Why Aren't Missing Indigenous Women Getting Attention?

The Gabby Petito case has gained a lot of public traction, but no one has talked about the missing and murdered Indigenous women in the same area. This begs the question: would this case have gotten the same attention if Gabby were a person of color?

On October 6th, 2020, Kimberly Iron went missing. Iron’s story is similar to Gabby’s. Kimberly left her home in Billings, Montana, on September 22nd, 2020. That same day, she contacted her father expressing that she needed money while in Nevada and California. She never gave him an exact location and would lose connection for periods of time. Kimberly’s father was skeptical about his daughter's safety, always having her on speakerphone and when he called back he could never reach her. Although she did express that she was okay, he did not believe her. Kimberly’s father has not heard from her since. No one has.

Kimberly Iron is not the only lost Indigenous woman. 

Monica L. Bercier, went missing from a bar in South Dakota on April 7th, 1993. She was out with her friends but left alone and entered a car with three strangers, a man and a couple. On June 16th, 1993, her body was found in the James River in Aberdeen. Police never found Monica’s killer.

Many people are frustrated that Gabby Petito’s investigation got so much media and police attention unlike the cases of Indigenous women. For years there have been so many missing Indigenous women that have not gotten near as much attention or the resources to find them. In the area where Petito's body was found, coverage on news for Indigenous women homicides is only 18%, whereas white women and men gain public  coverage 51% of the time. This re-enforces the question: does our country give less attention to cases involving people of color? From 2011 to 2020, over 400 women have been reported missing in the state of Wyoming. I'm not sure about my peers, but until recent research, I knew nothing about this topic and all of the missing Indigenous women. 

History has shown large numbers of overlooked missing Indigenous peoples. In 2015, twenty-nine went missing in Oklahoma City that were never found. This is an issue not many people know about, let alone talk about. This shows that similar stories are treated differently based on factors like social media followings and skin color. Gabby had no personal control over how much publicity her story got due to her social media influence, but by posting on social media, writing, and even watching videos, we can educate ourselves and others, and give these missing and murdered women justice. 

By Peyton Louie