User:Jennifregreen23/National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

May 5th is recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement was coined as a response to the high rates of murder and sexual assault amongst indigenous women and girls in the United States and Canada.

The date was originally proposed after the brutal attack of RoyLynn Rides Horse (Crow), and was suggested in the memory of Hanna Harris, a Northern Cheyenne woman who was murdered in July of 2013. The date has since then been reaffirmed by over 200 tribal and state organizations. The official declaration of the Day of Awareness by the U.S. government was proposed by Montana congressional delegation in 2017, and later was introduced and passed through the Senate on April 4th, 2019 and May 5th, 2019 respectively.

The day was created both as a way to honor the missing and murdered women from these reservations through prayer, candlelight, and other forms of memorial, and as a way to raise awareness through social media and the push for official legislation for the protection of Native women as well.