Report: Native women face greater violence

Native American women and girls are far more likely than other Minnesota residents to be victims of homicide, go missing or experience others forms of violence, according to a task force established last year to address the crisis.

American Indian women and girls make up less than 1 percent of the state’s population, yet they accounted for 8 percent of all women and girls slain in Minnesota from 2010 through 2018, according to state data included in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force report.

The report released Tuesday notes that about 15 percent of Minnesota’s female missing persons cases every month are American Indian women and girls. From 27 to 54 Native American women were missing in Minnesota in any given month from 2012 to 2020, the report states. Their cases are usually poorly investigated and remain unsolved, the group says.

“For far too long, Native women have been, at best, invisible, and at worst, disposable,” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said in a statement. “As Native women and girls experienced violence, went missing, or were murdered at disproportionate rates, too often, the cases and root causes went unexamined.”

The task force includes representatives from 11 tribal nations, community and advocacy organizations, legislators, law enforcement, and the legal field, including Cloquet City Council member Sheila Lamb.