Sexism or Chivalry? Media Accounts Erase Existence of Murdered and Missing Indian Men

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Sexism or Chivalry? Media Accounts Erase Existence of Murdered and Missing Indian Men

WASHINGTON / September 23, 2021 – The recent Gabby Petito tragedy has inspired extensive media coverage about the problem of murdered and missing persons, especially among American Indians. These articles do not cite relevant government statistics and may be distorted by sex bias.

Native American men make up a strong majority of indigenous persons who have been murdered. The Department of Justice reports, “About 73% of all American Indian murder victims were males.” (1) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control likewise reveals that homicide was the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native males aged 1-44 years. For AIAN females, homicide was the sixth leading cause of death in the same age group (2).

Analyses of indigenous persons who are missing reveal a similar pattern of disparate impact. The Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System has reported that 62% of missing native Americans are male (3).

On the Navajo reservation, 60-70% of missing persons are male. In 2017, Brandon Lee Sandoval disappeared from the family home in northeastern Arizona. “It’s so hard to wake up and face another day,” his mother Margaret Bitsue said, her words muffled by sobs. “I have accepted the fact he might be gone, but I still have that little hope.” (4)

In Nebraska, the State Patrol revealed, “The majority of missing Native Americans are males under the age of 17 years old: Nearly two thirds (73.3%) of the Native American missing persons are boys (age 17 years old or younger).” (5)

Some states report approximately equal percentages of missing Indigenous men and women. In Washington state, 52% of missing persons are female (6). In Wyoming, the percentages are 57% female and 43% male (7).

But media accounts published in the past week have largely ignored the existence of murdered and missing American Indian men. These are two of many examples:

Newsweek: “Over 400 Indigenous Women Went Missing Over the Last Decade in Same State as Gabby Petito” (8)
Yahoo News: “710 Indigenous people, mostly girls, were reported missing over the past decade in Wyoming, the same state where Gabby Petito reportedly disappeared” (9)

Alarming and one-sided media reports confuse the public, worsen the problem of legislation-by-crisis, and ultimately serve to erase the existence of missing or murdered indigenous men. Commentator Wendy McElroy notes that such biased coverage represents a “parody of human rights in which only approved groups are recognized as victims….Only those who share the secondary characteristic of approved genitalia receive compassion.” (10)

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