A disproportionate number of Indigenous people, especially women, go missing and turning up murdered, but there is no reliable national case count.

Misclassification in reports is salt in the wound. Native Americans are often misidentified as Hispanic or Asian, skewing data and erasing their presence from tracking systems.

The crisis is intergenerational, which tells us a lot about the magnitude of the problem and the scale of loss experienced by Native families.

With only 116 missing Indigenous women out of more than 5,000 being logged in 2016 in federal missing persons database, we must ask, “What is causing this gap and who is responsible for fixing it?”

Why has the issue been ignored or under-addressed for so long?

Washington ranks second in the nation for MMIP cases. Why, of all states, has Washington allowed the problem to become so critical? One wonders why this crisis is so concentrated in certain areas and what societal, legal and historical forces are behind this alarming trend.

“It is rooted in policy, in broken systems and in the legacy of colonization,” said Cassandre Beccai, director of equity and compliance and Title IX coordinator at Whitman College.

Policies that facilitate or exacerbate this crisis should be identified and reformed. Confusion over jurisdiction should be singled out as a top priority if it is a major contributing factor.

Admirable efforts like self-defense training can help fill the void to some degree, but major policy reform and investigation is warranted.

How can non-Indigenous allies meaningfully support Indigenous communities, not just on MMIP Awareness Day, but year-round?

The sooner we answer the many questions raised by the staggering number of MMIP cases, the sooner we can begin to serve justice to those responsible and prevent further devastation to Indigenous communities.