Abstract: Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people go missing and are murdered at rates nearly ten times the national average in the United States. This disproportionate epidemic of violence has been labeled the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) crisis. Several factors exacerbate this crisis. First, European colonizers used violence against Native people, especially women and Two-Spirit people, as a tactic of control and domination since first contact in the 1600s. Second, nearly two hundred years of legislative actions and case law have effectively stripped Native Nations of all criminal jurisdictional power over crimes committed on their land or against their citizens. Third, systemic racism and bias within federal and state law enforcement agencies resulted in the mishandling and dismissal of thousands of MMIWG2S cases. The United States federal government plays a central role in perpetrating each of these root causes and has only recently taken initial steps to address the crisis.
This Comment argues that the U.S. federal government’s failure to prevent and address the MMIWG2S crisis violates the legally enforceable federal Indian trust obligation between the U.S. federal government and Native Nations. In connecting the federal Indian trust obligation to this crisis, this Comment explores how this legally enforceable fiduciary duty may be utilized to address the root causes of the MMIWG2S crisis moving forward.
