Restoration Magazine

The Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, alongside the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center and the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center is honored to announce the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Healing & Response Teams pilot sites: Waking Women Healing Institute, Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition (SWIWC), and Dena’ Nena Henash Tanana Chiefs Tribal Protective Services (TCC).

The MMIP Healing & Response Teams Initiative focuses on MMIP cases intersecting with domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and sex trafficking. The initiative aims to establish victim-centered, trauma-informed, culturally responsive pathways and to enhance intergovernmental coordination in cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.

The announcement of the MMIP HRT pilot sites is the beginning of building culturally-informed and community-specific healing and response teams to address the legacy of violence in American Indian and Alaska Native communities within this country.

ABOUT THE PILOT SITES

Waking Women Healing Institute

The Waking Women Healing Institute, an Indigenous women and survivor-led non-profit organization, works to protect against, heal from, and illuminate the impacts of settler colonialism that result in violence against Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit relatives, Water, and Mother Earth.

“Our vision is to build a community-rooted MMIP Healing & Response Teams model that begins locally and grows into a framework for regional and national response. Our goal is to prepare healing-centered teams who walk with survivors and families—ready to respond, advocate, and protect the sacred, from the grassroots to the national level.”

Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition

The Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition is a statewide Tribal domestic and sexual violence coalition whose mission is to increase the capacity of Indigenous communities to address and respond to violence through education, training, technical assistance, policy and advocacy, and culturally responsive support services.

“Our vision for this project is a future where Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) families are seen, heard, empowered, and supported in their pursuit of justice, healing, and answers for their missing and murdered loved ones."

Dena’ Nena Henash Tanana Chiefs Conference Tribal Protective Services

The Dena’ Nena Henash Tanana Chiefs Conference Tribal Protective Services (TCC) is an Alaska Native Tribal consortium dedicated to advancing sovereign Tribal governments through the promotion of physical and mental wellness, education, socioeconomic development, and culture of the Interior Alaska Native people.

“Our vision for the MMIP Healing Response Team (HRT) Model is to ensure that families of missing and/or murdered Indigenous people have a dedicated advocate from the very first contact with law enforcement through every stage of the search, investigation, and, if applicable, trial.”