Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Month

May 5, 2023
| January Contreras, ACF Assistant Secretary
Native woman showing a stop gesture with a red painted hand

Every May 5th, grassroots advocates call on us to wear red to make visible the Indigenous women, girls, and people who have disappeared and have been murdered. Furthermore, they call on us to disrupt the crisis of violence that continues to impact Indigenous communities disproportionately.

May is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness of the thousands of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit individuals and people who have gone missing or have been murdered in the United States. In a presidential proclamation today, President Joe Biden recommitted to responding with urgency and resources to stop violence and reverse the legacy of inequity and neglect.

The epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People encompasses a wide scope of crimes, including domestic violence. ACF’s Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS) supports the provision of emergency shelter and supportive services for survivors and families experiencing domestic violence. OFVPS provides funding to 254 Tribes that annually serve over 40,000 men, women, and children who experienced domestic violence.

 We have heard from advocates, survivors, relatives, and Tribes. The data that tells us that American Indian and Alaska Native women face the highest rates of domestic violence and sexual violence in the United States is sobering. This epidemic affects Indigenous people disproportionally, and broad solutions are needed to address insufficient resources, inadequate collaboration and a lack of access to shelter and supportive services. For too long, these and other systemic barriers have hampered efforts to recover victims quickly, often robbing families and survivors of their opportunity to find safety and justice. Responding with a sense of urgency is part of our nation-to-nation obligation.

As we observe MMIP Awareness Month, it is important to acknowledge that each of us play a vital role in the prevention of the harmful effects of violence, trauma and abuse. I thank our ACF family and partners for your valiant efforts every day to support the stability and well-being of children, families and individuals by prioritizing prevention services and supporting victims and their families. 

Please join me in increasing awareness and supporting efforts to address this crisis.

To address the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services is taking action by:

  • Increasing training and technical assistance on violence prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native communities, which also includes funding for a new tribal housing center, and helping to enhance tribal prevention programming.
  • Increasing resources for tribes and tribal organizations to meet the need of American Indians and Alaska Natives surviving domestic violence, dating violence, and family violence.
  • Increasing training and technical assistance for tribes and tribal organizations to address the temporary shelter and housing needs of survivors and partnerships with homeless service providers funded by other federal agencies.
  • Increasing resources for tribes and tribal organizations to provide expanded supportive services to survivors which can include health, behavioral health supports, mobile health services, sexual assault services, and increased resources for temporary shelter, and hotel/motel options for survivors.
  • Increasing resources for tribes and tribal organizations to expand the workforce of advocates and partners to meet the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native survivors.

ACF knows that one of our most important roles is lifting up the voices of our grantees who carry out the work every day to prevent domestic violence and provide services that help survivors and their families heal physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. We invite you to participate in some of the powerful events happening this month. Nationally, OFVPS’s Family Violence Prevention and Services Act grant recipients are implementing events including gatherings, webinars, and social media campaigns throughout the month of May. 

This year’s events and resource highlights include:

The OFVPS also continues to support a broad network of resource centers that provide training and technical assistance for tribes and tribal organizations with the implementation of intervention and prevention services including:

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