and educate listeners on MMIP. The podcast series, titled Keeping Us Whole: Preventing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People includes 10 episodes that cover four main themes, including “Preventing Violence, “Protecting our Children, “Protecting our LGBTQ2S Relatives,” and “Surviving, Serving, Speaking.”

Podcast episodes include interviews with a variety of speakers, from tribal leadership to federal partners, advocates, members of grassroots organizations and native athletes, that have all joined together to raise awareness of the MMIP epidemic and identify ways we can focus on prevention and continue the work of keeping us whole.

You may access each podcast episode as they become available by clicking on the links directly below.

Episode 1: Preventing Violence

Segment 1: What is Violence Prevention?

Featuring Administration for Native Americans Deputy Commissioner Hope MacDonald Lone Tree (Navajo)

 Segment 1, Part 2: What is Violence Prevention? 

Featuring Delight Satter, MPH (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), Senior Health Scientist, Office of Tribal Affairs and Strategic Alliances in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support

Segment 2: Cultural and Community Connectedness

Featuring Sheldon Spotted Elk (Ute Indian Tribe), Director, Tribal Justice & National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

Segment 3: On the Ground

Featuring Carolyn DeFord, (Puyallup Indian Tribe) Trafficking Project Coordinator for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Founder of Missing and Murdered Native Americans Facebook page, daughter of missing person - Mother Leona LeClair Kinsey. 


Episode 2: Protecting Our Children Segment 1: Speaking up for the Little Ones

Segment 1: Speaking up for the Little Ones​ (Mary Kathryn Nagel)

Featuring Mary Kathryn Nagle, (Cherokee) Partner, Pipestem Law and award-winning playwright

Segment 2: Protecting Our Children Segment 2: Comprehensive and Trauma-informed Services in Care and School Settings

Featuring Dr. Amy Wolferman Director, School-Based Training and Technical Assistance, National Native Children’s Trauma Center (NNCTC) and Kimee Wind Hummingbird (Muscogee (Creek) Nation with Cherokee Descent) Training and Technical Assistance Specialist, NNCTC

Segment 3: Preventing Violence; Segment 3: On the Ground — Head Start

Featuring Patricia White Temple Education Child Development Specialist Nez Perce Head Start Program


Episode 3: Protecting our LGBTQ2S Relatives

Segment 1: On the Ground (Josie Raphaelito and Lenny Hayes)

Featuring Josie Raphaelito, MPH, (Navajo) Senior Fellow with Western States Center developing Indigenizing Love: A Toolkit for Native American Youth to Build Inclusion and Lenny Hayes, MA, (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) Owner/Operator Tate Topa Consulting, LLC


Episode 4: Surviving, Serving, Speaking​

Segment 1: Athletes and Advocacy​ (Jordan Marie Daniel, Brent Cahwee, and Shauna Long)

Featuring Native Athletes Jordan Marie Daniels (Lower Burle Sioux Tribe), Brent Cahwee (Pawnee & Yuchi), Wayne Reynolds (Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma), Shawna Long (Standing Rock Sioux)