Morgan Duke, “How Did We Get Here? Historical Context Behind the ‘Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Movement”
Mentor: Jonathon Kasparek, Social Sciences & Business, General Studies (College of)
Poster #49
Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement has raised awareness of the shocking abuse of Native women. European invaders and white settlers built the United States and Canada on the broken bodies of Native women by imposing western ideas of patriarchy and subordination of women. The hardships these women faced through forced assimilation in boarding schools, the mistreatment of their land which resulted in lifelong health complications, and the unknowing sterilization of Native women, fueled the fire that has been raging since the colonizers first arrived. The abuse of Native women greatly contrasts with the traditional Native respect for women. This project explores the shift in the status of Native women from their traditional position as spiritually and politically powerful leaders to one in which both white and Native men systemically abuse them.