This would not be tolerated in any other demographic in US society. Are they not worth the effort? Are they inferior human beings? Are they not protected under the Constitution, Bill of Rights, law enforcement, etc.? Or could people just not be bothered?
We’ve spoken about this before in a blog. These are the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women that have had the towel thrown in on them and active investigations to seek closure for families have stalled. The numbers (over 5500) are high for such a small population of indigenous people.
By comparison, it would be in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, if applied to the remainder of the US population. That’s how big this crisis is; however, not enough is being done about it.
Human trafficking, drugs, violence, murder, and homelessness affect the indigenous population like no other.
Some people are starting to realize the problem goes way beyond the current crisis. The third world conditions are nothing new for Native Americans since they had their lands, lives, and freedoms stolen by force by the European Invasion hundreds of years ago.
The discrimination, genocide, oppression, poverty, etc. that Natives endure on or off Reservations are an inconvenient truth that reaches few non-Reservation people.
As Einstein famously stated, the creators of the problem will never bring the solutions, only more of the problem.
MMIW and the conditions Native Americans endure are the results of failed solutions of the past.
This will not go away until true solutions are embraced instead of more empty words and broken promises.