Are Afro-Native Women Included in MMIW?

I’ve written before about my experiences with anti-Black discrimination in Indian country, growing up inherently disqualified from participating in certain cultural or communal practices due to my admixture. In response, I’ve faced even more cognitive dissonance regarding the mixed cultural identities of Afro-Native people. When I seek allyship in combating the erasure of Black Natives amongst our people, I am often told that I am pitting Black & Native people against each other or representing Natives in a bad light. Consistently, people fail to recognize me as Native myself no matter the context.

The ugly truth is that, as in love with my culture & ancestors as I am, I remain angry & afraid at my ongoing exclusion. Angry at the injustice of denying your own kin, afraid because I’m unsure where it leaves me when it comes time that I need my community’s recognition.

In 2012, a young girl from my tribe was assaulted & murdered. I didn’t know her though I knew her face & her name, her belonging. We all mourned and waited nine years for her killer to be named, I never stopped seeing my people demand her justice, often using the MMIW platform. MMIW stands for “Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women”, a movement towards an end to violence against Native women and a command for attention to the massive numbers of us who are harmed without justice.