Who is Talking About the Children? A Systematic Literature Review of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis Effects on Children

The ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis has affected thousands of families throughout the United States and Canada, resulting in probable trauma to children in the families and communities for generations. Although awareness of the crisis has been growing in recent years thro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fields, Angela Marcel
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10071
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/context/etd/article/11080/viewcontent/5702031723127120200801_etd.pdf
Description
Summary:The ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis has affected thousands of families throughout the United States and Canada, resulting in probable trauma to children in the families and communities for generations. Although awareness of the crisis has been growing in recent years through avenues such as social media (#MMIW, etc.), little action has been taken to stem the crisis and its effects. The effects of the crisis on the children left behind is a compelling question that is not often addressed in the media, however. A systematic review of the scientific literature from the United States and Canada was conducted with the addition of gray literature due to limited results found in the scientific literature. The gray literature examined included relevant websites of relevant organizations and news articles. Results of the study demonstrated a dearth of data related to children and MMIW, with no research studies found. The articles analyzed were primarily focused on recommendations and did not specifically address the effects of MMIW on children. Gray literature findings included mention of some policy actions on state and national levels, including many calls to action that have not yet been addressed or implemented. The lack of data regarding the support needs of children affected by MMIW may be one of the reasons actions have been largely absent. One of the possible courses of action may be to better support Native/Indigenous scholars who have insider status. The MMIW crises is deeply personal and perhaps overwhelming to research, indicating support needs for Native/Indigenous scholars in addition to funding.