Native American women experience murder rates more than ten times the national average and are more than twice as likely to go missing compared to non-Hispanic white women. Incidence of interracial violence perpetrated against Native Americans is considerably higher than any other group with approximately 96% of sexual violence committed by non-Native perpetrators. Despite this, Native American women are conspicuously absent in the discourse and news coverage around violence against women.

Hashtags such as #MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) are circulating among social networks to address this omission of Indigenous women and girls as victim of interracial violence and to raise awareness of the disproportionate rates of murder and abduction. Our work on this issue examines societal support for ending the MMIWG endemic as it relates to participants’ perceptions of Natives as people of the past, minimization of the racism experienced by Native people, and how endorsement of views blaming Native women victims and communities impact support.