Some tribes believed in a Deer Woman who transformed into a deer after being raped or who was brought back to life by the original Deer Woman spirit after being murdered.

For Annita Lucchesi, one of most profound moments is when she heard, a few days before a trial court hearing, about a sighting of a white deer in the city where a Native woman was a victim of murder trial.

This to her was an affirmation of the work she does, which is deeply connected to honoring those victims without a voice.

With the disparate number of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women murdered each year, the MMIW movement has become a wave of voices for the voiceless. It brings awareness about the violence against the women and girls within the indigenous population.

Lucchesi is the woman behind the research of an influential Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) report done in 2017 entitled Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

The report shows the starkly disparate numbers of violence against indigenous woman including trans and people from urban areas.

The reported collected data from 71 cities and 29 states throughout the United States.

Out of 506 cases of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Native women girls, 128 or 25% were missing cases, 280 or 56% were murder, while 98 or 19% were classified as unknown.

The victims ages ranged from a baby less than one to an elder who was 83-years-old.

Lucchesi started the research project because she was a survivor of sexual violence herself. “I’m a survivor of sexual violence and human trafficking… it’s a violence that almost ended my life,” she said.

The report started from a grassroots approach, says Lucchesi. Since then, the report has been used a lot and policy makers support its efforts.

Lucchesi said that some of the root causes for the start of MMIW movement are “Colonization… we had generation of Pocahontas and that’s all you see women exotic sexy this was the only image of native women.”

The report says that some of the problems of accessing data about missing and murdered indigenous women involved lack of records and racial misclassification.

The report surveyed 71 cities’ police departments and one state agency; 40 agencies provided some level of data, 14 agencies did not provide data, 18 agencies still have pending requests under (FOIA) Freedom of Information Act laws.

The report analyzed the media coverage of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. The authors examined 934 articles, which only covered 129 cases out of 506 represented in the study.

The results were that one-fifth of the total local cases were covered more than once, which is equivalent to 14%. In less than 1/10, the cases were covered more than three times, or 7%.

Another analysis from the media analysis dealt with violent language.

UIHI defines violent language as language that engages in racism or misogyny or racial stereotyping, including references to alcohol, drugs, sex work, gang violence, victim criminal history, victim-blaming, making excuses for the perpetrator, Misgendering transgender victims, racial clarification, false information on cases not named in the victim, and publishing images / video of the victim’s death.

Lucchesi connects the complexities of violence against Native women through this analogy.

“Look at it like soup, but ultimately you want to have a good soup. We just want a good soup. If the root cause of these issues is colonization you can’t expect to add more colonization, and to have it move differently…Tribes should be notified when people go missing. This could be impactful.”

She suggests “rethinking and making the small changes that honor that type of coverage.”

The MMWIG report states that law enforcement lacks access to data regarding this issue, which can impede the ability for communities, tribal nations and policymakers to make the best decisions to address these issues. As a result, grassroots approaches by community members must be the sources used to address issues with Indigenous women.

The study also says that racial and gender disparities in police forces contribute to the treatment on how MMIWG cases are handled.

Lucchesi considers her work as a spiritual work. “A data-based is a process of prayer for me.”  That’s a process she feels her ancestors assist her with.

“I learned self-care through the data a process as prayers. I don’t add to the database every day…The process of the database is a deep sense of urgency,” said Lucchesi, who added the process helps “all these spirits,” meaning that as a result researching the data is “not all sad but brings some closure.”

She feels that her work honors those spirts of the women and girls to move on and go home.

Lucchesi currently works as the Executive director of the research institute Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI).

The Institute gathers data and knowledge to put action in place to dismantle and create change on gender and sexual violence against Indigenous people.

SBI is affiliated with the seventh-generation fund, a non-profit for indigenous leadership for the past 40 years. 

Her plans for the future is to expand her data collecting to the Indigenous women populations in Latin America. 

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The room is filled with red clothing items and mostly women attendees. People throughout the Native American community of Milwaukee unite to learn more about the violence against Native American women and girls.

May 5^this the national day of awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women(MMIW) 

Their flyer requested everyone to wear red to honor to remember, honor and bring awareness for Indigenous women and girls. 

The Redress is the national symbol for the MMIW movement. The project was created by visual artist Jamie Black 

The free event was provided by the Circles of strength program with the Indian Health Center. 

The Circles of Strength program is domestic violence and sexual assault program support circle at the Center. The program offers medical and behavior health and social services for women at risk of violence, or currently in violent situations. 

Some of the women in red are elders to the youth. Almost everyone wore items of red, from bright red shoes to sparking red earrings. The room showered with solidarity.

The event started with a prayer. They offered the practice of smudging with sage to everyone in the room. 

Deborah Black the Deputy director and licensed psychologist in the behavior health department at the Indian Health Center oversees the Circles of strength program. 

They planned this event to bring education and awareness to community of Milwaukee related to issues of sexual violence against Native women and the connecting to national issues of Human Trafficking epidemic. 

“The data. That it’s so hard to identify due to the variety of reasons why we don’t know why these women are missing, but I do know and believe that yes a lot of them are being sex traffic and they go missing from their family and never to be seen again,” said Black.

The key note speaker was Dr. Alexandra Piece. She received her Masters and doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota. 

She is also the President of Othayonih Research with 20 years of experience with research on domestic violence, sexual assault and sex trafficking.

A savior of sex and labor trafficking the author of Shattered Hearts.

She was the first researcher to be published in the United States on commercial sexual exploitation of Native American women and girls. 

Her presentation connected the past to the present using the image of the Native American Women and examining how the creation of the “sexual savage” stereotype.

The stereotype encourages trafficker’s violence against Native women and incites traffickers to target women/girl’s profitable exotics.  

A report done with the Urban Indian Health Institute on 5,712 cases of were of murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in the United States as of 2018 only 116 cases were in NamUs were Indigenous women. 

She connected Human trafficking victimizes as women part of an economic system. A system fuel by control to generate a profit for traffickers and that traffickers view as a business. 

“It’s all about money. It’s a criminal operation with profit as the goal.” said Pierce

The program also connected Human Trafficking to the MMIW and within the city of Milwaukee. 

Mariana Rodriguez, program Manager at the Latina Resource Center at United Migrant Opportunity Service also known as UMOS.

She addressed issues about Human Trafficking within Wisconsin from an intersectional framework. 

“It’s very easy to label a person a drug addict or in prostitute or to blame the victim.” Rodriguez said. 

She informed the large issues within a sex trafficking are higher demand for foreign women. 

As well as the issues of law enforcement not being distinguished the difference between sex work and sex trafficking. 

A report done with the Medical College of Wisconsin examined human trafficking from 2013 to 2016 confirmed that 81 per cent or 187 individuals who had been trafficked confirmed to have reported prior history to sexual assault victimization and a history of being reported missing under Milwaukee Police Department. 

97 per cent or 225 individuals being identified as female and 65 per cent or 149 individuals were Black/African American.

“The barriers we encounter in term of being racial misclassified, or the barriers of juridical issues to the barriers of intuitional racism, just the issues of native women not being as of much importance as it will be in other mainstream community. Due to Deep systematic barriers and vulnerabilities native people experience over time,” said Black

An Attendee at the program came to learn more was Celeste Clark a member of the Lambee tribe and senior advisor in American Indian Student Services at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

“It was kind of overwhelming and distributing and emotional to find out were the highest number being murder and missing, rape and domestic violence,” said Clark.

She known about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman since 2015. 

Clark felt that event was informative and that everyone should be aware on MMIW and human trafficking issues. 

The number of statics against Native people still conflicts Clark.

“That’s what bothers me why is it our population with the highest number?  Are we too trusting? I don’t get it because we have the highest of everything. Highest dropout rate highest disabilities then you see this. I don’t understand how can another human being do this to another human being,” she said.

The Indian Health Center provides medical, behavior and social services to the Native and Greater community of Milwaukee for the pass 30 years. Most recently they added Dental and Pharmacy services for the community. 

They offered a holistic approach to mental, substance abuse, medication, cultural, youth services and the circle of strength domestic violence program. 

The Indian Health Center care is culturally inclusive to Native people cultural practices when providing survives.  

In the future, Deborah Black hopes to see justice for Native women and for those who are survivors she hopes for healing. “You can heal from it, you can heal from violence…its possible to feel safe again.” she said. 

If you wish to use or get involved with the services of Indian Health Center you can contact Deborah Black (414) 316-5092 or their main line at (414) 383-9526.

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Thomasina Mandan owns the Mandan’s Bead Supply Storea modest size building that holds a rich and cultural practice of their Native traditions. 

Mandan opened the bead store once she noticed the lack of accessibility to bead material within her community.

“There’s a lot of people here who do bead work. I figured if I can open a store sells bead and everything you need to do to do bead work then that will be like providing a service into the community,” Mandan said. 

According to the non-profit organization Native Languages of the Americas there are vast amount of different designs and styles of bead work throughout North American tribes and nations. Each unique traditional design varies from tribes and was used for everyday trade during pre-colonial time.

In New Town, ND the tribes on the reservation are Manda, Hidatsa and Ariana as known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. 

Cedar Henry, the Cultural Liaison at the Three Affiliated Tribes Museum expressed that many people are continuing to preserve their historical cultural and traditional indigenous practices including language.

“Our children learn the language, they can count and speak full sentences.” she said. 

The store only sold bead material at first, but then expanded after the community wanted to sell their finished products on sell for confinement. 

The bead store now sells material such as beads, needles, leather, buckles, fringe, fluff, horse-hair, blankets material to make earrings, necklaces and bracelets. As well as natural medicine such as sage, sweet grass and cedar sticks. 

Mandan explained that the historical practice of the Three Affiliated Tribes was first quilt work, but then expanded to bead work from trading with different tribes for their land crops. 

She says for her family preserves the traditions when it comes to bead work, “I taught my daughter how to bead. My son knows how to bead as well. I learned from my Mom and my grandma, and my mom learned from her grandma and her mom. So, it’s something you pass on.” 

Although the New Town community has faced recent challenges, such as the media-cover death of Olivia Lone Bear. 

The mother of five who went missing for nine months’ whose body was found in a pickup truck underneath the reservation lake. Lone Bear became one of the faces for the social justice movement of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman Movement(MMIW). 

The MMIW social movement have recently gotten spark under the hashtag #MMIW, and #MMIR (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives) to include men. The movement includes the awareness of violence including sexual against Native American and Alaskan Indigenous women. 

The issues with Indigenous women population has been 

A report from 2012 with the United States Department of Justice and the Consultation on Violence against Native Women stated that Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average. 

It also reports one in three Native women will be raped in their lifetime compared to 1 and 5 of other women in the United States. 85 per cent of these rapes are committed by non-native individuals.  

Urban Indian Health Institute “Our Bodies Our Stories” conducted asurveyed of 148 Native American Women from Seattle, WA.

The data stated that 94 per cent of Native American Women had been raped or coercion in their lifetime, and only 8 per cent of the rape victims first attacked had been convicted. 

Alongside that the report stated that 86 per cent of the women reported they had suffered from historical trauma. 

The reported defined historical trauma as “cumulative emotional and psychosocially over the lifespan and across generation, emanating from massive group trauma and a history of genocide.”

The New Town community has faced other issues such as the rise of oil refinements that has changed the culture of the environment of the reservation.

But Mandan still sees the beauty in the place she calls home.

“There’s a lot of good people here. There’s a lot of people here who are willing to share their culture with others all I have to do it ask and they’ll be willing to share with you,” said Mandan.

In Mandan’s opinion, the Native people are still here. 

“They learned to adapt, they learn to survive. Our people had to adapt to where we were at first to where we ended up eventually.” She said.

She hopes in the future that beading continues down her family generation, and that one day her grandchildren will continue the family practice.

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