Letters: Missoula Dems pass “crisis” resolution for missing indigenous women

Today, the Missoula County Democratic Party Central Committee approved and issued a Resolution calling for concerted action to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.

An alarming number of Indigenous women and girls in Montana disappear, are murdered, or are the victims of violent crime each year. These cases are often unreported, or underreported and this crisis has been brought to light recently by a short film by Bozeman, Montana filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald.

Missoula County includes a portion of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes reservation, while the Missoula Valley, where most of the people of Missoula County live, is located near the center of Séliš (Salish), Ksanka (Kootenai), and Ql̓ispé (upper Kalispel or Pend d’Oreille) homelands.

For thousands of years, it has always been, and remains today, a place of the highest importance to them, and to the many other Indigenous people who traversed and visited the region, including the lower Kalispel, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Nez Perce, Blackfeet, and Shoshone, and is today the home of citizens and descendants of those Nations, and other Indigenous people.

We must protect our people. The Missoula County Democrats urge our law enforcement agencies and legislators to do their part in keeping Indigenous woman and girls safe in our communities by passing key legislature, establishing expert panels, and improve operational systems and policies to address this crisis.

For more information, or to read the details of this resolution, follow this link. For further information, please contact the Missoula County Democrats at (406) 493-0131 or communications@missoulademocrats.org.