(Cheyenne, WY) – In addition to the statement released by the Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Jordan Dresser yesterday, Governor Mark Gordon signed a proclamation declaring May 5th Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day.
Each year since 2017, May 5th has been recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. The Governor’s proclamation highlights the need for ongoing grassroots advocacy and changes to laws and policies to address the issue.
Governor Gordon’s Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons (“M&MIP”) Task Force was convened in 2019 to determine the scope of the problem in Wyoming and to recommend ways to begin addressing it.
In January, the Task Force released the first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Statewide Report. The report finds that homicide rates are eight times higher for indigenous persons than for white people in Wyoming.
Families and victims also report experiencing barriers once a crime is reported, making it difficult to navigate investigative and enforcement processes which cross jurisdictional boundaries.
A copy of the proclamation can be found here.