Sexist and Offensive: CEDV Calls on Senators Cortez Masto and Murkowski to Retract Flawed Editorial

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Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Sexist and Offensive: CEDV Calls on Senators Cortez Masto and Murkowski to Retract Flawed Editorial

WASHINGTON / June 15, 2021 – Senators Cortez Masto and Murkowski recently published an editorial that misrepresents the facts about missing and murdered American Indians. The Coalition to End Domestic Violence (CEDV) calls on the senators from Nevada and Alaska to retract their sexist and offensive editorial.

Titled “Shocking History of Violence Against Native Women is a Crisis We Can Stop,” the editorial spotlights the problem of missing and murdered American Indian women — but includes no mention of missing and murdered Indian men. The article concludes, “We have to demonstrate through our actions that we value the lives, the well-being, and the central role of women and girls in Native communities.” (1)

The editorial’s pervasive bias goes beyond mere misrepresentation of fact.

Both national and state-level statistics reveal that Native American men make up a strong majority of missing Indians. As of 2019, the Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System reported 404 missing Native Americans – 250 males and 154 females — revealing a 62% sex disparity affecting men (2).

In Nebraska, a 2020 report by the Nebraska 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).” (3)

An article in the Voice of America News titled, “Are Missing and Murdered Indigenous Men in US Being Ignored?” highlighted these examples (4):

On the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, Lissa Yellowbird-Chase reports, “I can tell you from what I’ve witnessed personally, that men are murdered and missing more than the women.”
In California, Joseph Scott, a member of the Pala Band of Indians went missing. Scott’s cousin, Mona Sespe, notified the tribal police, who refused to investigate. Only after she complained to the tribal chairman did anyone take action. “It feels like we were almost laughed at for trying so hard to find them,” Sespe said.

A recent commentary by Wendy McElroy was critical of the Violence Against Women Act, which includes a section titled, “Safety for Indian Women.” McElroy concludes that VAWA’s exclusionary focus on female Indians presents 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.” (5)

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.” (6)

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