The US is serious about MMIW
The Canadian Press – 5 August 2022 / 10:06 | History: 378883
Photo: The Canadian Press
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland listens during ceremonies before a meeting to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans sent to state-supported schools.
The president of the National Congress of American Indians says Canada’s progress on indigenous issues is helping push the United States in the same direction.
Fawn Sharp says it’s no accident that the United States is getting more serious about investigating schools and missing and murdered Native women and girls.
The other big catalyst, of course, is Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first indigenous member of the cabinet in US history.
Haaland launched a wide-ranging investigation into former indigenous boarding schools less than a month after the discovery of what are believed to be human remains at a BC residential school last year.
Now Haaland has turned his attention to the disproportionately high proportion of unsolved murders and disappearances in what the US refers to as Indian country.
Sharp says she expects indigenous communities in Canada, the United States and Mexico to work together going forward to ensure the issue is resolved in all three countries.
