As a white woman, I promise to never purchase any of these “money making” costumes. Never have, never will. I am sorry for the dehumanization and ignoring of Native Americans. I see you, I hear you, and I respect you.
What the rest of us need to do is to STOP BUYING these costumes, so they are no longer “money makers”. If the corporations don’t listen to anyone else, they will listen to whatever brings them the most money.
“In the US, murder is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian women, the rate of rape on some reservations can be ten times higher than the national average, and Native women and girls are highly overrepresented in cases of missing persons (for example, in Montana, Native people make up 8% of the state population, and yet 40% of the state’s missing girls are Native). A complex maze of jurisdictional policies and institutionalized violence means much of this violence is not only not addressed, but not documented.”
It is North America’s dark, open secret that native women are far more likely to be raped, and far more likely to be murdered.
No justice. That is the constant cry from friends and families of victims as countless cases are left unresolved and ignored.
This is not a problem with one cause, nor is it one that is going away. Therefore any attempt to move towards a solution must recognise how terrifyingly deep the international crisis of MMIW runs.
Despite thousands of women going missing every year, and thousands being raped over their lifetimes, startlingly few statistics are available.
Given the complicated and tense mesh of federal, state and tribal law – as well as entrenched racism towards indigenous people across North America – cases continue to fall through the cracks.
I was reading threads in the Winnipeg subreddit today – always a mistake, I know. And I was struck over and over again by the level of racism in literally any discussion of First Nations news that got brought up. It’s that way fr the general Canada sub as well, but this is especially alarming and unnerving to me because Winnipeg has the highest percentage of Aboriginal people (11% of the city) of any major Canadian city. We’re your neighbors and coworkers.
But nothing about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada or the US is going to change until non-Natives start seeing us as human. The virulent hatred feeds and enables the ease with which Native women “slip through the cracks.”
Patty Stonefish, of Arming Sisters, asked me to create flyers for the #WeWontForgetMMIW*, a campaign that brings a timeless ritualized gesture into today’s social media. I have had the privilege of working with her for almost two years now and her commitment to the rights of indigenous North American women is a permanent source of inspiration.
An Edmonton woman says she’s still in shock after being refused a cab ride when she asked a Duffy’s Taxi driver for help Monday night.
Angela Gladue, who was in Manitoba to perform at the Winnipeg Folk Festival last weekend, said she was being chased down Portage Avenue by a strange man when she hopped in a cab for refuge.
Gladue said she was taken aback when the driver asked for cash upfront.
“I said ‘Yes, I do have money, but you have to go now. I will pay you, just start driving — there is a man coming and I am really scared,’” said Gladue, a powwow dancer who dances with the Ottawa electronic music group A Tribe Called Red.
“He was, like, ‘Give me $10.’”
Gladue said she was in fear for her safety and couldn’t think of anything else but getting away.
She said she has been asked to pay upfront by Edmonton taxi drivers in the past and has done so, reluctantly.
The driver wouldn’t go, even when the man who was chasing her caught up and began pacing back and forth beside the cab, she said.
“I was, like, ‘Are you refusing me service right now? My life is in danger,’” she said.
“Then I brought up missing and murdered Indigenous women and what he was doing felt like racism toward me, and I told him that.”
Warrior
posted on Facebook, “Not even sure what the hell to do. Some piece of
trash tried to abduct my daughter and when the police finally appeared
they did ‘F’all.”
Michelle Burns, thirty, sits with her ten-year-old niece, Dannataya, in
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Monica Lee, Dannataya’s mother and
Michelle’s twin sister, was murdered in January 2015 by a
thirty-eight-year-old white male she had met that night. He received a
thirteen-year sentence. “I feel lonesome a lot,” Michelle says. “I have
to remember that [Dannataya] is watching me. When I walk, I try to walk
with good intentions, so that when she’s older she won’t end up lost.
Her mom would want good things for her.”
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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