WA Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women And People Meeting To Start December

By Johanna Bejarano

The Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIW/P) Task Force will have its first meetings on December 2nd and 3rd.

The Yakima Nation is co-hosting the meetings where information on the disappearances and murders of indigenous women in the State will be collected.

The public will have the opportunity to express their voices.

This is part of the effort to produce a comprehensive overview of the violence against indigenous women. The task force will submit two reports to the Governor and the Legislature in August 2022 and June 2023.

Individuals and tribal organizations have called attention to the lack of awareness of disappearances and the investigation of cases.

According to the Washington State Patrol Missing and Murdered Native American Women report, 56 Native American women were missing as of May 2019.

However, the actual number of missing women is not known because of data inefficiencies.

Most of the disappearances known occurred in Yakima and King County.