To' Kee Skuy' Soo Ney-Wo-Chek' I Will See You Again in a Good Way: A Year 1 Project Report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People in Northern California

Abstract

This report is the result of over a year of work bringing together voices of survivors, family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women & girls and two spirit people (MMIWG2), tribal court staff, and researchers to fight for justice and safety for Indigenous women and youth in Northern California. This is a family and survivor-led project, with several members of the research and support team identifying as survivors or as a family member of someone who is missing or murdered...To’ Kee Skuy’ Soo Ney-Wo-Chek’ addresses the severe impact of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people (MMIWG2) and trafficking of Native people in Northern California, defined as from the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento up to the Oregon border1. We set out to collect data, set up protocols, and use the data to create a justice system which speaks to the needs of the community in a healing way, all the while addressing the need for swift justice in areas where women and girls are vulnerable. Specifically, To’ Kee Skuy’ Soo Ney-Wo-Chek’ addresses the lack of data on MMIWG2 in Northern California, and establishes a protocol for training other tribal communities on consistent data gathering, community interventions, and best practices in law enforcement and tribal court response and engagement. Our goals include enhancing investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators, making meaningful progress in existing cases, building capacity of law enforcement and tribal/state courts in responding to cases and collaborating across jurisdictions, increasing community awareness and facilitating community dialogue on MMIWG2 and trafficking, better support for victims and their families, and taking preventative actions to reduce the rates of MMIWG2 and trafficking. Our ultimate goal is to accomplish these objectives by building the capacity, strengths, and skills of Indigenous communities themselves to take proactive leadership in this crisis. Indigenous peoples are resilient, strong, community-minded, and have what it takes to be fierce and effective protectors--instead of waiting for state and local agencies to have the capacity and interest to respond to this crisis, we must empower our own people to fill the gaps for ourselves. Indigenous peoples are knowledge gatherers and knowledge keepers--we know that making decisions for the collective good requires information and data collection. For this reason, we believe the first step in addressing the impact of MMIWG2 in Northern California is to address the lack of data surrounding this issue. We devoted the first year of this project to comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data collection and the relationship-building that data collection required, and look forward to implementing data-driven recommendations in future years of the project. (Author Text)