Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, 2-Spirit Folks (MMIW2s) and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR)
MMIW/MMIR overview.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit relatives (MMIW/MMIR) names a crisis rooted in colonization and made worse by broken systems. Many cases never enter national databases, are misclassified, or get lost in gaps between tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions. Families face slow or no response, and media coverage often ignores Indigenous victims. Risk factors stack up—domestic and sexual violence, trafficking along extractive-industry corridors, housing instability, and policing practices that fail Native communities. The result is preventable disappearances, unresolved homicides, and deep, intergenerational harm. The movement for change centers survivor and family leadership, improves data quality, strengthens cross-jurisdictional response, and presses governments to meet their obligations under Savanna’s Act, the Not Invisible Act, and related reforms.
AILA’s work and partnership with NILJ.
The American Indian Law Alliance (AILA) responds on three fronts: community, policy, and cases. In community, AILA offers teach-ins, safety planning, and family support grounded in Haudenosaunee values and trauma-informed practice. In policy, AILA advocates at the local level and at the United Nations to improve data standards, fund victim services, include Two-Spirit/LGBTQ+ relatives, and enforce cross-deputization and MOUs that close jurisdictional gaps. In cases, AILA partners with the National Institute of Law And Justice (NILJ) to help families navigate reporting, records requests, NamUs entries, and case tracking; to review cold cases; and to liaise with tribal, county, state, and federal agencies so leads are not dropped. Together, AILA and NILJ run practical trainings for advocates and law-enforcement partners, press for implementation of GAO and Not Invisible Act recommendations, and keep families at the center—pushing systems to do what they should have done from the start: search, investigate, and bring relatives home.